The Ealing Association

On the 24th November 1970, a group of like-minded individuals who had attended an umpires’ training course at The Oval, met at Ealing Cricket Club to discuss ways of improving the standard of umpiring in Middlesex, and proposed the formation of a new independent umpires’ association to facilitate this. Thus, the Ealing & District Association of Cricket Umpires & Scorers (ACU&S) was formed, although originally named the Ealing and District Association of Cricket Umpires. It is now known by various shortened names, including ’The Ealing Association’ and ‘EDACUS’

Starting up a new independent umpires’ association in 1970 may have been a daunting prospect for the three founding members, but they had guidance from the Association of Cricket Umpires (ACU), the-then national association responsible for training and communication of all matters to do with umpiring and scoring.  ACU later became ACU&S recognising the importance of Scorers by incorporating them into the name. At the same time the Ealing Association name was changed to include Scorers.

The Association has had just five Chairmen in its long history: 

Alf Key, one of the three founders, was the first Chairman from 1970–1978. 

His successor, Ron Davis, remained Chairman until 2001, and in recognition of his long service was made our Honorary Life President. 

Ron was succeeded by Brian Page, who sadly passed away in December 2010 and the-then Secretary Andy Sibley took over the role. 

When Andy moved out of the area for work reasons in 2017, he was succeeded by the current Chairman, Deborah Burns who had joined the Association in 1982 and has also been our Training Officer for some 25 years. 

Sadly, Ron Davis (who had remained very involved with the Association) passed away in March 2020 at the wonderful age of 105!  We will recognise the contributions Ron made to umpiring in Middlesex, and his life, once Covid-19 restrictions allow.

The first umpires’ course run by the Ealing Association, started on Tuesday 2nd February 1971 and consisted of six weekly lectures on the Laws of Cricket. The Association has run at least one umpires course every year since and it estimates that it has helped to train nearly 1,000 umpires in that time.  Sheila Hill, the foremost authority on the Laws of Cricket at that time, was an early addition to the lecturing team in the 1970s and remained so until her move away from the area in 2015.  Our delivery of umpires’ courses has evolved over the years and we have gone from a series of verbal lectures based on the text of the ‘blue Law book’ and Tom Smith’s to the use of laptops, PowerPoint presentations, detailed demonstrations and in-season mentoring support for new umpires.  The Association regularly runs two Stage One and one Stage Two course each year as well as being very involved with CPD courses on the changes to the Laws of Cricket and in 2021 ran the ECB ACO on-line Stage Two course 

At one time the Association ran an annual Introduction/Level 1 Scoring Course, but in recent years unfortunately this has not been possible, although we continue to include and encourage scorers within our membership - notably Ivor Chaplin, who has been the 1st XI scorer for Brentham CC in the Middlesex County Cricket League, throughout the entire history of the Association!

The Ealing Association continues to thrive with currently around 70 members many of whom attend the regular monthly meeting at Ealing CC on the first Tuesday of each month. [These meeting are currently held on Zoom due to the Covid restrictions]

We welcome new members (both umpires and scorers) who are involved in Middlesex or beyond. Contact details can be found on the homepage..