Stuart Cummings (born 17 November 1960) is the former Match Officials Director of the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Footb ...

, and a former international referee.

Career

He played wicketkeeper for

Cheshire County Cricket Club Cheshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty national county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Cheshire. The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Championship ...

in the 1986 and 1987 seasons. He qualified as a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

in 1988 and was awarded senior referee status in 1991. In his refereeing career, he took charge of over 400 first-grade games, including 4

Challenge Cup The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...

finals, 2

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

finals and 2 Grand Finals. In 1998 he suffered bruised ribs at the end of a Challenge Cup semi-final during a crowd invasion. He was the former

Match Officials Director. In this position, he fielded questions from fans about refereeing decisions and explained the laws behind disputed or controversial decisions. His job also included appointing senior officials to matches and reviewing their performances. During his tenure he oversaw the transition to full-time referees in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

. He was also regularly featured on Rugby League live broadcasts to provide expert opinion. Cummings was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2014 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2014 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to Rugby League. In 2014 he was hired by the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board, aka ECB, is the Sports governing body, national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test ...

to work with its umpiring panel for the summer after stepping down from his position with the RFL and was appointed as a cricket liaison officer by the ECB in 2015. In June 2016 he joined the RFL's new Match Officials' Standards Panel.

Personal life

Prior to being the Match Officials Director, Cummings was a physical education teacher at Up Holland High School, near Wigan; refereeing weekends until taking up his position with the

full-time in 2000.

References

1960 births Sportspeople from Whitehaven Living people English rugby league referees Rugby League World Cup referees Members of the Order of the British Empire Cheshire cricketers {{england-rugbyleague-bio-stub