Vandals stop play - Eng v Aus 1975

The fourth day's play of the third Test at Headingley in July 1975 ended with the match balanced on a knife-edge. Australia, chasing a record 445 to beat England, and so retain the Ashes, had reached 220 for 3, with their opener Rick McCosker still there, within one hit of a maiden Test hundred. England still had their noses in front, however, with only Doug Walters, never happy on English pitches, and the incapacitated Ross Edwards of the mainline batsmen remaining. But the pitch was benign, and any one of three results were still possible.
The last day - a Tuesday, in those days of rest days on a Sunday - dawned cloudy, but when George Cawthray, the groundsman, pushed back the covers, he was greeted with the sight of a pitch which had been vandalised. Several lumps of soil had been gouged out of the surface just short of a length at the Rugby Ground End. While Cawthray later admitted that he could have repaired those sufficiently to allow play to recommence, what sent a chill down his spine was that the holes had been filled with about a gallon of oil. Cawthray found the solitary nightwatchman, who had not heard anything unusual, and then summoned the police.
As the players, officials, and keen early spectators arrived, the first signs that all was not well came when they were greeted by the sight of slogans daubed on Headingley's perimeter walls: "George Davis is innocent." Inside, the number of policemen and officials clustered round the pitch soon brought home the reality.
content-usa.cri...

[@Krzyszczynski]

Didn't it rain later that day, so that the game would have had to be abandoned anyway?

[@williamnightingale2285]

Krzyszczynski yes it did

[@thehotwombat]

it would have been a great match had it not pissed it down as well...

[@SuperVoodooguru]

the people who did that should have been birched

[@ghost491]

$100 Zimbabwean (or Monopoly, take your pick) to anyone is UK that repeats this tonight

[@beano1eye]

George Davis is Innocent....sorry it had to be done.