Bedfordshire Association of Cricket Officials
NEWSLETTER –October 2014
Another season over and after a slow start and a hiccup in August the weather was generally kind to us although Saturdays turned out to attract the worst of the weather but as they say “That’s life”.
At the beginning of August I was at the Bedford Under 14 Festival held at Ickwell, Southill Park and Clifton Cricket Clubs and we are lucky in Bedfordshire to have such attractive grounds for visiting teams to play at. The standard of cricket was generally of a high quality with the Bedfordshire team winning all their matches and thus the competition. The opener batters of Emilio Gay and Liam Everitt providing the backbone of the batting with both batsmen scoring centuries. The other teams were Cambridgeshire, London Schools Cricket Association and Lincolnshire B who all contributed to the occasion. From talking to the players they enjoyed their stay at Shuttleworth College. There was a well-produced programme to remind the players and their parents of the Festival. The games were played in the right spirit which made the task of the Umpires, which we provided easier.On the boundary I heard no chuntering from the dismissed batsmen in the games I watched, so congratulations to the umpires involved.
I hope that you all heard Alison Mitchell our guest speaker in April during her stint on Test Match Special bandying words with one Geoffrey Boycott, giving as good as she got.
On my visits around the various grounds this season I would have just two general observations to make, that it is important that on the call of “Over” the umpires should be aware of what is going on the pitch and no-one is walking on it, walkingbackwards to the non-striker’s end would
make the players think twice about any nefarious practises. The other point is to make sure of your own safety by more use of the movement to the “wrong” side when the ball is hit in the arc between mid-off and mid-on as your movement in following the ball will take you to the safer position where you can see the ball on the return throw.
If anyone who has passed level 1 and has at least one season of umpiring would like to progress to Level 1a then please contact Paul Barnes who, if the response is sufficient can arrange a course, if not we can investigate other options in a neighbouring County.
For those already on Level 1a and wish to progress to Level 2 please contact me (Bryan Deverill) to discuss the options of various courses within our Region.
It is also our intention to try and mentor new umpires who have freshly passed the Level 1 exam to help them with field craft and support them in match situations which fall outside the limitations of the classroom. To this end I would like to hear from both newly qualified umpires and those of us who have more experience willing to act as mentors.
On the subject of exams we are always looking for new candidates to take Level 1, indeed the trend is for Leagues to require that they supply a panel umpire and these umpires whether panel or for club, to have some form of training and Level 1 being the minimum requirement. So if anyone is aware of someone who is interested then please contact Paul Barnes or myself so we can tell them of the available course, the next one is being held at Bedford College starting on the 21st January.
Very Important Date
For members of the Bedfordshire Association we will be holding our AGM on the 4th December at Flitwick Cricket Club commencing at 8pm. It is important that you attend as it gives everyone an opportunity to have their say in the running of the Association. For those of you who are not already members please come along and join us, the subscription is very reasonable, currently £5 and gives you a chance to meet other members and also provides extra insurance cover.
We on the Committee are also trying to obtain a keynote speaker in the New Year together with at least one other meeting, both of which I shall advise you about at a later date.
I have just attended the annual workshop of London & East Region where a lot of the talk was of umpiring appointments being run via “Whos the Umpire”. There are a lot of Leagues now using this method of appointing and they all enthuse over its use. I know a lot of you are already on this system but any otherswho wish, or need to use this method then the link is and then click cricket and then follow the links to register.
Finally again the spectre of a tax on our expenses has not entirely gone away so everyone is advised to keep a note of expenses paid together with all associated outgoings such as mileage, laundry, any equipment purchased and anything else you can think of.
The Committee and I look forward to seeing you all at our meetings and wish you all the best for the months ahead.
All contributions to the next newsletter are most welcome and should be sent to:-
Bryan Deverill
53 Riverside
Leighton Buzzard
Beds LU7 3HX
BACO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Chairman: Bob Browning - 01525 717644
Deputy Chairman: Steve Cobb–01767 316332
Secretary: Andrew Gould - 01908 643669
Membership. & Deputy Secretary:
John Farrent - 01582 881662
Treasurer: Geoff May – 01167 319148
Training Officer Paul Barnes - 01234 364595
Marketing,Media & Performance Officer: Bryan Deverill - 01525 375227
Welfare Officer: Ian Smith - 01525 841836
Scorers’ Officer:Mike Archer – 01525 751345