TWO questions arose last Saturday – one on the field of play, the other from the score box.

Let’s take the latter first. I was observing a young scorer for her ECB qualifications when the ball hit the helmet placed on the ground behind the stumps and the umpire tried to signal five penalty runs by just holding up five fingers – an incorrect signal now in any case.

Comments from the box were 'what’s that?', until it dawned on me they were trying to say five penalty runs for the batting side.

The correct signal should be the umpire patting his or her shoulder, which lets the scorers know the runs go to the batting side.

Then came the question from the scorers where does that go?

With a bit of thought they worked their way through the boxes to be filled in so all was well.

All score books are different depending on the make so what needs to be filled in differs from one book to the other.

One of the scorers was using the CricHQ programme on an ipad and we had to scroll down a few icons to find the correct one but it all ended well.

At my match on Saturday, I had to deal with an appeal for obstructing the field.

The non-striker had set off for a run and was sent back by his colleague.

In the meantime, the close fielder had picked up the ball and threw it to the non-striker's end, hitting him as he tried to get back. An appeal was made for obstruction.

What does the umpire have to consider in answering an appeal such as this?

First thing is, was it wilful? Did the batsman put out his bat to deliberately deflect the ball away from hitting the stumps? Did he deviate from the natural path he was running to deliberately intercept the throw with person or bat?

Usually, in a situation like this, umpires would confer but it was so obvious in this case that consultation was not required. Answer to these two questions were 'no' so in the opinion of the umpire, the non-striker was given not out.

As one batsman said during the game, it is all about opinions and he is quite right.

There are quite a few laws which state 'in the opinion of the umpire'.

He’s the one that has to make the decision, no-one else.

Most of the time he is in a better position to give the correct decision.