Ycb Association of Cricket Officials Committee

YORKSHIRE CRICKET BOARD

YCB ASSOCIATION OF CRICKET OFFICIALS COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF MEETING

HELD AT OSSETT CRICKET CLUB, DIMPLE WELLS LANE, OSSETT

ON TUESDAY 15th SEPTEMBER 2015

PRESENT - Philip Radcliffe (Chair), Steven Wood (Secretary and Membership Services Officer), Rob Smith (County Education Officer and York Branch), Dave Ward (Regional and County Appointments Officer), Hilary Oliver (County Scorers Officer), Ray Taylor (Huddersfield Branch), Alan Farnell (South Yorkshire Branch), Peter Burns (Wakefield Branch), and Richard Jones (Leeds Branch)

1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE - Glyn Pearson (Vice Chair and Bradford Branch), Graham Griffiths (Scarborough Branch), Terry Bentham (County Performance Officer), and Rob Allison (North Yorkshire Branch)

2 SILENCE The Chairman requested a moment’s silence in memory of Stuart Granger (South Yorkshire Branch) and Brian Close (YCCC) who had recently passed away.

3 MINUTES - The Minutes of the meeting held on 22nd May 2015 were approved.

4 MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES –

4.1 PR was still to contact League representatives (Item 6.1)

4.2 There were no official programs for promoting the Association to other groups. It was up to individual members and Branches to do what they could. Training courses had been run for Asian groups, and there were a number of new Asian members. RJ was promoting the idea of umpiring and scoring within Womens’ cricket – significantly local finals in Womens cricket had been umpired by Lady umpires.

5 FINANCE

5.1 The only change in finances had been some expenses paid out to Officers

5.2 No change was anticipated in the funding from YCB

6 MEMBERSHIP SERVICES OFFICER

6.1 A Report of a meeting of the Membership Services Committee had been circulated, together with a report on the survey of leagues that had been undertaken. Members were asked to forward any comments on the reports to SAW

6.2 On the issue of recruitment, the Bradford League has previously paid the Level 1 course fee for any new umpire nominated by a club in the league. In South Yorkshire the League pays a sum of £100 to any club who provide a new umpire who stands in 75% of the season’s fixtures. Clubs who do not produce an umpire are the first to suffer if there is a shortage of umpires.

7 EDUCATION, PERFORMANCE AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND APPOINTMENTS, INCLUDING SCORERS

7.1 EDUCATION

(a) The CEO was seeking information from Branches about the courses they would be running through the winter

(b) All courses would be recorded on the YCB ACO web site

(c) To date a total of 9 Level 1 courses have been arranged (5 in South Yorkshire, 2 in Bradford, and 1 in Halifax and York) The Level 1 packs are slightly different, and if Leeds Branch wishes to use packs left over from 2014/5 then the packs would need updating – the CEO had the new material that was needed.

(d) The CEO had contacted those members who had previously taken a Level 1 course, and approximately 40 were interested in taking Level 1A. There would be Level 1A courses in Bradford, York and Sheffield

(e) Various Introductory and Refresher courses were being planned. North Yorkshire would run a course before Christmas, Wakefield in the New Year.

(f) Although information about the Laws is available on line, on the ECB and MCC web sites, all prospective umpires really need to attend a Level 1 course

7.2 SCORERS

(a) There would be a Regional Level 3 course in Lancashire.

(b) There would be a Regional Level 2 course in Yorkshire

(d) The CSO was disappointed at the response from the various Branches. It may be an issue of communication – were details of courses being passed on to scorers

(e) TCS needed modifying for Windows 10

(f) The scorers course is available on line, on a continual basis.

7.3 APPOINTMENTS

(a) Poor weather, particularly at the weekends, had made this a difficult season

(b) Umpires have been appointed out of county on a number of occasions, moving umpires outside their comfort zone will only improve them.

(c) New level 2 candidates officiated in MCCU Premier B/ECB fixtures, and stood with an experienced umpire and had boundary observations.

(d) Most leagues were now on WTU, which made it much easier for the CAO. The following leagues are now using WTU to appoint umpires; Airedale & Wharfedale, Central Yorkshire, NYSD, SYSCL, York & District Senior, and ECB Yorkshire Premier Leagues. The Bradford League will use WTU for 2016.

(e) The main problem is that umpires were not keeping their availability up to date – currently more decline than accept, which creates a lot of extra work, and means that some officials receive less notice than would otherwise be the case

(f) DW would be appointing umpires to the new Yorkshire League (North) & Yorkshire League (South) Premier Leagues. There would be a panel of Premier league umpires, sufficient is size to cover all premier league games, with members of the panel being appointed to second tier games when they had no premier league appointment. Umpires have had to apply to join and closed observations carried out. Some umpires will officiate in both North and South and some will be North or South only. The panel will be finalised before the end of September 2015 and all the successful and unsuccessful umpires will be informed. The Bradford Premier League and North Yorkshire / South Durham Premier League will continue to make their own appointments as at present.

(g) Any umpire could apply to go on the premier league panel, provided that he was Level 2 (or seeking to progress to Level 2) and able to provide evidence of his experience and competence

(h) Indoor cricket is now on the system. The task is to get a suitable mix of officials, at the same time taking into account potential travel problems during periods of bad weather.

7.4 PERFORMANCE

(a) Grading All members have to be graded. Where Leagues use WTU, this system will calculate grades automatically.

SAW emphasised that it was the responsibility of each Branch to ensure every member was properly and fairly graded and submissions to the CPO by 30th September 2015

8. BRANCH REPORTS

8.1 NORTH YORKSHIRE (Nidderdale)

(a) There was no report

8.2 YORK

(a) there was nothing to report

8.3 EAST YORKSHIRE –.

(a) there was no report.

8.4 HUDDERSFIELD

(a) The proposed Branch Meeting for June 2015 did not take place due to other commitments of members at that time.

(b) The last meeting of the Branch was on Wednesday 26 August 2015 at Blackley CC. Again the attendance was poor considering the number of members, but the members who did attend had an enjoyable evening. The guest speakers were two Branch members, Nick Oddy, who gave a presentation on what is required to progress up the umpiring ladder, and Ray Taylor, who gave a presentation on assessing umpires, both followed by a Q & A session.

(c) A Level 1 Umpires Courses will be run in October, commencing on the 8th at Pellon Lane, Halifax. At the present time the number of candidates totals 10. It is anticipated that this will be followed by a further Level 1 Course at Broad Oak CC, Huddersfield, in the early part of 2016.

(d) The Branch AGM will be held at Blackley CC in December 2015

8.5 LEEDS

(a) monthly meetings would be held throughout the winter at Barnbow Sports Club, Cross Gates, Leeds. Details of the speakers would be publicised

(b) it is intended to run 2 Level 1 courses, either side of Christmas

(d) the Branch has produced a Branch tie, which is now available to members

8.6 SCARBOROUGH

(a) Chris Rawson will be standing down as Secretary at the forthcoming AGM, as he has not been able to motivate the membership as he might have wished. As an example, many umpires do not appear to understand the need to signal boundary 4s correctly, nor to wait for an acknowledgement from a scorer. There is a marked reluctance to deal with disciplinary matters appropriately - matters that should have been dealt with or reported have been ignored, even though the League would be fully behind any disciplinary action. The result has been a worsening of behaviour which makes standing on a Saturday afternoon less enjoyable.

(b) He has indicated that he is willing to continue as Training Officer if the AGM so wish.

8.7 SOUTH YORKSHIRE –

(a) There was no report

8.8 BRADFORD -

(a) there was nothing to report.

8.9 WAKEFIELD

(a) The CYL was merging with the Bradford League for season 2016. The umpires panels of the two leagues would be amalgamated

(b) The Branch will continue to operate, to look after the interests of the former CYL members

9.0 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS

9.1 The ECB ACO AGM would be held at Nottingham on Sunday 1st November 2015, prior to the Midland Conference.

9.2 The North Regional AGM and Conference 2015 would be held at Jesmond on Sunday 29th November 2015.

9.3 The YCB ACO AGM and Conference 2015 would be held on Sunday 6th December 2015 at a venue in South Yorkshire (probably Rotherham). The Officers would organise the Conference.

10 LAWS OF CRICKET 2017/8

11.1 Mark Williams has been appointed by the MCC as Laws of Cricket Advisor. MCC are to undertake a major re-write of the Laws of Cricket

11.2 Members were given an opportunity to comment on the changes being considered, but the time scale has been very short. Over 40 did respond from Yorkshire

11.3 Representatives of the North Region have met with Mark Williams, who has subsequently met with other ACO Regions, so that the views of ACO can be sent to MCC

11.4 Every country where cricket is played is being invited to take part in this process

11.5 The new Laws will try and encompass recreational cricket and will be written in a clear and concise way

11.6 There is still the chance to make representations, although the window is becoming smaller. Branches might consider encouraging members to engage in discussion.

11.7 The new Laws are expected to come into effect on 1st October 2017. It will mean major changes are necessary to the education portfolio. From 2017 the MCC will introduce an on line course. MCC will teach the Laws, and ACO will teach interpretation and field craft. It is anticipated the MCC On-line course will be a pre-requisite for the ECB ACO course at leach level

11.8 Tom Smith’s Cricket Umpiring & Scoring will be reprinted to coincide with the new laws as a loose leaf book, so that when a Law is changed all that is necessary is to replace the page, and not the book.

11.9 There will be an e-copy of Tom Smith which will always be up to date

11 NEXT MEETING Wednesday 25th November 2015 at Ossett at 7.30pm

12 ANY OTHER BUSINESS - there was no other business