The Willows is always the better for having umpires and scorers for every game. The person who coordinates this is Dave Stuthridge and to him we are hugely indebted. Howard Fowler is an able assistant in the appointment process but will be standing down next season after a number of years great service. Their job has got increasingly difficult with the proliferation of cricket offered, from girls/boys age group to Masters tournaments and the conflicting demands of modern living. We appreciate just how difficult it is in juggling people around to meet demand.
A feature of the 2023/24 season at The Willows has been the sheer number of officials we have welcomed over the summer: some thirty umpires and nine scorers. A number of promising new umpires, which included Deon Botha, Graeme Cutts, Darren Boyle, Arun Manickavasagam and Kaushik Padmanaban stood for the first time and we hope to see more of them in the future. Davern Lewis was here officiating with the I Zingari touring team from Australia, while others like Barry Townrow travelled from Westport for his match.
For every match Dave provided a pen-portrait on each official. For instance, that Kim Cotton is rated one of the top women’s umpire in the world. She has stood in two Women’s World Cup Finals – the One Day Final Melbourne and T20 Final in Christchurch as well as being the first woman ever to stand in a Men’s T20 match. Another, Vibhuti Patel in her second year of umpiring has recently been added to Women’s development panel in NZ and she did two games for us.
Experienced first-class umpires like Tim Parlane and Peter Williams have joined men like Brent Littmoden in his second season and others.
Brent was the recipient of the Most Promising Trophy at last season’s Canterbury cricket awards. Similarly, Life Member Matthew Hill was awarded the prestigious Fred Goodall Trophy for services to umpiring by the NZ Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association. And just as team selections try to reflect alumni links it is the same with umpire appointments. For example, Roger Wyeth, a former Deputy Head Boy of Otago Boys’ High School, and cricket 1st XI and rugby 1st XV player in his time, stood for the annual OBHS fixture this season. Coincidentally, Roger umpired his first match at The Willows back in 2008. Dave Miller with six matches topped the umpires tally for us.
Similarly, to our loyal band of cricket scorers we convey our thanks. Your service to the game is appreciated and certainly when you are not available there is often variance in balancing the book when players step into the role. Tony Feely and Jim Henderson with three games each headed the list in 2023/24. During the season, it was a pleasure to meet Arun Manickavasagam through The Willows and again at Hagley Oval where he was an official scorer for the Australia v NZ Test in March 2024. Keeping the other book for the Test was Gail McGowan who scored at The Willows pre-Christmas.
It has been a busy season at The Willows, but one enriched by each and every one of you and the time and skill you bring to our game.