Over the years Doug Beebe has scaled significant heights around the world through his love of mountaineering.
Now in his role as president of the Cumbria Cricket League, he is hoping that another major peak can be attained!
For the Cumbria Cricket League is close to achieving Premier League status and Doug, a stalwart of the game for many years, believes it could be confirmed in time for the 2023 season.
The ECB Premier Leagues are a series of regional cricket leagues organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that form the top tier of club cricket in England and Wales.
The ECB published Raising the Standard in 1997, the ECB Management Board blueprint for the future playing structure of cricket.
This introduced the concept of ECB Premier Leagues, designed to raise the playing standard of the top tier of club cricket and to bridge the gap between recreational cricket and the first class game.
A national network of Premier Leagues was established, with funding from the ECB. The leagues have to meet the published ECB assessment criteria and they receive accreditation on an annual basis.
Premier Leagues are expected to establish links to other leagues in order to allow ambitious clubs to aspire to Premier League status over time.
The Premier League clubs must show a strong commitment to junior cricket and the assessment criteria explicitly require strong junior sections that can provide cricket coaching and matches for the next generation of cricketers.
There is also an increased emphasis on practice and the development of skills for the adult players in Premier League clubs.
Doug, who was elected president at the League’s AGM, has been part of a sub-committee alongside Steve Chambers and Arthur Lamb.
“We have been working on it for the last three years but of course it has been greatly affected by the COVID pandemic.
“There have been meetings with the ECB representative Paul Bedford and he will be going round selected clubs making inspections during the new season.
“Most of our clubs pass the criteria on the youth policy, of having three different age group sides, and the ones that don’t they do have plans in place.
“I think the Cumbria Cricket League is in a good place and if we can get Premier League status for next year it would be a major boost.
“It would also help the younger umpires we have officiating in that it could progress their careers.”
Doug himself has been umpiring for 30 years and will continue to do so in the coming season which starts next month.
“I considered it a privilege and an honour to be asked to be League president and I said it would be my intention to visit every club in the competition this coming season.
“In fact the appointments secretary has told me he will arrange for me to officiate at every club during the season. So I won’t just be going around the county to sit and watch some cricket!” he said.
A player for 20 years at Cockermouth, and five more at Keswick he had moved to Cumberland in 1969 to take a job as a lecturer in engineering at Workington Technical College.
His own playing career had started in Manchester with the Denton club where he made his debut in the Under-18s at the age of 15.
“The professional Les Windsor decided it was time I played at that level but he had a word with the captain first.
“He told him that I was to open and my job was to stay there and it didn’t matter how many I scored. It was 18 overs a side and I batted right through the innings for 18.
“When I eventually got a chance in the first team it was by default. The regular opener couldn’t get away from work until 1.30pm on a Saturday so he didn’t play in the away games.
“It meant I took his place for those away games while he played at home.”
These days, though, Doug, a long-serving member of the Association of Cricket Officials (ACO), is very much at home around the Cumbria Cricket League.
It will certainly be the highlight of his two-year tenure as President if the competition can earn that special ECB Premier League tag.
