Like so many other aspects of life in Ireland, cricket and cricket umpiring in the Leinster area in the era before the 1960s was far different from the modern game's relative sophistication. Those were the days when draws were frequent (and often honourable), cup matches might extend over a week, tea was 20 minutes, there were no one-day wides, no penalty runs, few behavioural problems, no grading of umpires, and a cloud of tobacco smoke around the head of the square-leg umpire was a common enough feature!