THE cricket season is up and running, but to make sure it all runs smoothly for all grades, the Wangaratta and District Cricket Association is on the lookout for more umpires to officiate games.

After losing a few umpires at the end of last season, the association has recruited well, but could always use more helping hands to assist in matches across the North East.

WDCA secretary Wayne Cooper said the association was after more umpires from the Mansfield and Benalla regions, to help reduce travel times for all umpires.

“We lost five out of last year’s group, but we’ve picked up around about the same amount, maybe three or four, so we’re at similar numbers but obviously we’ve lost a lot of the experienced umpires,” he said.

“We’re looking particularly in the Mansfield/Benalla area for more umpires.

“The more we get locally, say if we’ve got three or four in Benalla, the less they’d have to travel.

“There’d be a game for everyone who wants to do it, particularly if they’ve retired now, or maybe they’re injured and they want to keep involved, there’d be a spot for them.

“There’s an online training course that can be done - what we would try to do is, especially if they’re new to it or haven’t played a lot, we’d try and allocate them for two or three games with another umpire for training.

“They get paid pretty well too, and uniforms are provided to any new umpire.”

Cooper said the association was flexible with umpire appointments.

“If they have a connection to a club and they say they only want to be a club umpire, for C grade at a club, we would try to accommodate that,” he said.

“There might be someone who says they can only do every second Saturday, that’s fine too, or if they’re going away for a few weeks, we can work around all of that, we’re pretty flexible.

“There are only two-dayers in A grade now, so it’s pretty much a week-by-week thing.

“We’re open to anyone, male or female, who wants to be a cricket umpire.”

With bye weeks in the several senior grade competitions, Cooper said the door was open for current players to consider umpiring when they weren’t playing.

“Now that A grade, A reserve and B grade have a bye, anyone who’s interested in umpiring on a bye weekend, we could also accommodate,” he said.

“If someone’s got a bye and they want to umpire, we’ll give them a game.

“They might be in their last year of cricket, might want to try umpiring and see how they go.”

For more information or to register your interest in umpiring in the WDCA, contact Wayne Cooper on 0439 494 027 or email the association at wangarattadca@gmail.com.