Cricket world mourn the death of Gauler

DEVON’S cricket umpiring community has been remembering one of their own following the death of John Gauler, who celebrated his 87th birthday in early July.

- CONRAD SUTCLIFFE

Gauler was a player, firstly with Lydford then with Tavistock, but is mostly remembered for his time as a match official and also as an administrator from the early 1980s onwards.

Gauler senior learned the umpiring ropes from the late Len Horton and stood in Devon League matches from the mid-1980s through to the early 2000s.

DCUS – the Devon Cricket Umpires’ Society – seconded Gauler to the Devon Cricket League as their representative in 1995 and for the next 16 years appointed umpires to matches, dealt with discipline issues on behalf of the league AND took on ground inspections to ensure standards were maintained.

Chris Shelton, a former chairman of DACO – the successor organisation to the DCUS – said Gauler was the right man for a job that required tact, diplomacy and common sense in abundance.

“When I first started on the panel, John was an excellent appointments officer for DACO,” said Shelton.

Any issues umpires may have had, raised in captain’s marks, were calmly dealt with, rather than make them major issues.

“John was a real gentlemen, who always had positive things to say about umpires – whether they deserved it or not.

“He did a great job, laying solid foundations for future appointments officers to follow.”