John Temperton has been playing cricket for Woodhall Spa Cricket Club for over 20 years and has recently taken up umpiring and sharing his journey on social media.
John first joined the club as a 13-year-old and has progressed through Woodhall’s system to play for their adult sides. Specialising as a bowler, he most enjoys playing as part of a team.
In more recent years, as his playing career begins to wind down, John has swapped the ball for being the man in the middle. The Horncastle-based cricket fanatic is documenting his progression as an umpire through his social channels.
“I split my time between playing and umpiring,” John told Fen Regis Trophies. “With the Sunday team, if we have a double-header, I will put myself down to play.
“If we have one game, I will go and umpire, so I split my time nicely between the two.”
Cricket Umpire 86
John can be found on social at CricketUmpire86 on Twitter/X, YouTube, and TikTok. Through his channels, he keeps a video diary on his progression as an umpire, as well as engaging content around the laws of the game.
“I started two years ago,” he said. “I just started on a whim.
“I started streaming and doing a bit of content creation, that side of it, and doing some other videos and different stuff.
“For the last four years, I’ve been creating some form of content. I thought I would just start, have a little bit of fun, and who knows where it may take me…I enjoy cricket.”
He added: “I never really saw anybody talking about the laws of the game and umpiring before, so I thought I would do something on that.
“It’s gone fairly well.”
To say that his social content has “gone fairly well” so far is an understatement, with 18,700 followers and close to 500,000 likes on TikTok alone. Though creating social content is currently a hobby for John, he does dream of turning it into something more one day and branching out into other channels.
“It’s probably down to it being a little bit more convenient,” John said on most of his content being on TikTok. “When the season comes around, I am going to try to do a little bit more for YouTube, but that’s going to mean more time editing stuff.”
Developing as an Umpire
Still being relatively new to the role, John freely admits that he has lots to learn as an umpire. He does believe that shooting and creating content for his social channels can be a benefit to him.
A lot of the footage that John uses for his You’re the Umpire videos is from matches that he has umpired. Going back over the footage allows him the opportunity to go over his decision and reflect on whether he made the right decision or not and why, as he explained.
“People have got their own opinions on umpiring,” John said. “That’s why I put them sort of videos up because it is quite interesting to see how many people agree with me.
“It’s good to see [the footage], even if I don’t put it up on TikTok or YouTube. It still helps me to make better decisions.
“Last year, I put one up and [the decision I made] was wrong. I knew I was wrong afterwards…the batter had gloved the ball, and I gave them out for LBW.
“I gave them out quickly as I was certain at the time, so now I give myself a little bit more time…and I think that makes me a better umpire.”
For now, John is enjoying both sides of the sport he loves and plans on being involved in it, one way or another, for many more years to come.
By Aaron Gratton
