President

Born near Lismore, Co. Waterford, Michael developed an interest in cricket in the early 1960’s – the result of combined factors such as seeing the game being played by the local club by people he knew on the cricket pitch beside the GAA pitch in the Castle Farm ground, by joining in informal cricket at a neighbour’s house on fine summer evenings, but probably most of all by listening on the radio to the BBC Third Programme to the exciting end to the 2 nd Test England v West Indies at Lords in 1963 (West Indies 301 and 209; England 297 and 228-9), where Colin Cowdrey came to the crease, his left arm in plaster having been broken by Wes Hall the day before and Derek Shackleton having just been run out. With 6 runs to win, one wicket to fall, and two balls remaining in the match courageously he took his place at the non-striker's end.

David Allen blocked the final two balls from Hall and the match was drawn. From then on cricket became his number one sport – he still has a soft spot for the Windies, at least when they are not playing Ireland.

Michael started playing cricket at club level for Lismore C.C. in 1967, with much enjoyment and some

limited success, and continued to play until the end of the 2003 season, when at the end of a wet and miserable day in Clonmel on Sunday 7 th September, he decided to hang up his cap, bat, pads, whites and boots for good.

Though finished playing cricket, in the following season he started umpiring. He qualified as an ACU&S Grade 6 Umpire by attending the training course and passing the examination in January 2006. In early May of that year, at the request of the late Edwin Vincent, he agreed to take on the role of making umpire appointments for MCU fixtures for a few weeks, while Edwin went on vacation; somehow Edwin never took back the role; maybe he never intended to do so! In 2007 Michael joined the Executive Committee of the MCU as the representative of the Munster Umpires. Together with Ger O’Sullivan, he represents the Munster Cricket Umpires & Scorers Association (MCUSA) on the Irish Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers (IACUS) and he is the Chair of their Education and Training Sub-Committee. At the MCU AGM held in January 2016 he was elected President of the MCU for a 2-year term, under the new Constitution adopted in 2015.