The roles of the officials are among the most important in cricket, where umpiring requires a keen eye for detail and a reputation for fairness, and scoring requires great concentration.

New umpires and scorers are always required at recreational level, so if giving something back to cricket in this way appeals to you, this page has the details of courses that will allow you to learn either of those roles.

In Essex, we run a number of courses for umpires and scorers to help people understand more about the roles, in addition to the ECB-run courses that provide opportunities to move on to higher levels.

Read on for how you can qualify yourself for the best seat in the house

Use the links below to book onto an Umpiring or Scoring Course:

ECB Umpiring Course

Learning with the ECB Association of Cricket Officials is for people who are interested in umpiring at higher levels, and has a defined pathway that clearly sets out the opportunities for you to progress up the ranks in either role.

The below course is designed to give new umpires the key skills, knowledge and confidence to stand as an umpire in cricket, and no prior experience of umpiring in cricket is required before attending any of the courses.

The only pre-requisite to attending the below course is being a minimum of 14 years old.

Candidates will gain ECB accreditation and free membership of ECB Association of Cricket Officials (ECB ACO) for a year, with the benefit of insurance when umpiring and access to up to date information on umpiring and scoring.

Additionally, when joining the ECB ACO, people will automatically become a member of the Essex ACO which will give access to further training and support.

There are currently no ECB ACO-run umpire courses open for booking.

Please check back in the future, as new courses are regularly added.

Essex Certified Umpiring Courses

In addition to the ECB courses, the Essex ACO also runs local courses for those more interested in gaining a grounding to umpire matches within the local community.

The Part 1 Introduction Course is aimed at beginners and will provide the skills needed to umpire Junior School Age softball cricket. It covers:
• Standing at Bowler’s and Striker’s End
• Wides
• No Balls (front foot, over waist height, over head height)
• Common Signals (4, 6, out, wide, no ball, bye, leg bye)
• Main Methods of Dismissal (bowled, caught, run out, stumped, hit wicket)

The Part 2 Intermediate Course develops the skills from Part 1, so that people are confident to umpire teenage hard ball cricket. It covers:
• Signalling (a recap of those learned on Part 1, plus short run, revoking the last signal, penalty runs, and dead ball)
• Umpire’s Equipment
• ECB Directives (age-related restrictions)
• No balls (recap, plus ball bouncing more than once, ball rolling, ball coming to rest, limitation of leg side fielders, bowler breaking wicket in delivery stride, and fielder encroaching or intercepting delivery)
• Wides (recap, plus changes to the law regarding batter’s movement)
• Scoring runs (batter’s glove, byes, leg byes, and when runs can be scored)
• Methods of dismissal (recap, plus LBW and run-out of the non-striker)
• Counting balls in the over and signals to colleague around this

You are able to attend the Part 2 course without having attended Part 1.

Please use the [email protected] email address if you are interested in attending any of the Essex certified courses or belong to a club who would like to host a course.

Date Time Venue
Tuesday 15 October 2024 19:15 start Kelvedon & Feering CC, Rye Mill Lane, Feering, CO5 9SB
Monday 28 October 2024 19:15 start Saffron Walden CC, Catons Lane, Saffron Walden, CB10 2DU

 

Please note that the previously-available courses at Bentley CC in October and Buckhurst Hill CC in November are now fully booked, which is why they no longer appear here.

To book onto either of the available above courses, please use this link.

All of these courses will last no longer than two hours and each participant will receive a certificate.

ECB Scoring Courses

There are currently no scoring courses open for booking.

Please check back in the future, as new courses are regularly added.