Steve Tovey

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Who would of thought, 4 Umpires from 4 different countries in Europe would descend upon Tel Aviv to assist with umpiring during the 17th Maccabiah. I for one wouldn’t, but there we were, arriving on Saturday 9th July form different corners of Europe, Niels Bagh from Copenhagen, Denmark, Ken Amos from Kent, England, Richard Smith from somewhere near Bremen, Germany, and myself Steve Tovey from Spijkenisse, The Netherlands. We were ably assisted by a number of local Israeli Umpires, among whom were Naor Gudker, Hillel Awasker, and many others, thanks to you all.

We knew not what to expect except that it would be extremely warm (+ 35° in the shade). There were 2 tournaments be held consecutively, a senior tournament and an Under 18 tournament. The competing teams were:

• Senior - the eventual winners and Gold medallists South Africa, Silver medallists Australia, bronze medallists Great Britain, India and hosts Israel.
• Under 18 - the same countries with the exception of India. South Africa once again won gold with silver and bronze going to Australia and Great Britain, Israel performed magnificently but were just pipped at the post by GB.

Matches were played at 2 centres, Hadar Yousef stadium in Tel Aviv and Ashdod, a provincial town about 35 km’s south from Tel Aviv. The finals were played at Ashdod.

The cricket was of a high standard with Adam Bacher of South Africa being the most well known of all those participating.

Staying at the Grand Beach Hotel in Tel Aviv everyday we had an early start as matches were to begin at 10:00, and with travel to the Hadar Yousef stadium or Ashdod taking between 20 and 40 minutes we made sure we were always on time. We all had 3 days off, 1 for the opening ceremony attended by the President and Prime Minister of Israel, along with 45,000 spectators. We were also taken on a tour around Jerusalem and a trip to the Dead Sea. A gala dinner was arranged at the end of the cricket tournament with guest of Honour Mr. Malcolm Speed.

Our evenings were spent at meetings of the Maccabiah dangle of Umpires (dangle being the agreed collective noun for Umpires) which were held at various watering holes near the beach, the most popular being the Oasis and the Stagecoach.

As mentioned a great time was had by all, and we would all be only too pleased to return one day to umpire again.

Many thanks to Stanley Perlman and Steven Shein for all things cricket and well everything.

It wasn’t all fun……….. yes, it was all fun. Our days spent on cricket fields in sunny weather, our evenings on the beach, a (perfect?) life. (S Tovey)