CRICKET UMPIRES

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 288, 5 December 1936, Page 10

CRICKET UMPIRES

THEIR IMPORTANCE STRESSED

SOME OF ENGLAND’S BEST

Tw6 jd£ 'the' 'mbSt; Important people in any. cricket match always have the least attention paid to them, writes Charles Graves in an English journal, I refer, of course, to umpires. In the case cif flrst-ciass county cricket matches mid Test matches, 95 per cent of them are ex-county players. That is why the standard of umpiring in England is'so "HigH 'to-day. Mr; Pi F. Warner was telling me only recently that throughout his years of cricket in every part of the globe he can only recall three occasions when he was given out'as he thought, incorrectly. Two were run outs, and one was nn lbw. “I can only recall one occasion when I was given ‘not out’ when I really was out,” Mr. Warner added. “I had made one run and was plump out, leg before wicket. I went on to make 176. On this occasion a wedding was going on, and the church bells were chiming so loudly all over Taunton that one could scarcely blame the umpire. No doubt he thought I had hit the ball before it struck my pads.” In the opinion of Mr. Warner, Frank Chester is the best umpire in the whole world and will continue to be so for many a year to come. He is only forty years old. In 1914, before he reached his eighteenth birthday, while playing for Worcestershire against Middlesex at Lord’s, he scored a hundred and took five wickets for 50 runs. The poor fellow, however, lost an arm in the war. Otherwise he would undoubtedly have been an All England cricketer. But what Worcestershire has lost, cricket as a whole has 1 gained. He is extremely alert, stoops rather noticeably over the wicket when the ball is being delivered and never makes a mistake. One of his mannerisms is to point quite dramatically at the batsman when he is signalling his dismissal. To an appeal which does not impress him he shakes his head with elaborate casualness. It must have occurred to many people besides myself who have played cricket that umpires are paid very poorly, if one takes into consideration their very long and arduous day. In a Test match, except for the luncheon interval and the tea interval, they are on their feet from 11 in the morning to 6.30 in the evening. All the time they have got to be, so to speak, on their toes and their concentration must.be devastating. If you have never looked at the instructions to umpires in - “Wisden’s Almanack” it is worth while doing so. Until you have read them you never realise how much they have to know. After all, it is the umpire who has to decide if the ball has reached the .bouhdry; it is with the umpires in the first' instance’that responsibility of supervising the rolling of the pitch before play must rest; it is not the scorer’s business to 'dictate to the umpire—it is the umpire who must direct the scorer; it is the umpires who decide whether or not there is sufficient light for play; it is the umpires who must produce the guage when in doubt as to the width of a bat.’ '

There are, all told 23 umpires in England who are called upon to stand in first-class matches. Their names forch a very interesting list. In it you see that of the famous Somerset allfounder, Leonard Braund, whose feats are immortalised in would-be rhyme by Craig, the Oval poet, who wrote: The world of cricket will 'proudly own' '• ' v The * of Leonard Braund;' 4

Of the 23 umpires only one is not an ex-first-class county player. This is Parry,-, of Devon. To the many lovers of cricket who did not know it before, it will be pleasant news that Bill Hitch still maintains his contract with firsLclgss .cricket as an umpire. Other famous old stagers are Dipper and Dolphin. Then there is. Fanny Walden who was equally famous as a footballer and. who with Hardstaff was, chosen to umpire the third Test match against Australia in 1934. Patsy Hendren has a brother in the list who played for .Duiham as well as Middlesex. The*greatpstcharacter among them is Reeves, of Essex. It was'he who, when a batsman said that he was not out, replied, “Oh; weren’t you? Well,_ have a look at the papers tomorrow and see.” Another good story told of Reeves concerns the first occasion on which he was an umpire. He was so keen on the game that when Wilfred,,Rhodes, struck the batsman on the pad he forgot .where he was and what his new .job was and shouted out “How’s that?" Wilfred Rhodes promptly said, “Out,” and the batsman retired lbw.

Many, people are inclined to regard umpires as being invariably quiet and self-contained, I will mention no names, but one of the best known of them was acquitted on a charge of manslaughter not so many years ago. I have already mentioned Dolphin. He was made famous by Tom Webster as the “Galloping Umpire.” He used actually to run up to the stumps to replace the bails when somebody had been bowled. I have not been able to find out. the exact names of the umpires and the occasions When they were struck by cricket balls; but in the past thirty years it has happened, I fancy, on at least half a dozen occasions, that an umpire was knocked out in this way. Which being so, it makes one realise still more how poorly they are paid. Even in- a Test match, which may go on for days and days, they only receive £ls, together with the cost of the third-class railway fare from the place where they have umpired on the three days before the test match—or from their' homes' if they have not been umpiring—together with the third-class railway fare to their destination when the Test match is over. Little though this is, it is almost double what they are paid for their services in the ordinary county cricket match.

Incidentally, one may note that the umpires are on a roster which is kept by the M.C.C. There is this rule, however, that no umpire may ever undertake his duties in any match in which the county for whom he formerly playedy-or-Avas associated with, is engaged;^*"