Merseyside Cricket Umpires Association
History of MCUA
The 16 clubs of the Liverpool & District Competition (L&DCC) and the member clubs of the Merseyside Cricket Competition (MCC) played all their league matches with club umpires.
Most of the officiating umpires were members of ACU&S, the national training organisation, but they felt that there was a need for a panel of independent umpires who would stand in either Competition.
It took 3 AGMs before the L&DCC accepted the proposal made by the Liverpool and Birkenhead Park Cricket Clubs in 1989 and the MCC clubs followed suit immediately.
Not all of the club umpires joined the new panel, they preferred to stay at their own club and umpire 2nd XI cricket and be with their friends rather than umpiring a match betwen 2 clubs they were not familiar with.
All members of MCUA were treated equally when making appointments for the first 2 seasons and unbelievably, we had more members than the number of clubs and matches were rationed.
By 1999, the L&DCC had expanded to 24 clubs but very few new clubs brought an umpire with them to join MCUA. It was left to the MCUA Committee to recruit more new members to satisfy the requirement of providing 2 umpires for every match, consequently the MCC suffered and we were only able to provide 1 umpire to each match for them, sometimes none.
Currently, the L&DCC has 36 member clubs and unfortunately the MCC has ceased to exist.
Fortunately, the membership of MCUA has expanded and we anticipate being able provide 2 umpires for every match in the next few seasons.