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

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

, and a former international referee.

Career

He played wicketkeeper for

Cheshire County Cricket Club Cheshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor 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 Wes ...

in the 1986 and 1987 seasons. He qualified as a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

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 titl ...

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 Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

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 concept i ...

finals and 2

Grand Finals Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

. 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 The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. 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 contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established 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 (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 and ...

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