High Standard By Young Umpire

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 9

High Standard By Young Umpire

CO far this season Can- ° terbury has not made a great contribution to New Zealand cricket, either individually or collectively. However, one person who took part in Canterbury’s home Plunket Shield matches can be expected to outlast the public favourites of the present on the international cricket scene.

He is Mr F. Goodall, who occupies the position of umpire in one Plunket Shield match this season. At 26 he not only impressed with his efficient handling of his Plunket Shield match, but also earned almost untold honours in the academic world of first-class umpires examinations. His examination results were quite fitting. After all, he is a school teacher at Culverden High School and while travelling to Christchurch to take part in umpiring he must have had plenty of time to ponder on the many pitfalls in the cricket laws.

In his written examination Mr Goodall achieved a pass of 98.25 per cent He faltered somewhat in his oral exam, and sank to the figure of 97.8 per cent. It is believed that his passes were the highest ever by any person sitting the exams, and that his examiners were staggered by the final figures. For all his youth he is quite a commanding figure on the cricket field. Senior cricketers are quite prepared to try on an umpire but they have confessed themselves beaten and disarmed by Mr Goodall's firm decisions and “unflappability.”

He takes his place on the cricket field as if he was taking part in a military exercise. No frippery of running from square leg to the wicket; it is a dignified march. Signals are made with a military precision—no nonsense here. The scorers are commanded to follow his definite instructions not merely to acquiesce with them.

Some years ago, Neville Cardus writing about the Australian batsman, W. A. Brown, pondered 1 on the fate of English bowlers as the;; faced Brown season after season. He' imagined Brown travelling back and forth across the Atlantic: a scourge to the M.C.C. bowlers wherever he went

So with Mr Goodall. In the years to come he could become the Frank Chester of New Zealand cricket—an identity in his own right Why, in the years to come he could become a dominant figure. Spectators might even decide to watch him at Lancaster Park rather than the other 13 players.