Umpire Insurance

[manofkent]

Thanks Colin , It has been an interesting exercise. I will update the forum , hopefully next week , on my findings.
Regards
manofkent

To save me a trawl of insurance companies is anyone aware of any companies that offer coverage for umpires similar to that offered by way of membership to the ECBACO ?
Thanks
Regards
manofkent

[Acumen]

I know there used to be a scheme in Yorkshire but I have no details.

[jaybee]

I've only dealt with insurance for my club but we have a policy with Sportscover who do look as if they'd do individual policies - link here.

• Their rates for accident and liability cover weren't as good as the ECB policy and we only insure property and contents with Sportscover
• We had a claim and the broker we used wasn't very helpful - in fact he wasn't around much and seemed to be acting more as a loss adjuster than as our agent. I got more sense by contacting the insurers direct and on renewal we switched to another of their brokers (a larger outfit who should at least have somebody there).

If you wish to know who we are with now please send me a PM - though be aware that I don't always log on and may not reply for quite a few days.

[manofkent]

The question of insurance arose because quite a few umpires in our area , for various reasons , were (still are) unhappy with the way the ECB are running umpiring. There is a strong feeling that unless you are age 19-25years , or are an ex-player who wants to go get on the elite list , then the ECB are not interested in you. The whole ECB set up seems to be aimed at getting the pathway set up for elite umpires and in the process forgetting about the grass root umpires who turn out week in week out for their clubs / leagues. Everything seems to be geared toward 'promotion' rather than 'development'. Many umpires are happy with the level they are at but would like some help in how to improve their performance within that level. As they feel let down by the ECBACO they enquired about whether there were any insurance policies out there that would give them cover should they leave the ECBACO.
Most clubs have insurance and most policies cover umpires performing duties at the club but only cover third party risk in respect of being sued and being killed or permanently disabled. Unlike the ECBACO most policies did not cover loss of earnings and the death / disablement figures were not quite as generous. I am sure there are some clubs that have a "bells and whistles" policy but cost seems to be a factor in clubs taking out a policy. Enquiries were made by our local association as to whether it would be cost effective to take out a policy to cover umpires , the short answer is no. They could never obtain the economies of scale that would bring the price less than the annual membership of the ECBACO. It would appear that the ECBACO policy is a very attractive one for the cost , if an umpire is unhappy with the level of cover then they could always take out a personal policy with an insurance company but the monthly cost is probably going to be near the annual cost of ECBACO membership. In the mean time I know of a few umpires that are starting to make their misgivings about the ECBACO known , we can but hope they listen before they lose a lot of disgruntled experienced umpires.
Regards
ManOfKent

[escape1]

The 'Yorkshire' scheme referred to is run by marshall wooldridge of 14/16 Ivegate, Yeadon, Leeds LS19 7RE Email [e-mail]
They have very competetive rates and I have been getting as fulla cover as ECB offer for £8.80p per year. You can increase your accident cover by taking out extra units at £1-30p each.

[jaybee]

Mar 17, 2011 20:43:10 GMT @escape1 said:

The 'Yorkshire' scheme referred to is run by marshall wooldridge of 14/16 Ivegate, Yeadon, Leeds LS19 7RE Email [e-mail]
They have very competetive rates and I have been getting as fulla cover as ECB offer for £8.80p per year. You can increase your accident cover by taking out extra units at £1-30p each.

Marshall Wooldridge are the ECB-recommended brokers so it's not surprising that they can get you similar cover . Ishould have thought of mentioning that before!