BBC SPORT | Funny Old Game | Cricket finds new excuse

County cricket has had its share of strange interruptions.

Snow at the northern outposts of Buxon and Chester-le-Street has stopped play as late as June.

And last year at Ilford, an escaping joyrider, being chased by police, held up play between Essex and Surrey.

At Test level, umpire Dickie Bird once called a temporary halt at Old Trafford because of sun shining off a nearby greenhouse.

And in March, good light stopped play between New Zealand and England when a troublesome shadow had encroached onto the pitch, making it hard for the batsmen to see the ball.

But to that list must now be added events at The Oval on Thursday, when play was delayed 90 minutes by a burst water main - five miles away.

Nine of Kent's players failed to turn up on time for the start of the second day of their match against Surrey, despite having left their Bayswater hotel at 0830BST.

The usual 15-minute journey south of the River Thames took more than two hours because of the burst main at Hyde Park corner.

And the ensuing traffic chaos was made worse by a road accident.

Over-heated Merc

Only captain David Fulton and batsman Ed Smith had arrived by the scheduled start time of 1100BST, leaving Surrey's batsmen kicking their heals.

Kent captain David Fulton
Fulton was one of two players to make it in time
Unable to abandon their vehicles in the gridlock, the players were forced to sit in the traffic jam.

Fulton, who lives in London, arrived at the ground at 0900, having travelled on public transport.

And Smith joined him half-an-hour before the usual start time after jumping out of Matthew Fleming's car and completing his journey on the tube.

Others finally reached their destination by 11.57am, apart from Min Patel, whose Mercedes overheated in the gridlock.

The visitors were given 30 minutes to prepare for proceedings when the last three, Mark Ealham, Paul Nixon and James Tredwell, who fielded as 12th man for the absent Patel, arrived.

The last time a county side failed to turn up on time for the second day of a contest was in June 1963, when Middlesex were forced to close their innings because only one of the not out batsmen were present.

As in this scenario, traffic had held up their progress and from a favourable position they had to settle for a draw.

The opponents that day? Kent - at Tunbridge Wells.