A Few Words from Your National Scorers’ Officer( NSO)
So, the 2016 season is done and dusted. I sincerely hope you had a productive and enjoyable time in your various scoring positions, without too many unusual occurrences that caused‘ pause for thought’. It is the unusual or unexpected that can possibly catch us on the hop. If you have experienced any such situations, do please let us know so that we can share with your colleagues( or indeed use as a training example; anonymously of course). Weather wise, I believe we were pretty lucky up and down the country, most certainly an improvement on the previous year.
We are delighted to report that the long-awaited new scorer video shoot took place in mid-September. We plan to meet with the director and view the‘ first cut’ in a couple of weeks’ time to firm up the final details, so it will be available to tutors very soon. After two failed attempts( due to Ground, Weather and Light!), it was with great excitement and relief that the filming finally went to plan. A huge thank you to all involved with the logistics and participation; we anticipate that it will be an exceptional product.
I would like to pass on the thanks of managers, coaches and indeed players for the sterling work and professional attitude of all our ECB ACO scorer members who were appointed this past year. There has been nothing but praise, so I do hope you were complimented at the time. Thanks to many of you for stepping up at the last minute, when I was suddenly called upon to produce a scorer out of the blue! We are expecting to receive more requests next season, so do please contact your CSOs or me if you wish to be included on the circulation list and considered for appointments.
This year’ s Conference was a great success; the scorer seminars were well attended, with 60 + scorer members assembled in the Thomas Lord Suite. For our first dedicated session of the day we were privileged to have David Kendix, who acts as the Home Scorer at Lord’ s for internationals, as guest speaker. David gave an enthralling talk on his vast amount of experience in so many aspects of cricket. He told us of how his interest in scoring began, of his involvement with the ICC and ECB Boards, plus personal cricket related matters, which included the facts surrounding him being called as an expert witness in the Pakistan‘ no ball’ match-fixing court case.
There was a very last minute change of programme, as CricHQ could only put in a brief appearance between 12.00 – 12.30, leaving us with a gap to fill for our second session. We were most grateful to Glamorgan scorer, Andrew Hignell, who kindly filled this gap for us, with his interesting and entertaining presentation entitled‘ From Pigeons to Mouse’, relating to how press cricket media coverage and scoring has developed over the years, literally from birds carrying messages to reporters in their office, up to the present day instant digital transfer of facts and information worldwide.
During the last session of the day, we had a really engaging and proactive Scorers’ Forum, giving opportunity for all members to voice their views and also ask questions of the various officers present. We began with a brief outline of the 2016 scorer appointments that had taken place, the scorer’ s pathway, plus changes that had been made to the Club Scorer course. The new Club Scorer training pack was also on display. There was also information about the eagerly awaited scorer training video, plus explanation of the supported development process from Andy Scarlett, and the observer and assessor criteria. We took note of, and will address, all the issues raised and hopefully find solution to questions posed. Again, I thank you all very much for coming along and taking an active part.
The Scorer Sub-Committee( SSC) is hard at work on your behalf on a variety of issues. We are an industrious volunteer force that strives to improve the recognition and status of the scorer, primarily in recreational cricket. In particular, Sue Drinkwater( SEM) has been extremely busy updating all the scorer training materials. She, and a working party, have revamped the aforementioned new Club Scorer pack. Please see her article on the‘ Information Store for Scorers’ which was originally intended for publication in Issue 26. I have published a list of current County Scorer Officers( CSOs) in this issue of the magazine for information. They are your first port of call for most things and will pass on an enquiry, if it is something for other officers to deal with. I realise that officers may change at an upcoming county AGM, therefore please inform myself or the Membership Office if any of those details are incorrect.
I have had the pleasure of being invited to attend some of the regional meetings around UK. It has been great to meet officers and members who would otherwise have just been a name to me. Likewise, I am more than a sign-off at the bottom of an email or simply a cameo photo in the scorer section of the magazine!
Enjoy your winter break, enjoy any training workshops that you may attend, and we look forward to planning an exciting 2017 season. Winter well and best wishes for a happy Christmas.
Sue Jones National Scorers’ Officer
Contact scorer. aco @ ecb. co. uk for any National Scorer Officer( NSO) and Scorer Education Manager( SEM) related queries. Any queries regarding the application of DLS should be directed to Mark Williams at mark. williams @ mcc. org. uk
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34 email us at ecb. aco @ ecb. co. uk contact us on 0121 446 2710