MT EDEN UNDER-11 CRICKET PAUSED 40 MINUTES AFTER DOG NAMED BISCUIT NICKS THE BALL

A junior cricket match at a Mt Eden reserve was paused for forty minutes on Saturday after a labradoodle called Biscuit ran onto the pitch and refused to give the ball back.

Biscuit bolted from the boundary in the seventh over, grabbed the ball off mid-off, and legged it to the carpark. The dog then parked itself under a Hilux and started chewing. The opening bowler, halfway through his run-up, stopped, stared, and sat down on the wicket.

"Fucking ridiculous," said one dad, who'd taken the morning off a Penrose jobsite to watch. "Kid's been working on his outswinger for six weeks. Bloody mutt's got more grip on the ball than half the slip cordon."

Biscuit's owner, Annabel Forsythe-Greer, eventually wandered over from the playground end with a flat white and apologised "profusely-ish". She told The Daily Yarn that Biscuit was "normally so good" and the ball was "probably fine, just a bit slobbery". The umpire, a 14-year-old called Mason, declared the ball unfit and asked if anyone had a spare. Nobody did.

The coach of the fielding side, who asked to be identified as "properly ropeable", said the delay had cost his team the season. "We had them four down. Four down. Now Liam's crying, the ball's in a dog, and Annabel's on the phone to her husband about brunch."

Play resumed with a tennis ball nicked off a nearby court. Biscuit has been banned from the reserve, a ban Annabel has called "a bit much, honestly". The original ball is still under the Hilux.