January/February 2013
SACUSA Office Bearers President: Ted Branson
When Close Enough isn't Good Enough The end of the season is rapidly approaching, every decision we make is under the microscope. In a recent junior game the umpire gave the batsman out LBW.
Vice President: Craig Thomas Treasurer:
Lynton Donisthorpe
Secretary:
When queried after the match as to why it was out the response was “It looked close enough�
Committee members: Max Bartlett , Geoff Sando, Jeff King and Tony Trist
LBW decision on the whole are one of those things where you generally will only make 50% of the people happy 50% of the time. Particularly in lower grades and juniors it is important to take your time, work through your routines in making the decision and be very sure it is OUT OUT!
Michial Farrow
Auditors:
Bob Woods and Simon Fry
MATCH HAPPENING
Of course this applies at every level of the game Setting - D Grade game. As you might but remember the less skilled the bowler the less likely it is they would hit the stumps even without a expect, there were several 'senior' players on the field, with many younger batsman there.
ones.
Take care of business. Umpires do more than just make decisions. They are the match manager. Take note of all the little things, deal with them and you will find the big things will take care of themselves.
WAKE UP My neighbour knocked on my door at 2:30am this morning, can you believe that, 2:30am?! Luckily for him I was still up playing my Bagpipes.
You are there to manage the game, to umpire you are not the referee. Let the players play, only step in when requested or when you need to. Cricket is a players game after all. Not an umpires. We will leave that to other more American Sports.
The ball flies to first slip, where one of our 'seniors' is fielding. Ball pops in- ball pops out! Several overs later- same again. Ball flies to first slip. Ball pops in; ball pops out! A few overs later- same again. Ball flies to first slip. Ball pops in; ball pops out!
Opposing captain (who was batting at the time, and not quite as senior as our first slip) yells out ' Should have gone to Contacts Specsavers!' Secretary - Michial Farrow 0435 872 215 The prologue to the story, and this secacusa@hotmail.com won't surprise you in these PC times, is that the batting captain came up to the Sticky Wicket - Tim Pellew 0414 58 58 42 umpires at the break of innings and pellew@internode.on.net inquired ' I won't get reported for that will I?'
facebook.com/sacricketumpiresandscorers
NEWS FROM PARA DISTRICTS
As we have completed our ‘pyjama’ (i.e. one day) cricket and returned to the formal form of the game leading up to the finals, our Under 21s and senior sides are celebrating recent victories over their more fancied Turf counterparts. The seniors’ win last weekend was achieved with the last pair at the wicket and with 2 balls to spare. In Grade 1, the two top sides both lost their final one day fixture, to throw the fight for top 4 places wide open.. I am very pleased to report that our two new umpires this season, Bradley Ryall and Jon Lind, are getting excellent reports and look destined for our top grades next season – very re-assuring for our ‘old-stagers’! We had an unprecedented incident the other week – have you ever heard of a player reporting himself? In a recent Grade 3 game, a batsman given out stumped, by his own team mate officiating at square leg, showed his dissent at the decision by knocking down the stumps. Going into the clubrooms, by chance he bumped into the association secretary and promptly ‘fessed up’ well before the official umpire (from the bowler’s end) could lodge his official report. Needless to say the player took the early plea and will be a spectator for the next couple of weeks.
And finally, here’s another of my favourite cricket stories. Tradition dictated that at the start of any Test series in England, the visiting tourists would be hosted in a ‘social’ game on the country estate of a duke. One of the provisos was that the duke himself would play, and custom had it, too, that the duke’s butler would umpire. On one occasion, with the duke well short of his ground, the tourists made a vociferous appeal to the butler at square leg. His reply? ‘His Lordship is not in!’
Bob Eldridge
AND ANOTHER HAPPENING Another D grade setting. Tea time, and we were all enjoying the hot party pies (no prizes for guessing which ground!) when from one side of the oval a group of 'locals' with drinks in hand caught our eyes, as they saunter across the centre pitch area. One lingered long enough to pinch the bails from the southern stumps, then quickened his pace to head off to the other end of the ground and onto the main road. Unfortunately for the 'local', amongst the seated cricketers was a very vigilant and off-duty member of the constabulary! He leapt to his feet , and sprinted much faster than our well lubricated 'local', heading him off just after the toilet block and before he had proceeded very far down the main road. Now our constable wasn't a very large man, but he was very strong and fit, and grabbing him by the throat, read the riot act to him, and took the bails back from him. The game could now proceed unhindered! I guess the offender must have forgotten the old song - " I fought the law and the Law Won!" Thanks to Jurgen Sawon for these 2 stories: A PAST HAPPENING One of our more aged umpires can tell a related story, something like this: When the umpires returned to the pitch after tea, the bails from one end were missing from where they had been left adjacent to the stumps. After a bit of searching in the vicinity of the wicket, the embarrassed umpire announced that he would need to leave the field to get replacement bails, whereupon one of the batters, the late David Hookes, asked the umpire “are you looking for these?” as he retrieved them from his pocket.
NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 13 March There will be one more SACUSA Wednesday meeting for this season, so with finals coming it is important to be there for great pre-meeting food, liquid sustenance and our usual fellowship and banter. There will be useful information too from the meeting forum. Be there, usual place at Kensington Cricket Club at Parkinson Oval, with first arrivals usually about 6pm for the 7pm meeting. EASTER 29, 30 31 March and April fools day. Yes, Our President Ted has reminded us so many times that this is our Easter weekend turn to host the Victorian Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association to Adelaide for a great weekend of cricket, fun and mystery. We hope that both our Associations are well represented, as they always have been in the past, so BE PART OF IT! ……and in 2 years time, our Association will be hosted by the Vics for their turn for this bi-annual memorable event. FROM THE RECENT COUNTRY CARNIVAL FIELDS Players call for /exchange helmets, caps, fielding protection whilst on the field, normally due to changes in bowling type. In a one match, a long haired player who it turned out normally bowls only at the nets, called for his headband! At the crease was a batter who also had long hair bulging out from under his helmet. After the batter hit a 4, one fielder called out, “C’mon Trent, get you brother out”. There was much laughter as you would imagine. Another match at an A grade ground. It was an edge pitch and the return crease at one end was actually was actually off the rolled pitch. What had that groundsman been on? Yet another match, things were looking grim for the fielding team with the batters cruising with 1 wicket down chasing 139 and about 20 runs to win with 20 overs to do so. Excitement as a batter made a rare mistake and was out. As the fielders huddled, “C’mon, now we’ve got them right on the ropes” was heard. Needless to say, the ropes were very loose as they found out within 2 more overs! And another: the pace bowler got it all wrong as the ball stuck in his hand, he completed his bowling action for the ball then to slip out. It sailed high in the air, possibly 6 or more metres high, and landed in the covers in line with the bowler’s end popping crease. The umpire called Dead Ball, (I wonder why!!!!). After, it was debated if the ball should have been called Wide. The ball was delivered wasn’t it? Think about how he actually delivered the ball and look up the laws and sort it out! It was the same match as the high ball above. The other team was now bowling and their opening bowler also had trouble with the ball. This time the ball went also about the same 6 or more metres high and landed towards gully. Same umpire this time called the wide and dead ball (and in the jovial follow up, advised the bowler that he would not warn him for an above head full-toss infringement!). Quick ball was cut over the slips towards 3rd man boundary. The closest fielder chased the ball that stopped just inside the boundary. I was at the bowler’s end and had moved slowly to position occasionally watching the ball and more so for a short run. I saw the ball fielded and turned my attention to the batters as a call came “keeper” and the batters turned for their 3rd run. I watched the runner coming my way and the next thing was the ball hitting the base of my-end middle stump with the batter just out of the crease. Who threw that I thought as I raised my finger? It eventuated that the fielder ignored the call ”keeper” and threw to the bowler’s stumps. That was some direct hit, the likes of which I have not seen in my 40 years playing and my umpiring years! I went back to the oval and measured the throw distance: it was 84 metres!!!!!!
ANNUAL DINNER 11 May 2013 Every member should be available this year, if they are in Australia or anywhere, for our annual dinner and awards presentation. It is as important as being available every week for umpiring matches, although we fail that sometimes, but let’s make it a really big occasion. Last year those who attended got a real surprise with some innovations from left field, (that’s so Neil understands from where they came), or rather innovations from silly leg. Things just get better.
Obstruction???? In two separate incidents in pre-season trial matches recently, the following occurred: Incident 1: Striker played a dead bat shot and the ball dropped in close to and in front of him. They set off quickly to “steal” a cheeky run. The pace bowler could see a possible run out at the bowlers end as the striker was naturally slower off the mark than the backing up batter; the bowler was quick to gather the ball, turned and threw at the bowling end wicket. The striker obviously knowing he may be in a bit of trouble, ran straight down the middle of the pitch at the wicket, thus hopefully “protecting” it from being hit from the bowlers throw. The ball hit the running striker out of his ground! There was an appeal! What would be your decision? Incident 2: Similar scenario, only this time the ball was hit to silly mid on to the edge of the pitch. A run was attempted. A close-in fielder was quick to field the ball and threw at the bowler’s end wicket. The striker was running down the side of the pitch, (not in the danger zone) and at the last instance as he grounded his bat towards the popping crease, he veered to his left obviously hoping he had put himself between the fielder’s throw and the wicket. The throw hit the running striker as he grounded his bat just short of the popping crease. There was an appeal! The fielder claimed the running striker changed his direction. What would be your decision?