Conisbrough’s “Mr Cricket” Inspires Townships Fine Record of Umpires

Doncaster Cricket League president. Mr H. Foster, attributes Conisbrough’s remarkable number of umpires, at a time when the league is desperately short of them, to the work of Mr Bill Thompson, of 33, Highfield Road, Conisbrough.

The League have 50 matches in June alone for which it can provide only one umpire per match, and Mr Foster, of Kathlyn Villa, Low Road, Conisbrough, told me this week that there is a possibility that second division matches will have to be played without umpires.

Yet Conisbrough and Denaby have 10 Doncaster league umpires, not counting Mr Thompson, who is an emergency umpire, and Mr Foster, who has had to umpire already this season.

Mr Foster said, “I think we can say that Mr Thompson is at work over the years has created this great interest in cricket in Conisbrough, he lives and breathes the game.

“As far as the league as a whole is concerned. I am very disappointed that younger men who have been cricketers do not put back a bit of what they have got from the game by becoming umpires.”

Mr Thompson, an umpire since just after the war, said: “We do very well for umpires in Conisbrough. I do not really know why it is, but they are all very good fellows and very keen.

“I wish people would realise that umpiring really is the next best thing to playing. We don’t try to catch anybody out with the questions we ask prospective umpires.”

The Conisbrough and Denaby umpires are Mr A. A. Bowman, 3, Sherwood Avenue, Conisbrough, Mr A. R. E. Harrison, 76, Northcliffe Road, Conisbrough, Mr W. H. Hirst, Wingate Cottage, Wingate Hill, Conisbrough, Mr W. Holland, 16, Barnsley Avenue, Conanby, Mr J. Humphries, 58, Old Road, Conisbrough, Mr G. C. Northcliffe, 4, Ash Grove, Conisbrough, Mr A. Springthorpe, 54, Northcliffe Road, Conisbrough, Mr G. A. Taylor, 18, Taylor Street Conisbrough, Mr W. Topham, 64, Gardens Lane, Conisbrough And Mr J. T Stones, 25, Tickhill Square, Denaby.

Mr Thompson is a vice president of the league.