I have known Roger Pugh since 1971 having spent three incredibly enjoyable years at the Kingston Upon Hull College of Education (Cottingham Road) with him. He has always had an infective enthusiasm for the game and having declared himself not available to play he took up umpiring our college games. He had previous experience in umpiring from his school days and claiming as his first LBW to be a Geography master who had unjustly punished him seven years previously. Pure coincidence, of course! Whilst umpiring a College v Zingari match Roger met Fred Minter who became his mentor.
After leaving College in 1974 Roger began working for the DHSS. He lived in a house with three friends one of whom worked for Needlers where a certain John Mowbray was also working. Roger and John met, became firm friends and John became a second mentor to Roger.
In 1975 Roger undertook a crash course in umpiring with Wilf Kingdom and soon passed both the written and oral exams of the ACU. By 1976 he was appointed to the Humber Don League having been recommended by Hull YPI CC. Since then his umpiring career has progressed. By 1982 he had been elected to the Committee of the Humber Don League as Umpires’ Secretary and became its Fixtures Secretary. When cricket in East Yorkshire was re-organised he became the Fixtures Secretary and Treasurer of the East Yorkshire Cricket Alliance.
In 1981 Roger re-joined ERCUA and later became a full member of the ACU. When a Treasurer was needed in 1992 on the demise of Fred Levitt Roger took on the role and he has also served as Vice Chairman and Training officer. Currently he is a Vice President. For the past decade Roger has been involved in umpiring in the Yorkshire League and is widely regarded as one of the top umpires in the league. He is also the umpires’ appointment secretary. In 2012 he was awarded the OBE, partly for his services to cricket. He has recently been appointed an ECB Observer.
We must, however, end this piece on a humorous note. Roger was apparently once infamously known for a one ball over at Kirk Ella when the ball disappeared out of the ground in the direction of Willerby Square and he lost concentration whilst it was being retrieved! Not unnaturally he claims that he was not the poorest counter in the league and that there may have been others who were not able to count at all.