Association of Cricket Officials Issue 29 | Page 7

Barbados and Cape Town Tours: A Scorer’s Reflection When I attended my first umpire course in the winter of 2003 I did not anticipate that I would officiate in matches much beyond the boundaries of my county. And this was generally the case until 2010 when an injury brought an end to my umpiring career. As a result of umpiring a Surrey Senior Cricketers’ Association match in 2009, I had joined SSCA and agreed to go on a tour to Cyprus. It was here, in the absence of a regular scorer, that I scored my first cricket match in over 40 years, although I had attended a scorer course earlier in the year. I was then asked to fill a scoring vacancy for the Surrey 50+ ECB side, which I accepted, and this led to four further overseas tours as their scorer. This year I have been fortunate enough to go on two more cricket tours; to Barbados with ‘The Forty Club’ and also to Cape Town with ‘English Counties 50+’. This was my second visit to Barbados, having accompanied a school cricket tour in 1999. There were similarities with the tours as fixtures changed and in some cases the hosts knew nothing about the fixture until a few hours before, and then barely started on time! As a result, only four of the nine fixtures came close to being against the expected ‘40+ teams’. The Forty Club included an umpire and I was one of two scorers in the tour party, all qualified and experienced. Officials were rarely appointed by the hosts, particularly scorers, and where appointed, most did not have the skills normally expected. Usually, the home club found a volunteer to umpire, but their signals to scorers were often non-existent or incorrect, leading to many occasions when we had to make our own decision as to what to record. However, our decisions were never challenged so we must have got it right. It was a feature of the tour that all decisions were accepted within the Spirit of Cricket, even when one of our batsmen was surprisingly given out LBW by an umpire using his mobile phone. An unexpected hazard to scoring was the noise that often surrounded the scorer(s). An absence of scoreboxes meant that we were in front of the pavilions, often surrounded by players and spectators. It was fine when we were batting, but not so when the hosts were batting as the shouts of encouragement and advice were frequent and deafening, and conversations often involving our scorer colleague were conducted at full volume. On such occasions, it was a real test of concentration. Despite the difficulties and a disappointing set of results, the tour proved extremely enjoyable. Our hosts were always friendly and made us very welcome; and the lunches were never disappointing! After four weeks of English winter, I travelled to Cape Town where the weather was even warmer than Barbados. Our early matches proved very one-sided with both England North and England South winning their matches by significant margins. However, we enjoyed the experience of playing at such picturesque grounds such as Western Province CC and Cape Town CC. As in Barbados, the scoring was from a table in front of the pavilion, but without the distractions. We also had the pleasure of competent colleagues to score with in all but one match. The all-England semi-final was comfortably won by the North, and my colleague was Paul Bridge; also from Surrey, but this was the first time we had scored together. Here we had the privilege of scoring at arguably the most attractive Test match ground in the world – Newlands. This time there was a scorebox with two scorers in addition to those from the playing sides. One of the scorers operates the electronic scoreboards, while the other is the ‘linear scorer’. Interestingly, all scorers we met in Cape Town used linear scoring. Fortunately, we all agreed the scores as England South managed to reverse the outcome of the group match by winning the final. As in Barbados, the tour was thoroughly enjoyable. We were made very welcome by our hosts, many of whom were having their first taste of seniors’ cricket. The tour concluded with a splendid dinner in the president’s room at Newlands. John Smith (Surrey) MCC Appoints New Laws of Cricket Advisor Jonny Singer joined the MCC in June of this year after a little over three years as a sports journalist for the MailOnline and Daily Mail. A reporter whose specialisation in African football has taken him to tournaments in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, Jonny also worked as a news editor for the MailOnline, the world’s most-read English-language news website. He also headed up their live text commentary of Test cricket, covering series around the world from the Kensington office. A qualified football and rugby referee, cricket has always been Jonny’s principal sport, despite his playing ability limiting to a middle-order spot in the largely inept Sunday Times Occasionals side. After years covering the sport from the outside, Jonny is excited to be a part of the game, and hopes to build understanding of the Laws of Cricket around the world. We wish Jonny every success in his new role and we thank him for kindly answering the Law questions in this issue. email us at [email protected] contact us on 0121 446 2710 7