Stewards chase beer snakes amid raucous Headingley atmosphere

A crowd might normally be expected to quieten during breaks in play, but as the afternoon session paused for drinks the volume on Headingley’s famed Western Terrace increased. People cheered as a man dressed as a lobster downed a pint of beer. A group in yellow blazers bantered with an adjacent group wearing orange cassocks, two flocks of brightly coloured parrots screeching loudly enough to be heard on the other side of the ground.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire’s decision to ban beer snakes, the comically long stacks of empty pint pots so beloved of cricket fans, forced luminous-jacketed stewards to engage in a series of slow-motion chase scenes with unruly cup-collectors, one of whom was amateurishly but unmistakably disguised as Scooby Doo. The England team have been restyled as great entertainers but the fans’ response has been: hold my empty beer. And also this one. And several dozen more. And now run!

These races were surprisingly hilarious – though clearly not for the stewards, who, by tea, had completely given up, allowing a single supersnake to slither unchecked most of the way down the stand for as long as it took for those involved to become bored of supporting it.

In search of more fun to divert them from New Zealand’s afternoon run-accumulation and an ever-strengthening wind a Boris Johnson impersonator sprinted along the front of the stand, pursued by half a dozen fans in police outfits, to a chorus of pantomime boos. But none of these came close to being the day’s most raucously received runs.

There was predictably roaring approval for England’s late-innings cameos as they built a slender first-innings lead of 31. Stuart Broad raced to 42 from 36 balls before perhaps getting a little greedy, milking the first five