“The utopia of officiating should be that anybody, regardless of gender, can umpire any game,” says Sue Redfern, the first female umpire to officiate a men’s first-class cricket game and a trailblazer for promoting women and girls in umpiring.
Working together, the Devon Association of Cricket Officials (DACO) and the Devon Cricket Foundation have been breaking down barriers to women and girls umpiring this season. Running the very first female-only umpires' course in March 2023, 13 women became qualified umpires and started their officiating journey.
Speaking on the partnership, the Foundation's Women and Girls' Development Officer, Ann-Marie Presswell, herself a qualified umpire, said:
"Umpiring is challenging enough, and whilst the landscape is changing, being a female umpire adds a new dimension.
"Some players question their knowledge and ability to officiate the game due to our gender and finding the right games to build confidence and provide support is essential ahead of appointments.
"Working with Sharon Grigg, DACO's women's league representative, we have built in opportunities over the winter and summer to do this. This has been extremely rewarding and very successful."
During the summer, the Foundation has run a series of female cricket events and competitions that are the perfect platform for women officials to develop their skills and build their confidence. The new female umpires were invited to come to the events and officiate alongside experienced umpires, who provided them with feedback and advice.
"The beauty of appointing the new umpires to these events was that they had the opportunity to umpire multiple games," said Ann-Marie. "This meant that feedback and development points could be implemented straight away. The growth in confidence of all the officials was amazing and it was a pleasure to see."
The events were also different formats, which gave the women and girls a variety of experiences, adapting their umpiring styles to Under 13 Softball tournaments and then Under 15 Hardball T10s.
One new umpire who has benefited from the opportunity to umpire over the summer is Thea, who commented:
"I have really enjoyed umpiring the Under 13 Girls and the women’s softball games at the club and am looking forward to gaining more experience next season.
"I don’t think my mum had enjoyed me calling her wide balls though!"
Ava took the course with her mum and has also umpired at many events this summer. Speaking on her experiences over the summer, she said:
"For someone of my age (15), umpiring has been such an incredible experience. I have had the privilege to umpire so many talented female cricketers over the course of the summer.
"I wanted to understand more about the game, but also I have a longer term injury that meant I couldn’t play myself.
"I hope that attending various tournaments and league matches has shown my peers that there are other avenues into cricket, other than just playing. Without umpires and scorers and other important roles, the actual games themselves would not be able to go ahead. As a player myself, I now really appreciate this!
"I have had an extremely enjoyable summer umpiring, made new friends and cannot wait to improve my skills in the future. Plus, I still haven’t given an lbw decision yet!”
Ava has been umpiring at different events all summer. She was recently appointed to the Super 8s Finals Day and was also part of the all-female team for the Softball Finals Day last weekend.
DACO's women's league representative, Sharon Grigg, said: "It has been a pleasure working with all these new and young female umpires coming through. We are rightly proud that we are investing in our female umpires in Devon."
The Devon Cricket Foundation would like to thank all the new umpires who have helped with events this season: Hayley Clarkski, Ava Hansell, Kerrie Hansell, Jemima Johnson and Thea Rochester, as well as umpire in training, Megan Hayward.
Ann-Marie says the ambition for the next 10 years is to have 50 new qualified female umpires officiating across the cricketing landscape:
"In the next five years, we want to see women confident enough to umpire games at all levels, from junior matches, lower league and women's softball matches to the Tolchards Devon Cricket League and Devon Women's Cricket League games.
"Whilst we are making headway in appointing the right umpire to the right game, there is still work to do. Working in partnership with DACO has increased the visibility of female umpires and the possibility that other girls might see umpiring as an opportunity for them."
Interested in becoming one of the 50 umpires? Sign up to our Female-Only ECB Umpiring Course on September 29 at Exeter CC.
