Halifax Cricket League bucks national trend and leads the way in umpire recruitment

The brainchild of league chairman, Anthony Briggs, it proved contentious initially but clubs rallied round and the result has given a massive boost to the league’s Cricket Officials Association.

Its 32 senior clubs were tasked with providing a minimum of one umpire, to be available for a minimum of 15 weeks during the season, with all registered, following mandatory checks, with the league. For umpires donning a white coat for the first time there were substantial contributions to the cost of the qualifying courses.

The key to the scheme was that if a club failed to provide an umpire, or that umpire did not officiate for at least 12 weeks by the last Saturday in August, it resulted in a 12 points deduction from both its first and second XIs.

Only two clubs fell short of the requirement in 2022 and this season no club is anticipated to fail.

Long-serving Umpires Appointments Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, organised the drive and he now has a panel of 74 umpires to call upon. In contrast, the lists of two adjoining leagues currently show 61 and 42 umpires respectively.

There is however no resting on laurels and recruitment continues as 64 umpires are required to fully staff fixtures every week.

Allowing for unavailability and holidays, an optimum figure of 96 umpires is the ideal. Anyone wishing to join this select band should contact Andrew at andrew.mitchell27@talktalk.net.