Pitch Vandalized: Cricket Match Cancelled by Rioters

Supporters of convicted armed robber George Davis dug up and poured oil on the Headingley cricket pitch overnight, forcing the cancellation of an Ashes test match between England and Australia on August 19, 1975. The vandals used a trowel and a can of motor oil to destroy the batting crease, making the pitch unplayable. The graffiti they left read "George Davis Is Innocent OK." Davis had been convicted of armed robbery at the London Electricity Board offices in Ilford in 1975 and sentenced to twenty years, but his wife Rose and a group of supporters mounted a relentless public campaign insisting he had been framed by corrupt police officers. The campaign included banner drops, graffiti on railway bridges across London, and the cricket pitch attack. The disruption worked: the case received national media attention, and Home Secretary Roy Jenkins ordered a review. Davis was released from prison in 1976 after his conviction was quashed on the grounds of unreliable identification evidence. The celebration was short-lived. Two years later, Davis was arrested during an attempted bank robbery in the East End of London and sentenced to fifteen years. The original campaigners who had risked criminal charges to free him were left with the uncomfortable realization that their cause had been more complicated than they thought. The Headingley pitch invasion remains one of the most bizarre acts of protest in sporting history, memorable both for its audacity and for the awkward epilogue that followed.