IT was a pleasure to umpire the Farnworth versus Eagley game on Saturday on a day with so much at stake.

Both teams had everything to play for – Farnworth needed a win to take the league title and Eagley wanted victory to aid their bid to avoid relegation.

It was played hard and fair and more importantly in the best of spirit.

It wasn’t played in silence but friendly comments brought smiles to all concerned.

Eagley made Farnworth work very hard for their win and both umpires commented on how much they enjoyed the game. Well done to both teams for the way they conducted themselves and the spirit the game was played in.

It now seems a bit inappropriate to comment on the new laws governing player conduct after that but I did promise to finish it off.

After the first two levels were covered last week, we now look at the next two.

A level three offence is:

• intimidating an umpire by language or gesture;

• threatening to assault a player or any other person except an umpire.

This time the umpires, after consultation, ask the captain to remove the offending player immediately from the field for a period of 10 overs, if not playing limited overs cricket.

If limited overs cricket is being played, the player is suspended for one fifth of the allocated overs.

If the offending player is a fielder then a substitute is not allowed.

Once the penalty has been served then, if the player is a bowler, he can bowl straight away.

If he is a batsman, then he goes off and is replaced by another batsman and can only return after the agreed number of overs at the fall of a wicket.

If there are no further batsmen then the innings is deemed closed.

A level four offence is:

• threatening assault to the umpire;

• making inappropriate, deliberate physical contact with an umpire;

• physically assaulting a player or any other person;

• committing any act of violence.

For any one committing these offences, the captain will be instructed to tell the player to leave the field for the remainder of the match, not just that innings.

If a captain refuses to remove the player from the field then the umpires will award the match to the opposing team.

If both captains refuse over the same incident then the game is over and the umpires will instruct the players to leave the field and the game will be classed as a no result.

Hopefully, we will never have to apply these two conduct offences but, as with all law changes, it must have happened somewhere to be included in the new laws.

Let’s hope our games are all played like the Farnworth versus Eagley one – other teams take note, it can be done.