A VETERAN cricket umpire was knocked-out after being struck in the face by a during the North Lancs Cumbria League’s top match of the day.

Mary Smith, from Carlisle, suffered a broken upper jaw in the incident but was released from hospital after treatment.

It is understood that future action on the injury will be decided after the swelling has gone down.

Mary, who was officiating in the potential title decider between Cockermouth and Cleator at Sandair, has been an umpire for almost 40 years.

Play was held-up for half an hour after the horror injury and before an ambulance arrived to take the stricken umpire to hospital.

Gordon McCullough, the second umpire in the game, said: “It was an awful moment when Tharaka Waduge, the Cleator professional, struck the ball hard back towards the bowler only for it to hit Mary directly in the face.”

She was attended to by a nurse, who had been watching the game and also by a doctor who had gone to see Cleator in action.

Cars were cleared from the boundary edge while the ambulance was brought onto the ground to attend to Mary and then take her to hospital.

After a quickly arranged meeting between the two captains and the remaining umpire it was decided to continue the game.

At this point Cleator needed a further 46 runs from the remaining eight overs with seven wickets remaining but they were unable to reach their target.

Umpire McCullough said: “Eventually Cleator needed eight runs from the last over and it was left to Matthew Sempill to keep his nerve and only concede four to leave Cockermouth winners and now leaders by ten points with three games to go.

“It was a cracking game but marred by the terrible accident to Mary.”