ECB ACO L1.

The course was eight evenings over a twelve week period (due to Christmas / New Year and inclement weather) and was held in one of the classrooms of a reasonably large public school.

There were about fifteen of us of varying ages, all from local cricket clubs and we were blessed with a couple of really experienced Umpires as our course tutors.

Obviously, most of us were current or ex-players who all thought we knew a fair amount about the Laws of the game, the course is not really designed for absolute beginners. However, it soon became apparent that the Laws are a perfect example of pareto analysis, whereby we spent 20% of our time on 80% of the Laws and 80% of our time on 20% of the Laws.

Contrary to popular belief, cricket is quite a simple game to understand and the laws are quite straightforward. However, although there are only 42 Laws, some of them get quite complicated. I suppose one of the key skills possessed by any competent Umpire is the ability to know which law to apply at any given juncture. There is probably at least one instance in every game where something 'unusual' requires a judgement call, this instance, which will probably not be repeated for at least another five seasons, requires the Umpire to have an encylopaedic knowledge of the laws in order to pass judgement. Furthermore, should he be a little hesitant in his decision making, he can rest assured that he will be 'assisted' in reaching his decision by one of the players, quite often the wicketkeeper is the first to offer his unsolicited 'advice'.

Anyway, I digress, I enjoyed the course immensely and passed the exam, so, fully armed with my copy of Tom Smith, I can enter the exciting world of cricket officialdom.

MtF.