SPOT ON, MR CHAIRMAN

At Wednesday night's meeting in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire League chairman Bob Welton (pictured) praised the support given to the competition by umpires, saying many players, like him, had turned out in midweek matches (not Lincs League) without appointed officials and so could appreciate the benefits of having two neutral umpires.
Generally, players in our local leagues accept the decisions given, whether or not they might agree with them. Incidents of serious dissent are few and far between, and even those that do take place are, in almost all cases, settled by apologies being tendered and accepted once things have cooled down.
At international level, of course, things are going from bad to worse. New technology undermines the decisions of umpires almost on an hourly basis, with Hawkeye and the slow motion replays. Today things moved on even further, with questioning of the third official's ability to turn up the volume of his monitoring equipment to hear a snick. It won't be long before international umpires do nothing more than carry the bowler's jumper. Probably they won't even be trusted to count the balls in the over.
Before Wednesday's meeting I showed my newly-bought camera to Gordon Turner, representing the Grimsby Umpires' Association, and explained it had video capability. I suggested sticking it on the front of my hat this summer to record the action and then replying the moving footage to show the ball was, after all, going to miss leg stump.
The way cricket's going, it might come to that in a few years!