First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tried her hand at cricket when the Scottish Wildcats women's team visited Bute House - and nearly injured a photographer in the process.
Photographer Donald MacLeod asked Ms Sturgeon to pose for some action shots with bat in hand but she lost control of the ball and caught Mr MacLeod in the stomach as the Wildcats watched.
MacLeod, father of Scottish international batsman Calum, said: "I've photographed Nicola Sturgeon for years and she's always willing to help a picture idea along - a good working relationship with any politician is always a bonus for both, no matter which party - but I might have known better than present the First Minister with the opportunity to swing a bat at me.
"Her skill levels were reasonable for a first go but I didn't think they would include the ability to clatter me - she actually did warn everyone, including me, that the ball could go anywhere ... all in all it was a nice humorous moment and I hid my pain well."
The Wildcats recently took part in the ICC Women's World Twenty20 Qualifier in Thailand and they will play in the ECB County Championships and ICC European Series this summer.
Pictures and video courtesy of Donald MacLeod and Cricket Scotland
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel