Top Bermuda umpire Lester Harnett has been returned as president of the Bermuda Cricket Umpires Association.

At last week's annual general meeting, the long-serving official beat off a close challenge from Walisford Manders, who was later elected vice-president.

Other members of the executive are secretary Randy Butler (returned), new assistant secretary Roger Dill and treasurer Steven Douglas (returned). Management committee members are Stephen West, Jeff Pitcher, Richard Burrows and Richard Austin.

Harnett begins a third straight term as president and, according to Butler, one of the association's immediate goals will be to organise training and recruiting programmes for current and new members.

"It's nice to have a few new faces among our executives this year but with the season approaching we have to start right away to implement training and recruiting programmes. The latter has always been difficult because people don't see the need to want to get involved this way," said Butler.

"It also happens in soccer when it comes to refereeing. People who love the sport must be willing to get totally involved, I mean not just by coming off the hill and trying to play a role but they must learn the finer points of the game which are always changing.

"They have to realise that the game is becoming increasingly more technical in all aspects and you just can't come off the hill and officiate like one use to do in open cricket. Right now during limited overs play you have players in and out of the circle, the height of the ball has to always be taken into consideration, etcetera."

The secretary admitted that training and recruiting always proved to be top goals at the start of a season but pointed out that it often proved to be a difficult job to accomplish.

He said that the BCUA remained hopeful that capable former players and other people with a keen knowledge of the sport would come forward and acknowledged that plans were afoot for the umpires to visit clubs to meet with team officials, players and members to take up the issue.

"It's vital that we take some sort of initiative, going out to their facilities and meeting them. And while there not only do some recruiting but also make people more aware of the regulations and some laws that have changed," said Butler.

"We do have some people who indicate that they want to come out, but they say this during the off season and don't follow this up. So it is important for us to reach out, find these people and remind them of the interest that they expressed and hope that they can be encouraged to support the game that we all love and enjoy to watch."

Butler, however, said that there was not a chronic shortage of officials, claiming that with an active membership of 22 they could cope with the full slate of matches on weekends.

But a problem could arise when more than half were unavailable.

One item on the association's agenda this summer is the West Indies Cricket Umpires Association's biennial convention taking place in St. Kitts in July to which Bermuda are hoping to send a few delegates as they have in the past. Butler is currently the WICUA's vice-president for Area One which covers Jamaica, United States, Cayman Islands and Bermuda.