RAY JULIAN is the current Umpire of the Year, as decided by the Professional Cricketers Association. He was given the award at their annual dinner last September, when he raised a laugh by thanking the bowlers for voting for him. But he deserved the honour not only for his work last season but for his overall service to the game, which will be of such long standing by the time he retires that few will ever exceed it.

 Julian made his debut for Leicestershire in 1953, at the age of 16, and still holds the record of being the youngest wicketkeeper to appear in the County Championship. He played his last Championship game in 1971 and became a first-class umpire the following year. By the end of this season, barring illness or injury, he will have stood in 950 first-class games and 463 one-day matches. He will have umpired on 110 cricket grounds, the only exceptions of any note being Lytham, Horsham, Abergavenny and Southend. He will have stood in 61 first-class matches played by Somerset alone. He will have stood with 74 other umpires, including John Langridge who, along with Frank Chester, is one of the notable few with an even longer record of active service in first-class cricket. For by the time that Ray Julian retires he will have completed 50 years in the game.

He was summoned at 16 to make his debut when Jack Firth, the regular Leicestershire wicketkeeper, was called up to play for MCC. The apprentice was therefore driven down to Bristol for the early-season match against Gloucester-shire. There was no sign then that this was to be Leicestershire's finest season yet: they finished in their highest position of third and at one glorious moment, for the first time in their unglamorous history, headed the championship table ahead of Surrey.

 Julian's most pressing task was to try to make head or tail of Jack Walsh, the Australian wrist-spinner. To this day he has not heard anyone make the ball fizz through the air as loudly as Walsh. Assistance came in the form of Vic Jackson, the other Australian in Leicestershire's side, who stood at slip and whispered what type of delivery it was once it had left Walsh's hand. Still, he remembers it as being like trying to grab hold of soap in the bath, and Leicestershire lost the match after the home side had knocked off 300 in four hours.

He had been an offspinner at Wigston Secondary Modern until their wicketkeeper didn't turn up one day and he was found to be made for the job. Back at Grace Road, after his deep-end debut, he went through the thorough grounding in craftsmanship which English county cricketers had before the one-day era. Like Firth, he spent hours keeping wicket in the pre-season nets, not in physical-fitness training as such. The former Yorkie advised the nipper to buy a pair of Wally Grout gloves, because the Australian leather was so much stronger. Julian did as he was told, and got another pair free, the two pairs lasting for his whole career. Firth also told him to stay down: `Wicketkeepers now tend to get up far too early,' reflects Julian from his long experience. And Maurice Tompkin, the senior pro who backed up the captain on and off the field, told him to dress properly and always look the part, while Gerry Lester told the teenager that if he didn't walk when he knew he had nicked it, he would spend the next week doing odd jobs around the county ground.

His county career was of the yeoman kind, because however polished his wicketkeeping, however many stumpings he took down the leg side off Jackie van Geloven's medium-pace (it was usually the fifth ball that he would spear down the leg), Julian's ordinary batting made his place vulnerable to the likes of Roger Tolchard. He hit one six in his first-class career, according to his memory, off the legspin of the Northamptonshire legspinner Peter Watts at Kettering. He also had his National Service to do, a period which did not involve flame-throwers or low-altitude flying in Korea but, owing to flat feet, two years in the pay corps at Devizes, in addition to being the groundsman for the cricket and football pitches there.

The later spell of his county career was spent as the 2nd XI coach and captain, but he was recalled in 1971 to play against Hampshire at Bournemouth. Bill Copson was the umpire, and Barry Richards was batting when he edged one to the keeper and did not walk. `I see they've changed the rules since I last played,' Julian wryly observed to the batsman. And in his experience it was the overseas players, admitted after instant registration was allowed in 1968, who introduced the new practice of not walking, an influence which has spread until by the 1990s it was only the exception who walked in county cricket. A trend which, of course, made umpiring far harder.

JULIAN PICKED up the white coat in 1972, after Mike Turner had told him that Leicestershire would support his application to the panel, not that he had ever umpired in a match before. It was a cold April day in the Parks at Oxford, but not quite as deep an end for the start of his umpiring career because Julian had Jack Crapp as his colleague to show him the ropes. The old Gloucestershire batsman told him to wrap up well, and himself wore a scarf and mittens, `Take a bit of chocolate with you to give you energy,' was another piece of advice, which Julian has dictates Julian's choice of ends. For the same reason he is pleased that Lord's has relaxed to the extent that umpires can take their coat off on hot days without phoning the Board for permission – provided that both umpires agreed to go in shirt-sleeves.

When he started in 1972, umpires received a salary that was far less than that of the players, which means a pittance indeed: only the keenest would therefore apply. Now the pay is as good for umpires, certainly for senior ones, as it is for most county cricketers, and rightly so, but it might tempt some people into the profession for the wrong motive. One feature which has not changed is the source of most first-class umpires: they still come mainly from Somerset and Leicestershire. Somerset could field a useful team of umpires from Julian's time. Umpires have seldom come from Essex and Middlesex, Sussex or Surrey, larger centres of population with bigger business potential for retired cricketers.

 IT MIGHT BE asked why Julian has never been appointed to stand in a Test match and has only had three one-day internationals (although he has been a third or TV umpire in the World Cup). Peter Willey, the only previous winner of the PCA award, is on the Test panel all right, along with David Shepherd, George Sharp and Mervyn Kitchen from England. Julian stood in last year's B&H final at Lord's and will be there again for the Super Cup final, yet the highest honour has not come. It can hardly be a coincidence that the rise in his stock has coincided with his contended marriage to Megan and settling down in a house in Taunton which is undoubtedly neat and tidy.

At 62 – 63 in August – he knows that the chance may have passed, but he won't complain. He has been paid to stand in the sunshine of summer for over a quarter of a century. He has seen a ball split in two in live play, in a one-day match at Old Trafford. He has stood 20 yards away from Graeme Hick as he scored 405 not out. And he will be happy to continue until he has reached a rare half-century.

 Leicestershire's class of'65 (back row, l-r): Stanley Jayasinghe, Peter Marner, Roy Barratt, Jack van Geloven, Brian Booth, David Constant, John Cotton. Front: Terry Spencer, Ray Julian, Maurice Hallam (capt), John Savage, Clive Inman

20 YEARS AGO

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