Two huge stags decided to stage a pitch invasion at an under-10s football match earlier in October, taking everyone by surprise.
Though it’s not rare to see these types of animals in the area of Teddington, southwest London, no one thought they see them turn up in interrupt the half.
Parents watching the match recorded a video and took photos of the pitch invasion at Bushy Park Sports Club with stunned children stopped in their tracks as the animals came towards them.
One stag even leap over a fence to get onto the pitch, and it occurred during the peak of rutting season, as adult stags compete for mating rights with available females – often locking antlers to assert their dominance. Now that’s something you really don’t want your kids seeing.
Luckily, the unexpected visitors decided in their own time to wander off into the trees and the children were able to continue playing.
Nicki Hudson, 46, filmed the moment at around 11am as she watched her son and his team Epsom and Ewell Colts in an away game, squaring off against the Teddington Dragons.
She said to the Daily Mail: ‘There were two deer on the pitch. I was chatting to some other parents on the side of the pitch and one of them called to me to show me the first deer which I started to film.
‘Then very soon after, over it jumped and was walking straight across the pitch as the boys were mid match.
‘Us parents all stood still but the quick thinking referee called the players over to all stand together to the left of the deer.
‘The deer was clearly watching us all, so much so, one of the mothers turned away from the deer to avoid eye contact! Soon after, the deer trotted off and left the pitch.’
Bushy Park is described to be an enclosed royal park known for its rich wildlife, which attracts keen animal photographers. Visiting the area? Be sure to walk around carefully and not just at the ground for muck.
Bushy Park is an enclosed royal park known for its rich wildlife, which attracts keen animal photographers.
The park is free to enter and with its own football pitches, it is a favourite venue for sports teams.
Photographer Gedrius Stakaukas said: ‘I could see this stag walking around before he jumped onto the pitch. I heard the children starting to scream and some ran away.
‘Many of the children playing and the people watching were amazed – stunned to see such an unusual sight.’
The snapper added that he thought one of the deer stayed for as long as ten minutes as people watched and captured what took place on his camera.
He added: ‘I can’t tell for sure because I was too busy taking pictures!’
Another bizarre moment which ended up going viral where animals and football was involved came out in Cyprus.
On the 25th minute, cattle interrupted the match between Bulgarian outfit PFC Botev Plovdiv and Cypriot side AEL Limassol in Sofia a few years back, halting the non league game for quite some time.
The owner of the cow reportedly lost sight of the animal which used its chance and make a dash from the pound right at the edge of the field as you can see at the end of the clip.
However, that wasn’t everything! Several minutes later, the dog of the herd also decided to go on the pitch, but it was quite easier for the officials to move the dog out of the pitch.
It took the officials a couple of minutes to take it off from the field and the teams could continue with the match.
@curious_twitt: Reminds me of the time a herd of wildebeest stampeded through the penalty box at Cowdenbeath back in 1982. Completely wiped out our keeper and I had to finish the game in goal @CaptainMontyOBE @rudolph70861317
@richgardner16: Modern day players are always milking it almost on a dairy basis!! I’m becoming very intolerant to this sort of behaviour
@wilsont1990: Great mooooovement to be fair
@Goggsy67: Classic four paw moo formation
@GazHayward: Definitely more likely to watch this than boring regular human-only football
@carlo174: Everyone is steering clear, no-one going in for the shoulder charge?
@QuagmiresPants: Quicker than Steve Bull
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