Elderly couple barred from cricket match because they were carrying teaspoons

An elderly couple were refused entry to a cricket match – because they wouldn’t hand over their spoons. Carol and Mike Russell planned to tuck into strawberries and cream while watching Lancashire at Colwyn Bay Cricket Club in north Wales. But the pair fell foul of an England and Wales Cricket Board ban which stops any metal cutlery being brought into grounds.

Mike, 72, said: "I was absolutely incensed. We are not a pair of hoodies, we are grandparents. It’s a little friendly ground. It’s not like the Lords finals, with thousands of people. I thought I’m not paying £15 to come in and not have my picnic." The couple, of Priestnall Road, Stockport, have both been members of Lancashire Cricket Club since the 1970s. When they arrived at the Rhos on Sea ground, for the Clydesdale Bank 40 league match against Glamorgan, they were told they had to go through security checks first.



Carol, 70, said: "A woman asked to search my bag and she brought out these two spoons which we were going to use for our strawberries and cream. She said we couldn’t take them in because they were metal. She would have let us in, but I would have had to leave it all behind. I have taken cutlery to Lords and every cricket ground in the country. If it had been a knife and fork there would be some understanding. I was fuming." The retired teachers say they regularly take a picnic hamper with metal cutlery to Lancashire and have never been stopped.

A spokeswoman for Glamorgan Cricket said the searches were in line with England and Wales Cricket Board guidelines. She said: "Metal cutlery is not allowed into any grounds under any circumstances. The stewards explained this to the couple who decided they did not want to enter, which is a shame."