FLYING ants sent a Dorchester cricket team packing after a teatime invasion of the wicket.

The mighty minibeasts stopped play for an hour - and when play resumed the county town players not only lost the match against rivals Broad-stone, they face being relegated from their division.

Colin Edney, captain of the Dorchester 2nd team, said: "I won the toss and elected to bat.

"We scored a very respectable 213 runs in 45 overs before tea - it was an excellent start and I felt we were well on top.

"But during tea we noticed flying ants and realised they were coming up through the wicket in their thousands.

"It was quite a humid afternoon and the ants had obviously decided to all hatch at once. We resumed play and managed six overs, but the ants just got worse and worse.

"They were getting in the batsmen's helmets and all over the players' shirts - and they bite.

"The batsmen couldn't really concentrate and the umpire suggested we have a break."

Mr Edney, 45, said the away match was crucial for both teams.

"We both really wanted to win because Broadstone 2nd are at the top of the second division and wanted to go up and we needed to win to avoid going down.

"After tea they had 17 for two so it was still looking promising for us, but the umpire was right to stop it.

"Unfortunately for us it was a bit of bad luck that we could have done without."

He said umpire Gus Diment handled the interruption as if rain had stopped play - a formula that means the second side in has a reduced target.

By the time play resumed at the Broadstone field an hour later the batsmen needed only 128 runs in 27 overs - and they did it in 25.

Mr Edney said: "It was certainly very unusual.

"The ground is surrounded by woodland and apparently they do have the occasional insect, but nothing like this.

"I've been playing cricket for a long time and I've seen irate wives drive on the pitch - but I've never seen anything like this before."

Mr Edney said his team has three more matches this season but he doubted they could avoid being demoted to the third division of their Dorset Saturday league.

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