JOHN GASCOIGNE

Cricketing ranks are dwindling, but Victoria's most populous competition, the Victorian Turf Cricket Association's, is bearing up well. VTCA secretary Russell Pollock says the number of participants - 78 clubs and 240 teams in 25 divisions - has changed little over the past two seasons. Roping in junior teams in associations affiliated with the VTCA, almost 7000 cricketers are turning out every Saturday. To officiate, a mere 110 VTCA umpires can't be stretched across 120-or-s

Six summers have passed since I umpired a match and, like injured players returning from a spell, I wonder whether eyes, ears and judgement can suffice in the highly competitive, highly populated Victorian Turf Cricket Association. Like all cricket tragics, I'll watch any match going. Being in the best position on the park to do so, and being paid $120 ($130 if on my own) for the privilege, implies a compact of assumed umpiring competence, enough not to subvert the balance of

Cricket again! For the national team, the challenge will escalate (Pakistan then South Africa and India) as the summer plays out. For park umpires like me, now in my 25th season, the challenge never varies; everything old is new again. Even day one, at Jacana, out west near Broadmeadows, brings rapid, and double, confirmation of what I learned long ago: every day of every match throws up a unique circumstance. Today, in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association’s North B1, it’s

A gentle rain is falling at Digman Reserve, Newport, as a 194cm behemoth batsman scores 90 off 30 balls then bowls gentle off-spin to a 12-year-old schoolboy. Welcome to the open-age, enthusiastically multicultural Mid-Year Cricket Association’s fifth annual competition. Played from noon to 4.45pm on Saturdays on reliably green synthetic wickets, usually surrounded by gumbos of mud, the nine-week competition is for a growing army for whom too much cricket isn’t enough. About