ERIC WHITTON

Eric Whitton’s name and reputation permeate this book because he was the man who began it all and was a mentor to so many umpires in East Yorkshire. If he had not provided the impetus to establish the Association in 1953 someone else probably would have done so a later date, but he was the man with the foresight to do so and the Association, and all those who have umpired in East Yorkshire, or the East Riding, owe him a great debt. His name is spoken with reverence by all those who knew him, and with respect by those who only know of him.

Eric’s career in cricket started when he was asked to score for BOCM in 1930, when he was fourteen. In his two years as a scorer Eric taught himself the laws of the game using the laws which then were printed at the back of the scorebooks he used. Eric quickly acquired a reputation for knowing the laws inside out and whenever there was a query about the laws the phrase, “Ask Eric” would be heard.

It was no surprise that in 1932, at the tender age of sixteen, Eric began to umpire, which means (as he often pointed out) that he was umpiring before Dickie Bird was born.

Eric never played the game, and said that he never had the inclination to play. However, he took to scoring, and then to umpiring, and enjoyed his time in the middle for over sixty years. In those pre-war years he used to cycle to his matches in the East Riding Amateur League.

During the war Eric served in the Royal Engineers in France and Iceland, and was, later, a Normandy Veteran. He attained the rank of Quarter Master Sergeant (WOII). His unit was one of the first to be sent to France in 1939, which caused him to miss the final matches of the cricket season. Away from the battlefield and barrack square the war also led him to new heights in his umpiring career, for he stood in many games involving professional and international cricketers who were representing the forces teams, including Army v Navy matches. These games attracted large crowds, as there was little other cricket to watch, and Eric enjoyed them very much. He did not, however, particularly enjoy the two years exile in Iceland where there was no cricket!

After the war, when cricket resumed, Eric returned to umpiring, and gradually began to take on a responsibility for his fellow umpires by advising the ERAL on how they might improve the lot of the cricket umpire. He wrote many letters to the league pointing out the inconsistency of the methods of appointing and paying umpires, and on the importance of maintaining the ethos of the game.

In 1948 Eric was appointed to umpire the Seymour King Cup Final between Reckitts and Hull YPI. Unfortunately the YPI team failed to turn up for the match due to a mix up over the date on which it was to be played. After the Reckitts team had changed into their whites and taken the field, with stumps, bails and all, Eric called “Play”. There being no opposition Reckitts were awarded the match and the trophy. He described this incident as the funniest moment in his umpiring career.

In order to achieve consistency in the game and improve standards of umpiring, Eric called a meeting of umpires in 1953, which was the beginning of the Association. From fifteen members it grew quickly grew to twenty-five, and to thirty-four the following year. Since then ERCUSA has worked to train new umpires and develop umpiring standards across East Yorkshire. Eric’s older brother, Norman, who was one of those founder members of the Association, also umpired for over forty years.

Eric’s career continued to develop and he became an umpire in the Yorkshire Council and, later, in the Yorkshire League. He also officiated in many charity and benefit matches which again brought him into contact with county and international cricketers such as Wes Hall, Fred Trueman and Johnny Wardle, and many other renowned players. His matches took him to most of Yorkshire’s county venues such as Bradford, Hull, Leeds and Sheffield, and to other grounds. Scarborough was his favourite ground, though he was also very happy to travel the few miles down the road to umpire at Hornsea.

During his career, Eric won the respect of all those with whom he came into contact, players and officials alike. He was respected for his integrity and the correctness of his decision making. Eric won several awards, including the presentation to him, in 1978, of a silver salver by Colin Cowdrey in recognition of his forty-eight years of service to cricket and the ‘Lamb’s Navy Rum Hidden Depths Award’ in 1996 for his services to cricket. The Lamb’s award was presented to him by Dickie Bird, who also signed a copy of his autobiography with the simple statement “from one umpire to another” - which made Eric feel extremely proud.

In 1942 Eric married Evelyn Burton, from Driffield, and they had two sons and a daughter. In an interview for the Hull Daily Mail in 1992 he revealed how important his family was to him and that work and family life always came first, even before his love of cricket. He also suggested that if his wife had £1 for every time she had laundered his white coats she would have been a rich woman!

Eric worked for Unilever for fifty-one years, becoming Area Manager of the North East Branch of General Freight and Forwarding. His interests outside of cricket included gardening, wine making and angling - he once caught a pike weighing in at thirty pounds at Hornsea Mere.

In April 1992, Eric announced that he intended to give up umpiring at the end of the season as he was feeling the early season cold too much. Fortunately for local cricket he continued on for a few more years. Eric finally retired from umpiring in 1999 after over sixty-five years of dedicated and highly respected service to the game. He continued to serve ERCUSA as Chairman and later as Life President until his death in 2012.