Square leg umpire absent

[gilo]

It seems to be a season for odd happenings…..
standing at the weekend as the only umpire at a match, I was supported by players from the batting side standing as the square leg umpire.
Unseen by me, or any of the fielding side, the square leg umpire made his way off the field at the end of one over requesting a replacement from his teammates.
The first ball of the next over was bowled and struck by the batter for four. Only when the bowler was ready to bowl the second delivery of the over did the replacement come onto the field and everyone realized there was no square leg umpire in position for the previous delivery.
The fielding side claimed that I should call a dead ball for the previous delivery and cancel the boundary.
My response was simply to “get on with the game” as there was no contentious decision that the square leg umpire was required to make.
Was I correct?

[sillypoint]

A curious situation, best avoided obviously, but that's cricket.
Yes, you did the right thing. It gives you pause for thought on a few fronts:
1.  You were lucky that nothing significant happened for the delivery when the umpire was missing. At least it meant that your dec.ision to allow the ball to count was uncontroversial. The fielding side was probably just trying it on, anyway.
2.  Consider what you would have done if there had been an appeal on that delivery for a strikers end decision.
3.  Consider what you'd have done if the absence was not discovered for much longer—a whole over perhaps.
4.  What can you do to make sure you are never in this situation again? If you haven't already, you should develop a checklist of items to note before every delivery. One item should be is your colleague in position and ready?

[jamesstoll]

Leg umpire seems unnecessary these days with all the technology available. You can check the height of ball in the replays and the role of leg umpire pretty much ends there,

[sillypoint]

Re: "… all the technology available …"
How much technology do umpires in park cricket have? Even the Premier Cricket competition has none in my part of the world.

[chiggers]

sillypoint But with the rate of progress of technology and the ever-falling cost, how long before an affordable system for at least checking line decisions becomes available? And cameras can access the IR spectrum so at least the visual part of 'snicko' isn't beyond the bounds of possibility either. When you look at how far scoring and live-streaming of club games has come in the last five years, don't discount at least the upper echelons of recreational cricket having some sort of DRS by the end of the decade...

[sillypoint]

It's a moot point. In the meantime cricket is umpired by a team of two.