Of course we were only too aware of her long illness, but the news still came as a great shock to everybody.
The huge outpouring of affection and sympathy for she and Johnny at her funeral service, spoke volumes for the very high regard in which she was held by all her colleagues in both disciplines of scoring and umpiring.
When romance blossomed, Judith was determined to spend as much time as possible with her cricketer boyfriend. So it seemed a ‘no-brainer’ for her to make herself generally useful and to become the Bangor Cricket Club scorer.
Not one to settle for mediocrity, she later joined our Association NIACUS, attended training courses and, inevitably, sat and passed her scorer`s exams under the auspices of the International body the Association of cricket Umpires & Scorers.
For good measure – and being Judith ! – she also attended the umpire training courses and it was no surprise to us that she passed those exams as well – and with flying colours.
Some years later we were delighted to elect her as Honorary Secretary of NIACUS, although to our disappointment her circumstances dictated that she could only stay in the post for a short time.
It was as a scorer that she excelled and quickly earned the reputation as a top ‘notcher’ – if you will pardon the pun. Rising rapidly through the ranks from club scorer with Bangor and later CIYMS, she was elevated to International status in Ireland and also gained selection to the International Cricket Council European Scorers` Panel.
Judith`s C.V. makes impressive reading. Her International debut in 2007 was in the triangular series between Ireland, India and South Africa.
In the next four years she scored in some twenty Ireland matches, against English county opposition including Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire and in internationals against Bangladesh A, New Zealand A and Pakistan.
She would have been spoiled for choice if she had been asked to choose her most prestigious appointment, but I suspect it would have come from one of the following :-
The 2009 1-day International at Stormont - Ireland v England, M.C.C. v Ireland A at Lord`s - the most famous cricket ground in the world,
and the following year 2010 scoring for Ireland in the I.C.C. European Division 1 men`s tournament in Jersey.
So many honours packed in to a tragically short career, Judith will be fondly remembered and sadly missed by all of us in NIACUS and by the wider cricketing community in Ireland who had the privilege of knowing such a talented and charming person.
Paddy O`Hara 9th. October 2014.
