A young cricketer was bowled over when he arrived at an away game to find his hamster inside his bag.
Gerbus had stowed away in Tyler Ivey's bag for the two hour trip from Holsworthy in Devon to Liskeard in Cornwall on Saturday.
"He's quite lively and mischievous," said the 15-year-old bowler, who was given a cold towel and some carrots for Gerbus during the game.
A bucket was lent to Tyler to take Gerbus home in.
"I was cleaning out his cage and put him on the bed," said Tyler.
"But I forgot to put him back because when I got into the changing rooms he got out of the bag."
A couple of his team-mates were shouting about "a rat running around the floor", he said.
"I was surprised to see him, he must have sneaked inside."
He thinks Gerbus must have slept the whole way to the game.
But after he got out of the bag "he was loving life", said Tyler.
"He was quite pampered, to be honest, and was loving the attention."
"Our young bowler Tyler opened his cricket bag after a two hour journey to our away game on Saturday, and realised his hamster had been in his bag the whole time"
via @holsworthy_cc pic.twitter.com/4YD9Kuyls8
His dad Steve said they discovered Gerbus had gone because "we just happened to look in Tyler's room".
"We ended up pulling the wardrobe out, lifting the bed up, looking under the duvet, looking in his sister's room," he said.
"We rang Tyler and he told us he was in Liskeard."
After all the rodent drama however, Gerbus is unlikely to become a mascot for the team as they went on to lose to Liskeard.
That was despite Tyler taking a wicket.
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