A Brief History Of The BCLU&S Association ( By: Alan Greenhalgh)
The Bolton Cricket League Umpires Association has functioned since the 1930 inception of the League itself to provide umpires for Bolton Cricket League, Cup games and more recently for outside matches such as LKO, NKO and LCB junior games. I believe that we’ve always enjoyed good relations with our colleagues in the Bolton Association and today standing in the Bolton Cricket League v/s Bolton Association match is one of our Chairman’s high points.
Members have always been proactively involved in umpire training, with qualifications based on the MCC Laws, since this began with ACU&S’s organised work in the North West during the 1950s. Latterly we have maintained this work, contributing to groups and meetings at Cheetham Hill CC and currently Unsworth CC.
Our now more formalised meetings, to which we have added welcome occasional attendances from BCL scorers, since our decision to become the BCLU&S Association, have benefited from the hospitality of several BCL clubs, but earlier we also sought accommodation from hostelries around Bolton.
We have also in past years gratefully accepted sponsorship from Anthony Axford and more recently Custom Kit Teamwear,Cricket World and Smith Metals Ltd. Also a total of £3000.00 (devoted entirely to umpire training in the North West and not just our immediate area) from the government agency Sportsmatch in partnership with Cricket World.
The umpires’ contribution to the life of the BCL has been recently and very happily recognised by the Hubert Pendlebury award to Eric Smith in 2011 also Karen Knott in 2013 and in the 1980s to Frank Tatlock, our treasurer for many years.
Our records show that in Nov.1930 we had postal expenses of 3s-8d (just less than 20p in today’s money) and received subscriptions from 28 members (too few even then) of £3-10s-0d (£3.50p).
Thinking back, former practitioners whom ex-players might recall include such as the politically incorrect but very reliable Alan Shepherd, the ubiquitous Jack Price, Teddy Gerrard who always thought several steps ahead in his role within the game, and also Frank Scholes - who once famously sent a fielder off for dissent.
Overall I believe that we have always very much enjoyed our umpiring in both 1st and 2nd team games and being part of a close-knit and harmonious community. Long may that continue!
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HISTORY OF CRICKET.
Cricket evolved in England in the 18th century, mainly because of the interest of great landowners who tried their skills on a field of play with their tenants and the local peasantry. Records show that teams from Kent and London played each other in 1719, and that Kent and Sussex met in 1728.
The earliest written laws (rules) date back to 1744. The Hambledon Club in Hampshire was the focal point of cricket from 1768 to about 1788. It attracted the chief patrons and best cricketers in the land and was the place where cricket took a great step forward from the rather rustic pastime that it was to the game it is today.
In 1787, Thomas Lord, a Yorkshireman, opened a cricket ground in London, and in that year the Marylebone Cricket Club was formed.
Today the present Lord's at St. John's Wood is the most famous cricket venue in the world and the M. C. C. is the authoritative source of all cricket legislation.
As early as 1859 an All-England team toured Canada and the United States, and in 1861 a team toured Australia. Australia won the first recorded international match in Melbourne in 1877, defeating England by 45 runs. 5 years later, in 1882 Australia won again in London.
The Sporting Times in a mock obituary said "In affectionate remembrance of English cricket. … The body will be cremated, and the Ashes taken to Australia."
Since then matches between England and Australia, known as The Ashes, have been the highlight of cricket competition. Other participants in Test matches include South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The ruling body for the Test matches is the International Cricket Conference, (I.C.C.) founded in 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference.
The year of the first official championships between the counties in England and Wales is recognized as 1890. In 1904 the M. C. C. formed the Advisory County Cricket Committee, which has dealt with every aspect of this major English contest ever since.
The Women's Cricket Association was founded in England in 1926.
In 1958 the International Women's Cricket Council was formed.
DID YOU KNOW?
The earliest form of cricket (anywhere in the world) took place on 'common land' in Guildford Surrey, around 1550. This was revealed in 1597 by coroner John Derrick (aged 59) who was a scholar at a school in Guildford at the time of the first match between Masters and Students.
Some interesting facts about Cricket and its History
• Throughout history most of the cricket laws suffered modifications. The only law that as not changed over time is the length of the pitch.
• Charlie Bannerman from Australia scored the first century in Test cricket in 1877.
• Test matches between England and Australia are known as The Ashes because of an obituary published in the Sporting Times in 1882: "In affectionate remembrance of English cricket. … The body will be cremated, and the Ashes taken to Australia.".
• When Australia toured England for the first time in 1868, each player wore a different coloured cap, in order for the public to identify them.
• The first test match was one between Australia and England. The test match took place in Melbourne between 15th. – 19th. March 1877. Australia won.
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Umpiring in the 19th Century (taken from the Bolton Evening News 7th August 1899).
"At a meeting of the B&DCA Committee held at the Hamer Hotel", the Poolstock umpire reported Halliwell C.C. for rowdyism at Halliwell by some of the spectators in the match Halliwell v Farnworth on Saturday week and complained of an umpire being booted, tripped and kicked on his way from the crease to the pavilion, also that the pavilion was surrounded by a mob who loudly threatened further violence should the umpire make his appearance. Halliwell were fined £5 and deducted two points and then resigned from the Bolton Association in protest at the severity of the penalty.!