Player, administrator, international umpire, statistician, volunteer ‘helpdesk’ for clubs – so reads the submission that accompanied the nomination form for Paul Reynolds.

And that was only a partial telling of the story of the man that will be honoured with the Outstanding Contribution and Service to Irish Cricket award at the 11th Irish Cricket Awards on Friday night.

The annual Irish Cricket Awards recognises and celebrates the best of Irish cricket, from grassroots to international. One of the headline awards is the Outstanding Contribution and Service to Irish Cricket, in honour of John Wright. Past recipients of this prestigious award have included former Cricket Ireland Presidents Dr Murray Power, Roy Torrens, and Joe Doherty.

The Outstanding Contribution and Service to Irish Cricket, in honour of John Wright recognises individuals who are held in the highest regard within the Irish cricket community, having made a significant long-term contribution to sustaining and growing the reputation of cricket, growing participation and/or advocating for improvements in facilities and opportunities for players.

It’s not the first time Paul has received a national award, having won the Official of the Year in 2016.

Born in Crawley, England, Paul grew up in Chipping Sodbury, just north of Bristol and was heavily involved in Chipping Sodbury Cricket Club. He went to university in Aberystwyth, Wales from 1991-1994, then moved to Dublin in June 1995, and joined Leinster Cricket Club and has been a member ever since.

He played for Leinster CC, mostly on the 1st XI and with some success as a wicketkeeper-batter.

Paul also took up umpiring and cricket administration, which continues to this day.

On the umpiring front, he has risen to be one of the most respected umpires in Ireland, and part of the ICC International Umpires Panel, earning a contract with Cricket Ireland.

Along with umpiring at international level, Paul has had numerous voluntary cricket administration roles with Cricket Leinster, including:

Chair of the Open Competitions Committee
Executive Committee member
Grounds Committee Chair
Cricket Leinster Company Secretary and Chair of Cricket
Leinster Cricket Union Executive
Cricket Committee Honorary Secretary
Cricket Leinster Board member

Paul was also central to the project to enter all available league and cup scorecards dating back to 1919 (the foundation of Cricket Leinster) into the central archive. This means that the historical playing records of the Leinster Cricket Union will be publicly accessible through the Cricket Leinster website.

All of this work was done by Paul on a completely voluntary basis. At the same time Paul was raising a family, playing, coaching, helping run his own club and lately umpiring to an International standard.

His roles as Chair of the Cricket Committee, member of the Board and Company Secretary at Cricket Leinster are vital in terms of contributing to the good governance of the game in the province. He brings to the board an up to the minute knowledge of the club game and competition operations, as well as well over 20 years of club administration experience.

Paul is a central part of the volunteer “workforce” of Cricket Leinster. As the largest Provincial Union, with approaching 50 clubs, with well over 12,000 players, Cricket Leinster is highly reliant on the continuing volunteer input to the game in the province.

He was nominated for this award by Cricket Leinster and the Awards Judging Panel agreed that he is a very worthy recipient.