All our umpires have, by now, bought their loved ones Christmas present ...

All our umpires have, by now, bought their loved ones Christmas presents and are hibernating for the winter.

Well, not everybody. Keith Smith and Alan Neill are organising the 2014 training courses. (see our front page), and Louis Arneill is planning the rest of the NIACUS winter meetings.

NWACU&S is hosting the IACUS Annual Conference on – I believe – Saturday 15th. February, where I hope all our umpires and scorers will be present.

Simon Dyke, C.I.`s Cricket operations Manager is beavering away, working on the 2014 regs. for the all Ireland club and Interprovincial competitions.

And last but not least, our Appointments Secretary Ian Houston recently celebrated what I believe was his 80th. birthday. However, something went wrong with the party arrangements and the invitations to his “Big Bangor Birthday Bash” apparently got lost in the post.

Ireland`s cricketers have successfully - yet again - seen off all their Associate opposition, out in the UAE desert. Well done to them. Mark Hawthorne was of course our umpire representative for the month of November for the T/20 tournament out there and I`m sure we will be hearing of his experiences at a future meeting. It leaves me wondering if big Boyd Rankin isn`t thinking he may have jumped ship at just the wrong time, given the disarray that England are in at this moment in time, in Oz. At least he has only been drinks waiter to date, so he can`t be blamed for the abysmal on field performances.

NIACUS umpires have maintained their rankings in ICC Europe for 2014, with Mark, Alan and Richard Smith retained on the European Elite panel and Alex Adams, Noel McCarey, Jareth McCready and Michael Ross on the European panel. Well done to them all. It is gratifying to see that they maintain - and indeed set - the standards that we expect of them when representing Ireland and NIACUS in Europe .

Next seasons` Tournaments are : -

Europe Div. 3 in La Manga.	30 April - 3 May.
“ “ 2 T/20 Essex.	23 - 26 Jun.
“ U 19 Div. 2 Essex	27 July - 1 Aug.
“ U 15 Div. 1 Rugby School	3 –8 Aug.
“ Women`s Div. 1 “ “	12 - 17 Aug.

This is a crucial time for NIACUS. We urgently need to recruit new umpires. If any of you know of people who are likely candidates, please play your part in persuading them to take the plunge, and make them aware of the upcoming Level 1 course in the New Year. And don`t forget the Level 1 A course. There must be lots of you who need to take this second step.

Don`t over indulge with the turkey and mince pies over the festive period – fitness training starts on January 1 2014.

Paddy O`Hara Dec. 2013.