ECB ACO Newsletter - Spring 2013

Devon Association of Officials (DACO)A Christmas Grading Tale (see page 6 for gradings)It is a dark and windy and wet evening, the delights of summer andthe sound of leather on willow have long since faded, thoughts areturning to the season of goodwill and presents and family and logfires and warming mulled wine when the ghost of summer past appears:“Fear ye not but harken to do my bidding as swift as ye may,for my hunger is vast and my fury great”. So, on top of everythingelse and far more important than any other matter, despite the appallingweather and the floods and winter colds and chills, it is timefor “gradings”.The gradings of umpires has become an art form: it has been happeningfor some years. In DACO land (Devon), it was a closelyguarded secret that I only came to know about by happenstance. I attendeda county meeting as a “stand-in” and at this meeting it was announcedby the Education Officer that he had completed the annualumpires’ grading report and had sent it to ECB. I enquired what thiswas about and was politely informed that it merited no debate.I then became the Education Officer at short notice. Along withmany other matters, I discovered I was now responsible for “Captains’Marks on Umpires” and the annual grading return to ECB.Since that time, the grading methodology has altered and is now amuch simpler and clearer process – in theory! In practice, I quicklydiscovered that Devon had told ECB only about those umpires whostood in the top tiers of the Devon Cricket League – DACO is askedto appoint independent umpires to the Premier, A, B and C Divisions,40 umpires each weekend. Captains’ marks are processed by DACO.Thus, we know our umpires who stand in the Devon Cricket League– or do we? After all, with 75+ matches every Saturday over 150umpires and 150 scorers take part, in theory, and we know well just60 to 70!In recent years, DACO membership has been around 250 but ourgrading return has only catered for about 70 to 100 umpires, entirelydependent on the dedication and enthusiasm of the author of the report(me!). At the end of 2011, I decided to see if I could genuinelycater for more, even possibly all, DACO members.This not inconsiderable task needed serious assistance from theDevon Cricket League. Together we changed the result sheet used forall league matches to include the names of the standing umpires andsitting scorers. At this stage, I had not considered how to sift through75 or more result sheets every week for 18 weeks.The Devon Cricket Board have a website on which all matterscricket in Devon are portrayed – including “live” scores for cricketmatches and all the results. The “webmaster” was able to provide mewith a printout of all the data about umpires and scorers and, suddenly,I had data never before truly available.From this data source, I was able to “evidentially” grade all umpiresthat stood in Devon in the Devon Cricket League in the other 11divisions. I could do the same for scorers. My grading list for 2012was therefore more inclusive than any previous list, and revealed tome those members who had moved off the radar screen, from beingpanel umpires, to support their club 2 nd XI or other teams. More importantly,it made me realise just how many umpires and scorers performeach Saturday who are not members of DACO – 162 of themumpires! Not all these umpires stand every Saturday as some clubshave an umpiring roster. Meanwhile other clubs have no umpires orscorers at all.As a result of this exercise, DACO has a better understanding ofthe shape of its membership – the membership list is not particularlyhelpful in identifying a name as either an umpire or scorer or both – Ihappen to be both, so my number should be ACOxxxxUS (U = umpire,S = scorer and US does not mean “broken”!) Now we know farbetter who is an umpire, who is a scorer and which names we are notsure about. We have graded more accurately down to a lower levelthan ever before but this also means my little exercise now needs tobecome the norm, for continuity and to provide the correct service toour members. As an aside, the gradings process has re-ignited someindividuals to see if they can achieve a higher grade in 2013 – I considerthat to be brilliant!Also we have realised that many games only have one or no umpire,similarly with scorers, and just how many individuals who arenot members of the ACO. In addition, it is clear that a serious numberof individuals who officiate are untrained and that we need to beable to provide more available, flexible education. This latter point isquite interesting. ECB ACO educational courses are invaluable andpopular but they do not meet all requirements. There is a real need toshow people how to officiate “quickly” – be it scoring or umpiring. Amodified, tailored to suit, version of “An Introduction to …” is popularat club nights to encourage parents and others to have a go and thebiggest initiative is to get people scoring on a laptop or telephone ortablet – the demand to know is very real.What now? Requests for club nights and for computer scoring continueto roll in and this demand is good because many who “get thebug” then want to undertake umpire or scorer Level 1 courses. Thisall started as an exercise to assist me with grading our umpires better– and look at the fine mess it has landed me in!“And then the great ghost of summer past growled “Ye have beenidle these many years and so must toil and toil anew to placate mylusts and desires. Too many rains have dampened my fires and I amchilled by thy lack of data – give me more, give me more to restoremy rightful balance”. It is still dark and wet and windy but hey, itmust be time for beer!”Have a great 2013.Gavin Lane, DACO Education Officer(ED: In response to Gavin’s article above the Editor asked ECB ACOExecutive Officer, Glyn Pearson to comment on the established educationalprogramme – see page 7)Leicestershire and Rutland Umpires receive awardsLeicestershire and Rutland Association of Cricket Officials’ treasurer Richard Whateley-Knight [right] celebrated hisninetieth birthday in September. To mark the occasion, present and past committee members entertained him to dinnerat Southfield College where he was presented with a plaque, by L&R ACO president Dick Spires, commemorating themilestone and his services to the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers and the Association of Cricket Officialsover many years. Richard was re-elected treasurer at the recent ACO AGM for the thirty-third year.Leicestershire andRutland ACO memberDave Goodacre [right]receives his 40 year tiefor long service toACU&S and ACO fromL&R ACO PresidentDick SpiresECB ACO has been recognising its members who havegiven long service to umpiring in their counties.Leicestershire and Rutland President, Dick Spires[second from right back row], presented a 40 yearservice tie to Dave Goodacre [back row right] and 25year ties to Derek Jordan and Roy Rodwell [back rowleft] and Alan Jordan, Keith Towers and GordonHubbard [front left to right] at the Branch’s AGMrecently. Ian MacCleod and Ray Rowley also received25 year ties but were unable to be at the AGM.e-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 21 contact us on 0121 446 2710