My playing days were, in the main, with Hornsea playing in both the old Pennant Alliance and East Yorkshire Cups, and then later with Beeford, initially in the independent League, and then in what was the newly formed East Riding Cricket Alliance where I first started to umpire as a "Club Umpire".
My interest in umpiring led me to attend the training course run by Roger Pugh and Mike Free in 2002, going on to pass Parts 1 and 2 of the old ACU+S exams and also pass the oral examination. I eventually started to umpire "full time" in 2004, umpiring in the Alliance.
I was fortunate enough to be asked to fill in for the Yorkshire League Panel in the August of 2010, having the pleasure of umpiring none other than Joe Root in my first game, which led to me joining the Yorkshire League Panel full time in 2011.