Temora based cricket umpire Jeff Egan is looking ahead to another busy summer officiating in the city, country and everywhere in between.

Going into his second year as a member of the NSW State Umpire panel, Jeff will be officiating fixtures ranging from Wagga First Grade to the best in the state.

Last summer Jeff received his most high-profile appointments to date, standing as an umpire in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL).

“I’ve umpired most of the ladies in the national side now through WBBL, it’s pretty special to share the same field as them,” Egan said.

“Seeing Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and Phoebe Litchfield go about their business, they just make cricket look easy.”

Jeff has been locked in to officiate in the national under 17s carnival in Perth in January and is hopeful that more WBBL and WNCL opportunities will arise.

His commitment to travel to hone his craft is commendable, and his outings to Sydney to umpire Premier Cricket have become a family affair.

“For the last couple of seasons Dad’s been coming with me and we’ve been catching the train up,” Egan said.

“We go from Cootamundra on the XPT, overnight in Sydney on the Friday, umpire on the Saturday, come home on the train Saturday night and get home at about 2 o’clock in the morning.

“It’s a pretty big whirlwind of a weekend.”

It’s a long way from the six-week course he completed at Wagga RSL more than 20 years ago.

“I played a bit of cricket but I was never any good at, so I thought I might as well give umpiring a go.

Aside from umpiring Jeff is a husband and a father of two boys, living on a rural block that he said gives him enough to keep busy.

He has no plans to slow down as an official, with high hopes for what lies ahead.

“I suppose everyone who umpires wants to do a Test match. That’s a long-term goal, maybe in the next 10 to 15 years, but there’s a lot of jumps to get over before that,” Egan said.

“Hopefully this season I just continue to improve, and get some more WBBL and WNCL matches.

“If I’m lucky I might get a men’s BBL game as a fourth umpire, that would be an awesome achievement for this season.

“I’m just going to keep pushing forward and you never know what gate will open.”