What is the best way to watch a game of cricket? Some might suggest going to the West Indies, but the transport costs might be prohibitive to many. Umpires would tell you that they have the best view of all, but the cost of that position can be volatile variable verbal abuse and having to spend eight hours on your feet. A number of friends would suggest the bar, watching the game through the bar window and keeping half an eye on the television showing some other game. The smokers are just glad to be outside with people and the cricket can be incidental.
One person however is often overlooked and yet this person spends the entire game watching every delivery, legal or not, concentrating on every signal, watching not just the players but also the officials. They can not miss one ball without it having an effect on the game. Maybe not a big effect, but an effect nevertheless.
Scorers are a much undervalued resource of all Clubs and all teams. They are expected to interpret and reply to every umpire’s call, to know every player’s name, including the opposition, and differentiate between two batsmen who both are wearing identical attire and often both in similar helmets. They turn up before the game and prepare as much as they can out of sight and often out of mind. And yet a game can not proceed until there is someone tending to the book.
The language of the scorebook matches the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians in its complexity. There will be in all probability more dots in a scorebook than on 101 Dalmatians. There will be crosses, triangles, upside down triangles, circles so small they could be more dots. There can be dots where no runs are added to the total and dots where the total increases. There can be so many ‘no-balls’ and ‘wides’ that the prescribed space is inadequate. There are initials and acronyms and cricketing shorthand that no ‘non-cricketing fan’ (or normal people as they are also known) can possibly comprehend or understand. A well-kept scorebook is a delight and although it usually deals in just the facts, it can conjure up images of a game played in its post-match reading.
Whilst compiling the ‘Book’ the scorer will also have to ascertain a batting order, notice all bowling changes, note times of games starting, wickets falling, new batsmen entering the fray and yet the biggest challenge usually comes from outside influences. Spectators late to a game will want to see the ‘Book’ to bring them up to speed. The collection of symbols, dots, numbers and names can, when written correctly, can accurately portray the progress of an entire game and some persons have over the years learnt that language. Others will throw out random questions. “Who’s bowling / batting / fielding at long leg?” “Is Bob playing?” “How many bowlers have been used?” “How many did John get?” And a scorer must suffer these interrogations with good humour or be labelled a grouch. However the one thing guaranteed to irk any scorer is the spectator who loiters between the scorer and the middle. Interrupt that view and the normally quiet and affable scorer can be pushed into a state of rage where angry grizzly bears look tame.
Technology is working its magic on cricket as well as our daily lives. Apps for tablets / iPads / phones can now provide the scoring experience to a far wider audience than those present at the game. The internet and technology now mean that anyone anywhere in the world can keep up with the progress of a game. In years gone by, an interested party would find a pay-phone and try and ascertain a score back home by contacting firstly the clubhouse, and then someone they thought might be present at the game and finally the news desk of the Sunday Tribune. Now their own smart-phone can display the full scorecard and can follow on a ball-by-ball basis from anywhere with an inter-web connection. Cricket Leinster’s match centre is fast becoming a first port of call for curious interested non-spectators. It will not be too long before all games are streamed live and you’ll be able to watch your league challengers’, or relegation rivals’, games as your own continues.
For my part, I now realise how quickly I am ageing. I prefer the old fashioned but easily corrected pen, paper and tipp-ex version of scoring. Last Sunday, I found myself book in hand at Sydney Parade scoring a Division 3 game. I was joined by the marvellous Ursula Lewis of Merrion who was providing the same service for Merrion’s Second XI. The two of us combined our knowledge and attention to detail to be able to confidently confirm that at the end of the game both books agreed with each other and that the bowling plus some of the extras matched the batting plus all of the extras for both innings in both books. Ursula possesses tremendous patience sat next to a relative novice who used one colour (except for dropped catches, but that’s just me) and regularly chunters to himself along the lines of “0 for 15, 3 runs off the over and the score is 87 for 3 off 24”. It was a most pleasant afternoon, during the Irish summer, watching the contributing to a good game of cricket (from a Pembroke point of view anyway).
In an ideal world we would have had more time to send more regular tweets to the Match Centre, but I’d rather have a correct score at the ground than many incorrect scores on and off-line.
I would recommend scoring to many people. The Leinster Umpires and Scorers Association run educational courses for scoring as well as umpiring and will provide any assistance they can to any queries you have. You will have an uninterrupted view of the entire game (or at least should have) and will be an integral part of the whole match and indeed the team. The team should be delighted that there is one less task for them to fulfil and the captain and Cricket Leinster will be grateful for a clean complete correct book.
Some of the scorers in Leinster have now been doing the job for so long their presence is almost taken for granted. Do not take your scorers for granted. Cherish them, care for them, and ask them if they need or want anything. Encourage and support them. The regular scorers, author excluded, really are unsung heroes. As well as Ursula, Helen Caird marks the book for Phoenix, Andrew Mooney scores for the YMCA, Judy Cohen takes on the role for The Railway & Steam Packet Union and Mark Leonard travels from Wexford each game to service Pembroke’s book. Each Club had a lead scorer even if they are not officially recognised.
Umpires take centre stage and are revered, conveying their judgements on deliveries, appeals and all things on the field. The scorer is like the stagehand. Silent, always working, the scorer ensures that the show can go on. Junior cricket is the perfect example. Rarely are neutral umpires seen and games continue as teams umpire themselves (to varying degrees of competence), but no game can proceed without a scorer. They are recorders of history, like monks in the Middle Ages, they scribe in a language few understand with little recognition for their toils and little appreciation of their skills.
Next week: L.B.W. – An Idiot’s guide to the LBW Law. How can you become exempt from this Law? (clue: you shouldn’t ever be exempt as the Laws apply to one and all equally or at least should) Statistics reveal that the probability of a batsman being dismissed lbw in a cricket match varies depending on where the match is played and which teams are playing and even who is umpiring – Discuss.