Umpire Elisabeth Houston describes herself as a cricket tragic, and her involvements over the last dozen or so years have proven that label without a doubt, so much so that she and her daughter Elissa Andrews officiate in cricket matches together.
Asked to describe how it is being umpires together at cricket matches, Houston goes through a range of emotions – ‘good, really nice, even weird’. It’s certainly unique, but the fact that Houston and Andrews are two generations of women involved in the sport so closely, is one of the many examples of how, in the past 10 years, cricket has become a multigenerational women’s sport in Australia.
There are mothers and daughters playing the sport now across NSW, some in the same team. A few, like Houston and her daughter, taking on other duties such as officiating, coaching and scoring, are a testament to cricket being one of NSW’s favourite sports among females.
Houston, who hails from the Central Coast, wears many cricket-related hats, as does Andrews. Growing up, Houston watched cricket on TV with her mother and her sister Rebecca, and was obsessed with the game, even though at that time, with limited playing opportunities for women, she never really had the opportunity to play.
About 13 years ago, when they were in their early forties, Rebecca told Houston, who were both lawyers, that there was a cricket umpiring course being held in Scone, and the sisters decided to test their cricket knowledge. They both passed the course to go on to become members of the NSW Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association (NSWCUSA) in 2011.
Houston describes many of her early days of umpiring as ‘difficult’. For the first six years after she started officiating in matches, she was the only female umpire at her association, and with few female cricket matches being played, officiated in men’s matches, often as a sole umpire and often in lower grades.
Her decisions were often greeted with dissent or at the least not accepted by the playing teams wholeheartedly, as is often the case, and her gender was often an impediment. “But I kept going,” she said.
In about 2016 the Central Coast Cricket Association changed their policy to appoint pairs of umpires to games from the top down rather than appointing one umpire per game so as to cover more games. For Houston it meant fewer games, but definitely better-quality games, and the association and its ability to attract more umpires transformed. Houston has officiated in 81 games on the Central Coast, 25 in Newcastle and a good many in Sydney as well, from standing in both men’s and women’s premier cricket matches to female country and youth championships, and also the female Regional Bash including a semi-final at North Sydney Oval.
Daughter Andrews, who still plays, first umpired in 2016 and mother and daughter umpired together a number of games that year being the first season of all-female cricket on the Central Coast. Last season, Andrews joined NSWCUSA, and mum and daughter again umpired together, this time in a Brewer Shield match between Bankstown and the Greater Hunter Coast teams at Townson Oval in Newcastle. Houston says it was an honour for both of them to have the unique experience of being the first mother-daughter duo to umpire a Sydney women's premier cricket match together.
Houston is a past president of the Central Coast Umpire Association (CCCUA) and current CCCUA delegate to Central Coast Cricket Association. Since last year, Houston has further strengthened her ties to cricket by bringing in her legal expertise and has joined the Cricket NSW Integrity and Governance team as Assistant Code of Conduct Commissioner. Add to that the fact she is umpiring in more matches than ever, and Houston holds absolutely true to her claim of being a cricket tragic. And we welcome more and more like her in the sport.