Minutes of the Umpires Captains meeting held at Little Lever CC on April 19th 2006
Apologies were received from D Kay and A Greenhalgh
There was only one representative from Kearsley, Greenmount, Bradshaw and Heaton
Mr Dalton welcomed everyone to the meeting and the following points were discussed.
1 MCC Law changes: No changes except the ban of the use of graphite bats by the ICC. The manufactures had withdrawn them but for local cricket the ECB is allowing the use of the bat for the length of its life.
2 Umpires mark cards. All clubs had been given 60 marks cards for the umpires, except Bradshaw who are E mailing their marks through. These cards had to reach Mr Kinder by Friday for a Saturday game and Saturday for a Sunday game as the Bolton league rule said they were to be in with Mr Kinder within 7 days. A fine would be given for failure to do so . Mr Kinder asked for the captains to give the marking of umpires serious thought. It was beneficial to the umpires especially with us having so many new umpires this season. It was pointed out that while he did not reply to individual clubs he did take notice of points made and these were discussed with the relevant people and sometimes feed back to clubs in the newsletter.
3 Ground mark cards. The umpires would fill these in once again this year . There was a new scale of 1to 10 and clubs would have been informed by the ground inspection team as to what was requires for the individual grounds.Clubs were reminded the umpires were to comment if covers were not on , when they arrived and it was raining.
4 Rule Changes for BCL: the main one was most runs wins. 6 points for a win , no points for a loss and 2 points for rain affected game if game not able to finish. There were no bonus points. Teams would have one point deducted for slow over rates and one point for failure to turn out a team. A question was raised about allowances for large totals scored and teams going over time. The only allowance to be made was stoppage for a serious injury .Any other suggestions did not get through the AGM.
A question re ground weather and light was raised as to whose decision to continue play etc. The umpires will respect the captains decisions to play on in poor weather or ground conditions providing both captains agree. If conditions become dangerous or unsuitable then the umpires will take the players off the field. For light the batting side has the right to appeal against the light. The fielding side has no say in it .Both umpires have to agree the light is unsuitable . If a second appeal was made, umpires could suspend play if light was same or had deteriorated.
Second team would not play with the 25yd circles for league games
Discipline Mr Hayes issued captains with copies of the new disciplinary procedure in force this season. He explained the time scale from the reporting of the incident to the clubs being notified and by when they were expected to take action and to notify him. A question was raised about a query over a report and the club not taking action because they disagreed with it. If it went back to the disciplinary committee by the Friday of the second week after the offence would the player be banned for the Saturday game if disciplinary committee decided Mr Hayes said he would look into the procedure and inform clubs at the league meeting
Newsletter This seasons first issue was handed out . The wide law had been discussed with umpires and rules committee and it was decided for this year to follow MCC law and not bring in any special regulations for one day wides
There being no further business the Chairman closed the meeting after wishing all a successful season and one that is played in the right spirit.