Central Cricket Wicket Stumps

Three vertical wooden stumps rise from the pitch’s worn turf, their dark stained surfaces weathered by countless matches. They stand rigid and parallel, spaced wider than a grown man’s shoulders, with a set of horizontal bails balanced delicately atop their cross-pieces. The Doctor sends a series of rapid balls hurtling toward the stumps, splitting and rebounding the bails with sharp cracks, prompting scrambling fielders to scatter in confusion. The wood bears faint scars from previous impacts, a record of games long past.