A Western Australian cricket umpire has copped the nightmare scenario for any official, taking a full-blooded straight drive directly to the face in a match over the weekend.
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Senior cricket umpire Tony de Nobrega was umpiring a third-grade match in the WA Suburban Turf Cricket Association (WASTCA) between North Perth and Wembley Districts at Charles Veryard Reserve.
However, it all went wrong with de Nobrega copping a “brutal blow” when “a straight drive out of the screws hit Tony flush in the side of the face”.
“Spending the night in hospital Tony was fortunate enough not to have had any broken bones however the doctors are keeping him in under observation as surgery is not out of the question,” the WASTCA Umpires Association posted on Facebook.
“We wish Tony all the best for a fast recovery from this terrible incident and look forward to him being up and about shortly.
“The umpiring team is right behind you mate. Rest up Tony.”
De Nobrega is far from the only umpire to be seriously injured while officiating.
A long-serving 80-year-old umpire named John Williams died in Wales in 2019 after he was hit by a ball.
Remembered as a “gentleman of cricket”, Williams was placed in a induced coma but died weeks later after the blow.
In 2014, Israeli umpire Hillel Oscar was killed after a ball ricocheted off the stumps and hit him in the head.
Aussie umpire Gerard Abood has previously worn a helmet while umpiring in Big Bash League matches, while retired umpire Bruce Oxenford was well-known for wearing a plastic forearm shield.
Oxenford revealed the idea came after another umpire copped a vicious blow.
“I was lying in my hotel bed in Delhi earlier this year when I came up with this idea,” Oxenford told the Daily Mail in 2016.
“My fellow umpire John Ward was on duty in India and had just been hit on the head and badly injured. He was in a bad way.
“We’d been talking for a long time about how we’re in the firing line and the ball is coming back harder and faster all the time.”
“There’s been talk of helmets but I don’t really want to wear one because I think it will restrict my peripheral vision and hearing and also I don’t think I’m going to get hit in the face.
“The natural thing is to throw your hands up in front of your face and turn your head away when the ball comes at you but then I thought, ‘What if there’s something like an extended arm guard which would act as a shield?’”
Former Aussie legend and chairman of selectors, the late, great Rod Marsh, also shared his concerns for umpires.
“It’s only a matter of time before an umpire in an international or first-class match is seriously hurt, if not killed,” Marsh said in 2016.
“If I happened to be umpiring right now I’d be wearing a baseball catchers helmet, a chest pad and shin guards.”
