Last weekend I traded my Monday to Friday 9 to 5 familiarity with the laws of England for the relatively foreign laws of LBWs, boundaries and leg byes. A slot on the fully booked cricket umpiring course came up at the last minute which I saw as a way of unearthing the mysteries of the game which was taking us up the highest mountain in the world in April.
Six Everest-Testers and Mr Hill Senior travelled to Caterham where we joined 35 other eager cricket umpire wannabes for a 2 day course.
On arrival in the classroom, I felt a certain amount of trepidation. Not only was I the only female in the room (Helen had been assigned to the other class) but I was clearly surrounded by a group of people who had many years of experience and knew what they were talking about.
The gentle introduction to the Spirit of Cricket was encouraging and it was clear by the first break that one of the most important traditions of a cricket match was to never forget to thank the tea lady!
Then we got down to the nitty gritty and I was bemused by the amount of time given to dealing with the penalties for 'changing the condition of the ball'. We were given the example of an unscrupulous bowler making score marks on the ball and my hasty consultation of the MCC Laws of Cricket did not give any further clues as to why this was such a grave offence (much to BN and Hillsy Junior and Senior's amusement as I later found out). Physics was never my strong point...
I was surprised at how quickly the day slipped by as we examined foot faults; the players' ground; popping, bowling and return creases; no balls, wide balls and dead balls. Slowly some of the unfamiliar jargon bandied around in the morning started to fit into place.
It goes without saying that by the end of the day even the heads of the more experienced cricket connaisseurs among us were spinning and we all fully deserved a beer in front of the England v Wales 6 Nations game!
The next day went by equally quickly and even the LBW rule - which we were told causes frequent head scratching in the cricket world - was presented in a lucid and comprehensive way.
After a 10 question mock exam, that was it and we were left to our own devices to revise studiously in advance of Tuesday's exam.
So, concluding thoughts? The course was a great lesson about a quintessentially English sports game seeped in tradition. As has been pointed out to me, the surname 'Fudakowska' does not lend itself to the cricket umpires hall of fame. However if there's an opening, I'll be willing to give it a try - if not up Everest Base Camp , then perhaps at the next Withers LLP fixture in the summer.
I'm in full admiration of Curry and Hill taking up the challenge - I wouldn't want to be in their shoes at 5,165 metres when they call the first 'OUT!'
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