It is the Cumbria Cricket Board ACO’s ambition to grow the number of umpires and scorers within the game, focusing on getting more young people and adults involved.

We asked Liam Campbell, who started his umpiring journey in Cumbria, to tell us about what got him involved and what umpiring has given to him, in the hope this will inspire young people to get involved.

“My umpiring journey started when I was 13 – I played cricket regularly for the Sunday team at Whitehaven and scored on Saturdays. My coach and league umpire Arthur Lamb asked me about becoming an umpire, so I went and sat the Level 1 course at Threlkeld, run by Doug Beebe. I remember the support that everyone on the course gave me as I was the youngest there by a long way. I passed the exam with top marks and was rewarded with an umpiring book by Doug, and it got me more interested in pursuing this further.

“In my first year, as I was only 14, I stood at junior games overseen by Arthur, as I wasn’t ready to make the league yet. By the end of the season, I moved onto my Level 1A course as I wanted to stand in the league the next year. I completed this section of the course and prepared to stand in my first league games as a 15-year-old. Terry Atkinson worked with Arthur to get me games that I’d be comfortable in at that level, and then I moved straight into doing my level 2 course to stand in multi-day games. The Level 2 Course took me two years to finish due to my second season being interrupted by GCSEs, but I got it done and was qualified to the highest level I could be as a 16-year-old.

“I was then regularly standing in high-pressure games at the premier league thanks to the help of Doug, Arthur and Howard Moon, whom all helped me develop into the umpire I am today. They regularly gave me the best games they could and appointed me to county age group fixtures and also gave me cup games to try and push me to the next level. Arthur Brown also helped with this as he gave me Cumbria U18s two-day fixtures to set up my first multi-day experience as an umpire.

“I have recently moved to the North East for university and that has opened up more opportunities for me with Durham County games and an ECB Premier League. However, even while umpiring over in the North East, everyone from the Cumbria board still helped me with advice, supported me with my umpiring whenever I asked and gave me opportunities when I was back home.

“As well as the support from the county and the umpires in Cumbria, I was and still am a part of the ECB Young Officials programme. My first experience with the programme was a fully paid trip down to Lords to umpire for a charity day, which is one of the best things any umpire could wish to do.

“Another opportunity the Young Officials programme has granted me was to go down to Rugby School for two days to umpire the U13s and U15s National Finals Day, which is attended by hundreds of people and is the highest level for that age group. A further opportunity I have had was to umpire at Emirates Riverside in a two-day game with Durham vs Durham 2s as a friendly before the County Championship started again. With full-strength teams, it was a challenge but also great for my progression as it was a step up in standard and showed me what I was aiming for.

“Personally, standing in the middle umpiring is something I love doing at the weekend; it gives me the best view of the game, umpiring some quality players, former and future test match level players, challenging me and giving me a chance to test myself and umpire at the highest standard I possibly can. It is also a great way to spend my time as well as being able to travel all over seeing new grounds and meeting new people.

“I travelled out to Australia in February as part of my university course, and have been umpiring in the VSDCA in Melbourne, which yet again has been a new experience for me and a different challenge, but it shows where umpiring can take me and how you can travel the world with it.

“With my umpiring I would love to be able to push myself as far as I can go, I have just started on the ECB Pathway for Umpires looking to go to the next level which for me is the national panel. However, my goal is not just to end there, I would love to eventually make the first-class panel or even higher, which if I keep my standards high, I believe that this is very achievable due to my age. Umpiring regularly and taking opportunities that come my way is the best way to gain experience and move up the ladder of umpiring.

“I have now stood in multiple multi-day games, many premier league games, cup games, county age group games as well as a variety of other games, and in doing this opens up the chance for me to progress with my umpiring to hopefully make it a profession.

“There have been many challenges with the umpiring, due to exams, university, and COVID especially that has disrupted it. However, the Cumbria Board and everyone I have been in contact with has been able to keep pushing and supporting me. This has made it as easy as possible to go higher and higher within the umpiring ranks, as they want to try and make sure Cumbria and everywhere has the best quality umpires, so they support you as much as possible.

“I would like to add that a lot of my umpiring is thanks to Arthur Lamb, who was a good friend, and even better umpire and mentor. He started me off on this journey of umpiring and helped me with everything and anything along the way, no matter how small or stupid the question was. He was the one person I’d go to for umpiring help or anything to do with cricket. Having someone like that throughout the last 9 years has helped me make it as far as I have today as he was always pushing for me to take the next step and to try to make it to the professional game.”