GOOD UMPIRES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 31, 7 February 1928, Page 8

GOOD UMPIRES.

A VITAL NECESSITY TO GOOD CRICKET. DISCUSSION IX WELLINGTON. (Bj Telegraph.—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. For some time past the appointment of umpires for important cricket matches has occasioned heart-burning. It had been the practice for a few seasons for various umpires' associations to make the appointments, but this season the New Zealand Council notified that ■ it would make the appointments for the Plunket Shield games. The matter was discussed at last night's meeting of the Management Committee of the Wellington Cricket Association. The Canterbury Association notified that their committee considered the present method of appointing umpires unsatisfactory, and suggested that in future the selection should be left in the hands of the association. The chairman (Mr. C. (J. Wilson) said he did not care who made the appointments so long as the best men in the Dominion were secured. Umpires could either make or mar a panic, and the onus was on the association to see that only competent men were appointed. The Wellington Association had not been too well satisfied with the umpiring in local matches in the past.

Mr. Bock (chairman of the Wellington Umpires' Association) contended that the Umpires'" Association should be the best judge of who were the most competent officials. "It was not our fault," he said, "that the weakest of the four men we nominated were chosen for the recent match." Mr. Wilson: That is my point. You had no right to nominate weak men. We want only competent men as umpires for important matches. Mr, D. McKenzie: Who are to be the judges of ability? Mr. Wilson: By their actions shall ye know them. Mr. Bock declared that if the Umpires' Association could not recommend their best men they should cease to function. Mr. Varney (secretary of the Wellington Cricket Association) explained that after the recent Plunket Shield match at the Basin Reserve Dacre and Bowley had approached him and asked him to convey to the Umpires' Association their extreme satisfaction at the umpiring in the match, which, they declared, had been the best they had ever experienced in a Plunket Shield match in the Dominion. Mr. Wilson said that in the past the Umpires' Association had appointed certain of their members to officiate in important games simply because they had never stood in a Plunket Shield match before, and it was their turn. As he had said, umpires could cither make or mar a match, and it was essential for the good of the game that only the very best men obtainable should be appointed. After further discussion it was decided to request the Wellington Umpires' Association to nominate four umpires from whom two officials could be selected for the Australia-Wellington match.