NIACUS arranged an Observer/Assessor in conjunction with ECB ACO. This took place in the Pavillion at Stormont on Saturday, 19th November. The course was well attended with colleagues from Leinster and North West.

The purpose of this course was to gain ECB accreditation for our existing Umpire Observers and also to introduce new umpires to the role of Observers.

The course was led by Eddie Lunn, ECB Tutor with assistance from Ian Royle and Ray Holyer. We had 17 candidates who were taken through a very thorough program to provide the necessary tools to become umpire Observers from next season.

At the end of the day everyone who attended was eligible to become an Observer. This would lead to official accreditation once each candidate had completed 3 written observations.

The following day NIACUS had 4 candidates passed as Assessors - Murray Power, Keith Smith, Alan Neill & Mark Hawthorne. This enables NIACUS to assess our own umpires and our colleagues in Leinster and North West in their ECB grading path.

This is a further step to improving our umpiring standards in NIACUS and will hopefully lead to more umpire observations throughout the incoming season.