ACO NEWSLETTER - Ecb - England and Wales Cricket Board

speak for most of us. I have learnt so muchfrom my colleagues and I am still on thatjourney. Cricket has provided me with a lifetimeof enjoyable experiences and I hopethat I will be able to continue to inspire,mentor, support and celebrate umpires andscorers.“I am so very grateful and privileged.Thank you.”RUNNERS-UPDeborah BurnsDeborah became aqualified memberof the Associationof Cricket Officialsin 1982 and sincethen has spentthousands of hourssupporting andchampioning the role of officials withinMiddlesex.She was appointed the Middlesex ACOEducation Officer in 1992 taking on the responsibilityof arranging, administering andrecruiting candidates for 100+ courses duringthis period. In addition to this role, shehas personally tutored and mentored the candidateson and off the field and has been thego to person for the Board.She is also a keen umpire, umpiring ladiesmatches at every opportunity and also assistingthe MCC in this role whenever required.She has been a favourite for many teams andis a true inspiration for others to take up umpiring,she has had an incredible influenceon ensuring men’s and women’s cricket isofficiated by qualified ACO umpires and alwaysadvocates the highest possible standards.Unfortunately Deborah has had to retirefrom her role within the ACO this year dueto the ill health of her husband. Despite this,she is still umpiring and playing a key rolein mentoring and assisting the new committeeto ensure her standards are maintained inthe future.Alan EnglishAlan has held the post of Education Officerfor the Bucks Association of Cricket Officials(formerly BACUS) for the last fifteenyears. Throughout this period, Alan has organisedall the Bucks winter courses for umpiresand scorersand has personallyinstructed atleast one courseevery year.Alan’s preparationis outstandingand the highstandard of his tutoringis reflectedin the above averagepassesachieved by Bucks umpires in the ECB examinations.Alan is often the one who volunteersto travel the longest distances to the farend of the County and this is typical of hisdedication to the role.During the summer season Alan spendsmuch of his time mentoring and assessingnewly-qualified umpires. Recently, thiswork has extended to working with youngofficials from other counties at regional andnational festivals. A large number of currentBucks ump ires and scorers who officiate inBucks matches at all levels are products ofBACO courses and all owe a debt of gratitudeto Alan and his team.Best Practice: An Insight intoLevel 3 UmpiringMatti Watton of Middlesex runs through his technical report titled‘Dealing with Unacceptable Behaviour in the Professional ArenaAt their October meeting, the Ealing & District ACU&S wasgiven the opportunity to observe two Level 3 researchprojects. ECB ACO was delighted to hear that Matti Wattonand Paul Nicholls were keen to share their knowledge withtheir local association. This is a great example of ContinuousProfessional Development in practice that we fully support andendorse more of.Matti Watton began by explaining the general principles of the Level3 Course, including the emphasis on personal development and learningfrom other sports. The Pilot had comprised 6 modules, completedover 18 months to two years, looking at self, match and conflict management,colleague co-operation, difficult decision making and limitedovers cricket. Assessment of candidates was based on a technicalreport in essay form and a presentation.The first of these technical reports entitled ‘Dealing with Pressure’was presented by Paul Nicholls who asked, “What if it all goeswrong?” “We’ve all been there, you’ve just given one LBW and thenext ball ploughs into the striker’s pads, there is an even louder appeal!Technically both balls look the same – can you easily give thesecond one out too? Under pressure do you ‘hold or fold?’ How doyou cope?”Everyone has their own ‘coping style’ Paul declared, with the emphasison style rather than strategy, a too rigid term. He put forwardthe idea of a ‘mental bin’ where any decision right or wrong shouldnot be dwelt upon; “Put it in the bin, forget about it for now, but revisitlater, at an appropriate time”.Looking to other sports Paul had collected evidence of how refereescope with pressure. It is important to cultivate a personal relaxationtechnique with each official building a model that suited him or her.Deep breathing techniques and positive body posture are important, asis having an effective concentration technique focused by positiveself-talk.Positive self-talk involves remaining focused and calm; if there is aproblem realise it, put it in the bin and work on it in the future. Avoidnegative self-talk – ‘What a stupid thing to do’ or ‘I’ve blown mychances now’!In summary Paul emphasised an umpire’s need to exhibit positivemindset and body language and to develop and maintain a consistentstyle.Matti Watton’s technical report was entitled ‘Dealing with UnacceptableBehaviour in the Professional Arena’ and was based on a DevelopmentPlan and information from other sports. Studying personalitytypes had helped him understand how he might deal with certainsituations and to realise how players with different profiles might seethings differently. The need to understand the perspective of professionalplayers was emphasised as well as the importance of not focusingon being popular, but on gaining respect.Matti then looked at the experience of football referees and strategiesthey used when controlling players and at rugby referees whowere ‘miked up’ during matches. He found that the good referees usedclear communication, effective body language and good positioningskills. Use of specific language aimed at inclusivity is important, such‘we’ not ‘I’ e.g. ‘we think’ or ‘we need’ where ‘we’ = ‘the game’ or‘all the people here’ and use of ‘be careful’ when not quite sure whathas happened – but you know it is not quite right!Matti concluded by highlighting ‘Preventative Officiating’ i.e. praisingplayers when appropriate and working to develop a rapport withplayers, including knowing who will be in a match and what issuesmight have arisen in the past so that they may be avoided. However inthe following Q&A he stressed the importance of not being too familiarwith players you know well, especially if you only know one side.Finally, Paul Nicholls’ single most important piece of advice was tokeep physical and mental control of yourself at all times, don’t seektrouble but deal with it when needs be.Ealing & District ACU&S, Oct 2012.Editor Note: Level 3 candidates are nominated by their ACO. It is theRegional Performance Officers responsibility to collate and presentthe case for the nominees to the national Performance Committeewho have the final say. It is hoped that County ACO’s and Leagueswill put on Level 3 modules locally to maintain ECB ACO’s desire tobe inclusive by providing ‘Education of all’.e-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 10 contact us on 0121 446 2710