Lancashire League Handbook 2014

20 The ECB grade umpires each season and then make appointments to minor county, 2nd eleven county andNational competitions. This year again several of our umpires were awarded prestigious appointments by the ECB. Ian Laurence made his county 2nd debut. John Smith umpired the National Village final and Ken Fergusson the National Club knockout final. The Captains reports on Umpires performances form the basis of the award of the Wally Ashleigh Shield and the Harry Saul Trophy. We still have the who won/who lost scenario but most captains do make an effort and take the time to think about their marks. We also have some captains marking umpires all 3 or all 4 without considering each area on the actual performance of the umpire. This doesn't help us address weaknesses and we hope that captains will look to mark each area separately in 2014. The Captains reports are now collated by our Deputy Chairman Mr Peter West which has helpedmyworkload greatly during the season, thank you Peter. We are constantly looking at the standard of our umpires and have decided that anyone joining the panel from 2015 onwards will be of a minimum of Level 1Aand be working towards level 2. This is not to isolate members of our current panel, many of whom have many years service within the League and we hope they will continue to serve us with their experience and abilitites. We had proposed an increase of fees for First Team umpires with a view to attracting Level 2 umpires from other Leagues. However Clubs have decided this is not to be. In my opinion we do have one of the strongest panels in the North West. The top 12 umpires all achieved an averagemark of over 90%. This year I thought I would give a flavour of the standard required to win the awards by publishing the overall marks and percentages of the top 3. Third place with 18 matches, a mark of 1050 out of a possible 1080 – 97.22% NaeemAshraf. Second place was achieved from 21 matches 1238 out of a possible 1260 – 98.25%and therefore winning theWallyAshleigh Shield, Ken Fergusson. And top place also from 21 matches 1248 from a possible 1260 - 99.05% and taking the Harry Saul Umpire of the year award was Duncan Warburton for the fifth time. Jack Bottomley continued asAssistant Secretary and Jack continued collating themarks, another greatly appreciated help tome. Many thanks to Jack. There are 4 awards adjudged by the umpires marking, best 1st team scoreboard, best tea roomand sportsmanship and one new award