The Anthony Axford North West Cricket League finished on Saturday - with promotion and relegation places decided.

Once again its been a challenging season weather wise with many games rain affected, not to mention the delayed start to the season. At least the final games were played in glorious sunshine and the Premiership title decided on the field and not by DLS!

What was disappointing again this season was the number of games with only one panel umpire or one scorer and having to have a volunteer from the home club to stand at square leg. The NWCL is not alone in this problem as it is a national one. Umpiring and scoring a game on your own is hard and is so much better with a colleague.

There may be many of you who are considering finishing your playing career, if so, let’s hope you still want to be involved in the game. Becoming an umpire gives you the best view of a match, it is intriguing watching a bowler experiment with different types of seam positions to get a batter out and just as fascinating watching a batter combat this.

While players know most of the laws of the game there are some which very rarely happen that umpires still need to be aware of, so training is given throughout the winter .The ECB have developed a course which sets you off on the road to umpiring from junior level where parents can umpire right through to inter-league junior games and league matches. The Association of Cricket Officials (ACO) continues the pathway development by providing guidance and professional development courses if people want to progress to the National Panel and county matches.

There is a similar pathway for scorers should they wish to progress but most just want to be competent at what they do, so courses can be provided for book scoring, scoring electronically on Ipad or laptop, linear scoring, and the use of DLS.

The NWCL are fortunate in having experienced tutors in both umpiring and scoring so if any club is interested, or a member of the public, contact me on 07800 956904 and arrangements can be made for a course. We also provide support after courses, so there is always someone to turn to for advice.