Alton’s Kiwi all-rounder Dewayne Bowden got a bigger shock than he’d bargained for when he smashed the ball into the electric cables straddling Bashley’s cricket ground.

Instead of the ball fizzing to the boundary, it cannoned down into the waiting hands of an equally astonished Bashley fielder Josh Digby – and Bowden, pictured right, was given out!

Bashley officials confirmed the ‘local rule’ that the cables, which run about five yards behind the stumps at the practice nets end of the ground and across the outfield, are ‘in play.’ On some grounds, such as Canterbury where an iconic lime tree stands deep in the St Lawrence outfield, four runs is awarded when the ball strikes it.

Not so the BCG, where Bowden was trying to accelerate the Alton scoring rate after the obdurate Will Phillips had ground out a painstaking 57 off 158 balls and almost sent spectators to sleep.

Scott Myers (29) earlier partnered Phillips, while Rob Heywood (41) and Jack Myers (21 not out) managed to push the total on to 205-8 (Simon Watkins 4-48).

The target was easy pickings for Bashley, whose eight-wicket win was underpinned by Neil Thurgood (74 not out) and Neil Baker, whose 83 (13 fours) was his best Premier Division score since June 2009.

Julian Ballinger (2-62) took the only two Bashley wickets to fall.