This isn’t exactly “Latest News,” but we have just been asked by Richard Austin if the Late Superintendent George Garrod ever officiated in the annual Cup Match classic.

I’m absolutely sure that he did so on several occasions including one in St George’s that I attended. George was a great character and had the ideal disposition for an umpire; always cool, calm and collected.

I will check with Mrs Garrod to see if she can assist in answering this question, but in the meantime I’ve briefly searched the internet and read in the Daily Gleaner that George was the first Bermudian to ever pass the West Indies Cricket Umpires Examination; that he made his debut in the West Indies as umpire for a Shell Shield match between Jamaica and the Combined Islands in 1975, and that he officiated in an international match between Pakistan and the West Indies at Sabina Park in Jamaica.

As many of you will know, George tragically died suddenly here in Bermuda in October 1988 while still serving as Superintendent in the Bermuda Police, and it is noteworthy that his passing was reported in an article in the Daily Gleaner on October 27, 1988, in which it was said that George was very well respected in the West Indies as a cricket umpire.

We will do more checking on George’s activities as a cricket umpire, and we would encourage anyone who wishes to make comments about him, especially if you can recall him umpiring Cup Match games, to send your comments to us either through our email address at info@expobermuda.com or in the Comments section below this article.

UPDATE

30th July 2018 

Shortly after posting the above article I checked through old issues of our Police Magaizine and located an Obituary for George in the 1988 Bermuda Police Magazine. I will publish the complete obituary as soon as possible but it included the following paragraph:-

"A passionate cricket fan, he had found the time to study and qualify as a first-class umpire and made several trips to the West Indies during the late 1970's to officiate at International Shell Shield and Gillette Cup matches. He also umpired several Cup Match and international cricket games here (in Bermuda). "