Lancashire League Handbook 2023

25 The awards to Umpires are based upon marks by Captains. I must at this point thank Barry Evans our Umpire appointments Secretary and also his Secretary, wife Pat. We all know how hard it’s getting to attract umpires and every week they have a juggling act to perform just to have an umpire on every game, Barry and Pat, thanks again, I hope people appreciate the amount of effort you have to put in to try and have two umpires at every game, and how hard you try, week in, week out Another thank-you is to our new Disciplinary Chairman, Jez Hope who took over from Peter West and I don’t think he would disagree it was a baptism of fire, thanks Jez and hopefully you might not be as busy in 2023? I mentioned that it’s getting harder to attract umpires. This isn’t helped I’m afraid by player behaviour. Part way through the season we had an umpire decide that he would turn just to 2nd eleven umpiring and right at the end of the season another umpire resigned from umpiring completely. I can tell you that the reason was that they no longer want the hassle of being constantly questioned as to their decisions. I have to say that, as a League (and a Premier League from 2023) behaviour really does need to improve and we need to remember that our umpires mainly undertake the role as a hobby, not a job and if we want to keep them they need to be given far far more respect than is being shown. Peter Hargreaves donated a trophy before he sadly passed on and this is awarded to the Umpire with the best overall marks in the Junior League. The winner for 2022 went to an umpire who only took up the role recently, despite having many years experience within the League, and I am pleased to announce this years recipient was Peter Nicholson. The Wally Ashley Umpire of the Year runners up trophy was awarded to Ken Fergusson and the Harry Saul went to myself Duncan Warburton. The next award goes to the team who are given the best marks by umpires for sportsmanship in both First and a Second Eleven games. As I began writing this report I was saddened to learn that the Umpire who this Trophy is named in respect of, Joe Collier, has passed away at the age of 95. Joe was a highly respected Umpire within the league and he was the lead tutor at my course as I began my umpiring career, a man I looked up to and whose standards I always tried to follow. Joe always had a smile on his face and was a dedicated servant both to the League and umpire development, he will be greatly missed. The winners of the award for 2022 were Colne Cricket Club. The Alick Ormerod Trophy, which is awarded to the captain who receives the best marks, from umpires, in Senior Division Cricket. The winner this year was Daniel Pickup of Burnley. There was a special award made at the Annual Presentation evening. The League makes an award to any amateur batsman who scores 1000 runs in a League season, the last time this was achieved was in 2015 by David Brown