Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2016

28 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society twitter: @scloverssociety 2015 was my first full season as an ECB 1st Class Umpire. I had been on the 1st Class Reserve list for four previous seasons but I became full-time as from January 2015. In all, I stood for 92 days through the various competitions, LVCC, RL50, T20 etc. The schedule can be quite gruelling as these 92 days do not cover any travel or nights away so whilst it sounds easy, I soon found out it is more demanding than I had imagined. Fortunately I am pretty fit so I didn’t find the on-field schedule too difficult but having said that, you know when you have stood for a full day and often I would miss the 10 o’clock news…… Jerry Lloyds always says “if you aren’t tired at the end of a day’s play you haven’t been Life as a 1st Class Cricket Umpire concentrating hard enough” and I fully agree with this statement. We are in a very fortunate position as 1st Class Umpires - we see the highest level of cricket in England and Wales. There are some very talented cricketers out there and if I had to highlight a couple of performances in 2015 I would say Ross Whiteley’s 91 for Worcestershire CCC against Yorkshire CCC in a T20 match at Headingley (Sorry Dorothy) and both of Jonny Bairstow’s innings for Yorkshire against Worcestershire at Scarborough (139 and 74no) – these were the best for me. Ross’s innings was a mixture of pure strength and timing and Jonny looked a class on his own playing shots all around the wicket. by Russell Evans Pic courtesy of Guardian Sport