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A cricket bat was the main offensive tool used by a cricket side. With it, the batsman hit the ball bowled to him and thereby protected his stumps and earned runs. (PROSE: Happy Endings) Traditionally made of willow, (AUDIO: The Roof of the World; COMIC: The Tides of Time) they required regular application of linseed oil for proper maintenance. (TV: 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)
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) Similarly Mike Lyndon kept a cricket bat in his house for protection, which he once had to use against some burglars. (TV: Sleeper) Due to their wooden nature, they 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) The Doctor also had another prized bat, signed by Mike Gatting. (PROSE: Fear of the Dark)
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)
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 the Bruce Master. (AUDIO: The Lifeboat and the Deathboat)