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Four, Four, Six - A Licence Free Two Way Radio Solution For Cricket Umpires

PMR446 Licence free two way radios are now assisting the traditionally conservative stronghold of sport; County Cricket. Radio Communication Company MRS has supplied four Icom IC-4088SR licence free radios to Glamorgan Cricket Club. These two way radios will assist the umpires in the scoring of county cricket matches.

The IC-4088SR two way radios are being predominantly used to make sure that the scoring decisions are clear and correct. One radio has been supplied for the scorer and the other for the umpire. If the umpire has not been clear with his signalling, the scorer can call the umpire to clarify the situation. The radio ensures that a match is accurately scored and reported which is vitally important because Glamorgan Cricket Club publish the scoring straight onto teletext.

Caryl Watkin, Cricket & Office Manager at Glamorgan Cricket Club said, 'We haven’t had any complaints from cricket purists about the radio system because it is very discrete.' She added, 'We did trial some radios from another manufacturer last year. Unfortunately their performance was just not up to standard. There was also the problem that the umpires at that time were quite reticent about using them. I am pleased to say they have found the new Icom two way radios very easy to use, a good size, which can be discretely kept in their pocket and they now seem to accept them as an important part of their umpiring equipment.'

MRS already supplies Glamorgan Cricket Club with twenty-five Icom IC-F4GS’s PMR UHF handportable two way radios. Caryl Watkin said, 'PMR Radios are now an important communication tool with everybody in the ground. Our management team uses the first set. The second set is for our security team and stewards and is used for example to co-ordinate traffic on match days.'

She added, 'It is really important that on match days we have strong communication links with key personnel. We have about 25 -30 people working at the ground full time and they need to manage our capacity of about 6,000 people. If you host a totesport League match then you are expecting 3,000 to 3,500 people to attend those games. The new competition 20/20 games, are very much an unknown quantity but we are hoping for maximum attendances. We have two One-day internationals here including New Zealand versus the West Indies and we are looking at a capacity crowd for the Wales versus England game.'

Asked about the quality of the Icom PMR two way radio, Caryl said, 'We have had two-way radios before and the radios have not been quite up to scratch. Battery life has not been great in the past but with the Icom’s we can go for 2-3 days, depending on usage, which is fantastic because people quite often forget to put them on the chargers. They are very clear and easy to use; they are exactly what we need.'

Icom UK Marketing - marketing@icomuk.co.uk