BATSMAN Rob Hemingway struck one of the biggest hits of his playing career.

He couldn't resist smashing the Horsted Keynes bouncer into the distance while playing for his Brighton side, the St Peters Cricket Club.

It shot a good 80 yards - landing in the car park, containing 20 vehicles.

But there his luck ran out.

Players winced as they heard a crash.

One then shouted back that a P-reg Vauxhall Omega now had a ball-shaped hole in its shattered windscreen.

Rob, 37, of Cannon Place, Brighton, was initially relieved the ball had not hit a group of spectators standing on the boundary.

But then the penny, like the ball, dropped and he thought: "Hang on a minute, that's MY car."

Rob, now trying to claim £250 for a new windscreen off the club'sinsurance, said: "Their opening bowler bounced me and I hooked it into the car park.

"It was quite nice to connect with the ball so early in the season. But then I heard the crack and thought oops, whose car is that?

"There were about 20 cars parked in there and it just happened to hit mine right bang in the centre of the windscreen.

"Everybody went over and inspected it. There was quite a lot of laughter. They thought it was highly amusing.

"People were very impressed with the shot, but it was a bit painful for me.

"It was quite unlucky really. Now I have got to see if it is covered by the club's insurance."

St Peter's skipper Roger Smith said: "It was a massive six. It went up a long, long way and about 80 yards straight into the car park.

Laugh

"It hit the windscreen and at first everybody wondered whose car it was. Then we saw a sticker for Warrington Hospital, where Rob used to work.

"It cracked the whole windscreen, which looked like a big spider's web. Rob was a bit choked to say the least, but we all had a laugh at his expense saying 'It couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke'."

Rob, a dentist, who works at The Strand dental surgery in The Strand, Worthing, went on to make 34 before being caught out.

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