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Post by swerveman on Mar 14, 2008 16:04:23 GMT
Acumen Books also have stocks of various bits of field equipment you may find difficult to get elsewhere and, of course, lots of interesting books!
My own plain white coats came from Morrant.com
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Post by wisden17 on Mar 14, 2008 17:45:10 GMT
It's my understanding level 3 won't be "open to all", far from it.
It will be for umpires only nominated by county boards, and will for those who are/will be operating at County 2XI and Minor County level.
So in effect, yes Level 2 will be the highest level the vast majority of umpires will reach. But to be honest that is missing the point.
It is not about levels, it is about the quality of the umpiring. And I don't think anyone can said it is a bad idea in principle (ignore the issue of cost for the moment) that umpires should have to keep their qualifications up to date.
As regards to the whole issue of the costs of courses, I would say just wait and see what happens, but if courses are seriously going to be offered to people at sums anywhere close to £100 not only will it be completely disproportionate to any other sports officials' trainings costs, but it will be a bloody joke. You will not find (m)any people willing to pay!
There will be teething problems with the new system, it would be naive not to think so, but I'm just looking at it in a similar light to when the new codes of law came into effect and exams and courses were suspended in those periods.
At the end of the day though, what matters is what you do on the field, and not whether you are a Qualified this, or a Level that, players only care that you get the next decision correct!
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Post by blackbeard on Mar 14, 2008 18:10:49 GMT
the last e mail I had from CK is as as follows:
This structure is flexible, with Level 2 umpires being invited to stand in multiple day matches as part of the assessment for their qualification as Level 3.
I am led to believe anyone can take level 3, as as stated above you will be invited to stand in a multi day match to be assessed.
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Post by Acumen on Mar 16, 2008 15:49:12 GMT
At Special General Meeting of ACU&S on 15th March 2008, the motion was passed by approx 73 votes to 11 against.
It is still not clear what will happen to GL4 - GL6 material in the medium term. Colin Thorogood is still validating the results and processing applications for Full Membership status.
ECB currently has only 5 umpire and 2 scorer instructors going through the accreditation process.
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Post by Number 6 on Mar 17, 2008 9:36:34 GMT
the last e mail I had from CK is as as follows: This structure is flexible, with Level 2 umpires being invited to stand in multiple day matches as part of the assessment for their qualification as Level 3. I am led to believe anyone can take level 3, as as stated above you will be invited to stand in a multi day match to be assessed. I haven't disappeared - been very busy with other matters and also waiting on information from my local board; I now have some but not by any means all. Anyway - Level three is by invitation only (by ECB after nomination by county boards) and is only to be offered to (and I quote) "those umpires that show great potential and who are on the brink of first class status". 99% of umpires will never get a sniff of level three. The new (eventually) level 2 will include a seasons field monitoring and is supposed to be at least equivalent to ACU&S FQ status. Level 2 course will not be available untill the end of 2009 at the earliest and that depends on getting accredited instructors on the books; cost will be around £300 for the Level 2 course, field monitoring and exam. This cost should be subsidised by the counties but by what amount is not yet clear; my source says that it's unlikely to cost the umpire less than £100, maybe more! Cost may also depend on the "quality" of the umpire - more favoured and recommended umpires may be subsidised more than others. It certainly won't be open to all as the ACU&S courses were. Pete
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Post by Number 6 on Mar 17, 2008 10:05:12 GMT
As regards to the whole issue of the costs of courses, I would say just wait and see what happens, but if courses are seriously going to be offered to people at sums anywhere close to £100 not only will it be completely disproportionate to any other sports officials' trainings costs, but it will be a bloody joke. You will not find (m)any people willing to pay! £100 is not all that disproportionate. Consider the current situation with football referees. In order to referee any game at all, even a sunday morning kids league, a referree has to have passed the basic FA refs exam (from 1st4sport just like the ECB courses); this costs around £100. In order to progress beyond Sunday kids leagues there are other courses to take at more cost. There is currently a shortage of referees - I wonder why? Why would cricket be any different? Pete
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Post by jaybee on Mar 17, 2008 10:42:32 GMT
Having taken GL5 last week through my County ACU&S I can confirm that - although we were told GL5 was much the same as GL6 - there were elements that were much more demanding. Our tutors thought so too!
You would very soon get above the limit for free CRB checking at that rate!
Precisely!
The silly thing is that - if I'm successful with my GL5 - as far as ECBACO is concerned I will be at the same level as the tutors! Apparently they will have to attend course(s) - and probably pay - to get accreditation to act as tutors for ECBACO but - until they (or a critical mass of them) do that - the County Board will ask the county ACUS to run GL5 / 6 courses with their existing tutors. ECBACO will then solemnly accept the old ACUS course / exam results. Could have been devised by Lewis Carroll! ;D The other route for getting subsidies for training will be via clubs - but of course the trend has been to move away from the old tradition of club umpiring to league panels (do I see a parallel with the switch of international umpires some years back so that we now never see an England game umpired by people of the quality of Harold (the board won't let me enter his nickname!) Bird and many illustrious predecessors?). I wish to remain associated with the club with which I've been for over 50 years. We have already started to subsidise coaching courses so that we can get ECB recognition (ClubMark) in order to get access to grants for furthering cricket with our juniors. How do we stop this merry-go-round?
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Post by blackbeard on Mar 17, 2008 11:54:04 GMT
Jabee
Thats the million Dollar Question, and even ECB (if they were truthful) do not know?
Essex Umpires are meeting with Chris Kelly tomorrow, and questions will be asked, but I do not expect frank answers, we shall see.
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Post by Number 6 on Mar 17, 2008 11:55:30 GMT
Having taken GL5 last week through my County ACU&S I can confirm that - although we were told GL5 was much the same as GL6 - there were elements that were much more demanding. Our tutors thought so too! Interesting. Certainly when I took my GL5 last year it was hardly any different to the GL6, there were a few more questions but it certainly wasn'r any harder. We all felt that there was hardly any need for a different GL5 course, the GL6 course would have covered the GL6 & 5 exams. Pete
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Post by blackbeard on Mar 17, 2008 12:00:29 GMT
GL5 was revamped in 2006 and questions 1 -60 were similar to GL6 but the last 10 questions are multi choice, i.e. each question has around 6 answers but only 4 would be correct, you must pick the 4 correct options or lose marks, if you answer less than 2 or all the questions you get no marks.
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Post by Number 6 on Mar 17, 2008 13:18:35 GMT
GL5 was revamped in 2006 and questions 1 -60 were similar to GL6 but the last 10 questions are multi choice, i.e. each question has around 6 answers but only 4 would be correct, you must pick the 4 correct options or lose marks, if you answer less than 2 or all the questions you get no marks. Oh, OK, that is what I took this time last year then so I must have taken the upgraded GL5. Pete
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Post by missingleg on Mar 17, 2008 15:43:26 GMT
Ah, things are beginning to make more sense now!
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Post by Number 6 on Mar 17, 2008 16:09:54 GMT
Well, I thought it couldn't get any worse. How wrong I was. I have just had an email from a local "high-up" in response to my queries about the status of the various exams. I received the following reply which non-plussed me to say the least: They're talking rubbish to say the least. So even my local officials have no clue about what the current situation means to us all! What hope do we have??? Pete
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Post by wisden17 on Mar 17, 2008 22:39:30 GMT
As a qualified football referee I need to respond to Peter's earlier point about the costs of training as a football referee.
They are not £100!
There is a course fee, a fee for the CRB check (which the FA don't pay for) and then a fee to attend a Safeguarding Children workshop.
If you referee 10 games you get your course fee (£30) repaid. So you essentially get the course for free, and the only things you pay for are a CRB check and workshop, which is about £25 in total if memory serves, or less if you are U18 or U16.
Also bear in mind that referees' fees are much higher, with most Sunday league matches paying a minimum of £20 and quite a few referees do more than 1 game in a weekend or day, so essentially the cost of the qualifying can be paid for in a weekend.
Also we have assessors in refereeing, but all the costs associated with that are paid for by the FA (whilst I know in the US, referees have to pay assessors at games).
Also the FA do a points scheme, where for every match you do and every referees' meeting you attend etc. you earn points, which can then be redeemed at the end of the season for refereeing equipment, football jerseys, football boots etc.
So I personally wouldn't be too quick to say it was that costly to qualify as a referee.
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Post by Number 6 on Mar 18, 2008 8:14:37 GMT
As a qualified football referee I need to respond to Peter's earlier point about the costs of training as a football referee. They are not £100! There is a course fee, a fee for the CRB check (which the FA don't pay for) and then a fee to attend a Safeguarding Children workshop. If you referee 10 games you get your course fee (£30) repaid. So you essentially get the course for free, and the only things you pay for are a CRB check and workshop, which is about £25 in total if memory serves, or less if you are U18 or U16. Also bear in mind that referees' fees are much higher, with most Sunday league matches paying a minimum of £20 and quite a few referees do more than 1 game in a weekend or day, so essentially the cost of the qualifying can be paid for in a weekend. Also we have assessors in refereeing, but all the costs associated with that are paid for by the FA (whilst I know in the US, referees have to pay assessors at games). Also the FA do a points scheme, where for every match you do and every referees' meeting you attend etc. you earn points, which can then be redeemed at the end of the season for refereeing equipment, football jerseys, football boots etc. So I personally wouldn't be too quick to say it was that costly to qualify as a referee. In that case I have been misled. The cost information that I quoted was given to me by a recently qualified referee of my acquaintance. I don't understand why he would have given me faulty information but if he has and I in turn have misled you then I apologise. Pete
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