Editing Cricket bat

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[[File:FiveAndCricketBat.jpg|thumb|The newly-[[regenerated]] [[Fifth Doctor]] finds a cricket bat near [[the TARDIS]]' [[cricket pitch]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Castrovalva (TV story)|Castrovalva]]'')]]
[[File:DefensiveBat.jpg|thumb|The Doctor uses his bat to make a solid defensive play — against a [[sword]]-wielding soldier. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Tides of Time (comic story)|The Tides of Time]]'')]]
A '''cricket bat''' was the main offensive tool used by a [[cricket]] side. With it, the [[batsman]] hit the [[cricket ball|ball]] [[bowling (cricket)|bowled]] to him and thereby protected his [[stump (cricket)|stumps]] and earned [[run (cricket)|runs]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Happy Endings (novel)|Happy Endings]]'') Traditionally made of [[willow]], ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Roof of the World (audio story)|The Roof of the World]]''; [[COMIC]]: ''[[The Tides of Time (comic story)|The Tides of Time]]'') they required regular application of [[linseed oil]] for proper maintenance. ([[TV]]: ''[[Castrovalva (TV story)|Castrovalva]]'') A cricket bat was among the ensemble of makeshift weapons prepared by the [[Fourth Doctor]]. [[Leela]] picket it up and swung it to test its effectiveness. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)|The Talons of Weng-Chiang]]'')

Beyond the [[cricket pitch]], they were commonly kept in [[British]] houses for self-protection. [[Amy Pond]], for instance, once struck the [[Eleventh Doctor]] with one when she felt he had broken into her house. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|The Eleventh Hour]]'') Similarly [[Mike Lyndon]] kept a cricket bat in his house for protection, which he once had to use against some [[burglar]]s. ([[TV]]: ''[[Sleeper (TV story)|Sleeper]]'') Due to their wooden nature, they were also provided effective defence against some bladed weapons. The [[Fifth Doctor]] once used his best cricket bat to deflect a [[sword]] blow, but was immediately disappointed by the damage the sword did to his beloved bat. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[The Tides of Time (comic story)|The Tides of Time]]'')

Teenage bully [[Francis Minto]], however, used a cricket bat for offence, not defence — he used it twice to destroy [[snowmen]] in the playground of [[Coal Hill Secondary School]]. [[Susan Foreman]] thought for a moment he was about to attack ''her''. When, the second time, the snowman came to life and attacked back, he ran and reportedly screamed like a little girl. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Time and Relative (novel)|Time and Relative]]'')

When [[River Song]] became stranded in the [[time vortex]], she found refuge with a marooned biologist who harvested the components of [[space-time vessel]]. When River entered an off-limits component of his vessel, she found an eclectic collection of refuse from across the universe, the cricket bat among them allowing her to realise that the component was from [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] and that her saviour was {{Roberts}}. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Lifeboat and the Deathboat (audio story)|The Lifeboat and the Deathboat]]'')

[[Category:Cricket equipment]]
[[Category:Weapons]]