'Surrey are challenging all the clubs to get as many members as possible signed up for the course. They are publishing a league table to show the top 20'

Everyone who loves cricket is gutted that are we are not out there playing at the moment. But there are some great opportunities we can take whilst not playing.

The Australian coach, Justin Langer, was interviewed recently on the The Analyst Inside Cricket Podcast and said how much he has learnt about cricket during this lock-down period.

What about you?

Surrey's Umpiring Challenge
Surrey CCC have made Stage 1 of the Umpiring Course free. They are challenging the clubs across Surrey to see who can get the most candidates signed up to this course.

To make it more fun they are publishing league tables for Surrey covering the top 20 clubs in terms of registration and completion of the course. At the moment, Spencer CC head the table, followed by Old Ruts and then Merstham.

They will be publishing updated league tables regularly over the coming weeks across our social media channels and are offering prizes for the top performing clubs.

What about you?
We think this is a great idea for as many club members to complete the course as possible.

Counting to 6 is one of the key skills of umpiring, so here are 6 great reasons to sign up:

1) Increase your cricketing knowledge. Use this lock-down time productively - the course takes about 3-4 hours so could be done in just one evening, or can be some in bite-size chunks.

2) Help understand the umpire's job better. ACC's current umpires have said that sometimes players complain about decisions without actually knowing the laws!

3) Increase your confidence. Being clearer about the laws means you won't dread being asked to umpire!

4) Help your team and your club. Especially in the lower XIs, we need more players who can umpire so it does not always fall on the same people.

5) Become a better player: knowing the laws and thinking about the way umpires make decisions will help you be a more effective batsman and especially a better bowler. It will especially help anyone captaining a team.

6) This could be one premier league-table we can get into! We have lots of people engaging with the website so lets show the county the kind of club Addiscombe is!

I have signed up and would urge everyone at Addiscombe CC to go for it.

To sign up go to: Umpire Education Stage 1