Alex Holowczak

We would like to congratulate WCACO member and officer Sue Redfern, who has become the first woman to be appointed to the ECB Professional Umpires’ Team!

The news item from BBC Sport is here.

The following clubs require a club umpire for the 2022 season. Please contact them directly if you are interested.

Moseley Ashfield CC, Warwickshire League 2nd XI, Division 5
Contact John Pemberton: 07495 260187

This list will be updated as requests are received.

An Introduction to Scoring course has been arranged on cvent with a capacity of 10 people, running two consecutive Tuesday evenings (1^st and 8^th March ) for two hours each.

The course is at Kenilworth Wardens 7.30 to 9.30 at a cost of £5 per person

To book, please go to this link: https://booking.ecb.co.uk/d/88q5dw

We have received the following information from Martin Gentle, Interim Head of ACO & Membership Service Manager:

The ECB has now updated its guidance for organised cricket activity following the announcement by the UK Government on Monday to move to step 3 of the roadmap out of lockdown. You can read the  updated guidance here: https://resources.ecb.co.uk/ecb/document/2021/05/13/bb725594-cf9f-40e6-8889-886ddb87ef9b/Recreational-Cricket-COVID-Guidance-in-England-Step-3-May.pdf

The main headlines under Step 3 guidance are as follows:

• On-field Activities: All on-field restrictions remain as previously communicated
• Changing rooms: can open where it is safe to do so but social distancing and other mitigation measures must be observed, including restrictions on capacity limits.
• Hospitality: Clubhouses and facilities that serve food and drink can open. At Step 3, both indoor and outdoor hospitality will be permitted. The provision of food and beverage should be as per government guidance on hospitality settings
• Teas: Teas can now by served at clubs where this can be done safely and in compliance with government guidance on hospitality settings.
• Spectators: Spectators are permitted at both public and private venues. Spectators must observe social distancing and legal gathering size limits (groups of up to 30 outdoors).
• Travel: Car sharing is permitted at Step 3 for sport in accordance with the government guidance for safer travel.
• Scoreboxes Both scorers can now sit in a scorebox providing the scorebox is large enough to allow social distancing between the scorers.

Please note these changes apply to England only and are effective from Monday May 17^th. Any updates for Wales will be advised in due course.

Please note also that each club will be making its own decision as to whether they feel they can safely provide changing facilities and/or teas. No doubt this type of information will be communicated locally but you should be aware that there maybe clubs/leagues who decide not to change the arrangements that are in place currently. 

The relaxation of the guidance about spectators means that umpire boundary observations are now permitted and I will be advising the CDOs and RDOs in a separate email.

It would appear that we are about to make another step on the road to normality and I am particularly looking forward to the resumption of teas!

Martin Gentle
Interim Head of ACO & Membership Service Manager (ECBACO)
England & Wales Cricket Board