History

Here you’ll find a brief history of the creation of Manly Warringah Baseball Umpires Inc.

November 1999	An organisation called Manly Warringah Baseball Umpires Association Inc. (MWBUA) was started. This organisation looked after the development of umpires for a few years and included supporting members furthering their training in the States.  This organisation was shut down after a few years for unknown reasons.
2010 to 2012	The current Manly Warringah Baseball Umpires Inc. was started by Gordon (Blinky) Blinkhorne and a few members that worked behind the scenes to get the organisation off the ground. This was begun during 2010 by Blinky and took a great deal of work and time to attract enough members to have a viable local organisation. Note that although the original MWBUA and newly formed MWBU Inc. organisations had the same goals, there is no association between them other than a few members from the previous organisation also being members of the current one.
2012	We elected Foundation Members to the Organisation, these members not only supplied financial support to move the organisation forward but also provided many hours on the diamonds: (in no particular order) – Gordon Blinkhorne – Steven Green – Terry Johnson – Brian Joyce – Keith Layman – Simon Lowde – Terry Mahy – Noel Markham – David Chaffers-Welsh – James Wolf We are very grateful to these people, for without their efforts we would not be here. Also check out our Hall of Fame where you’ll find some pics of most of the foundation members to help you put faces to names if you run into them on the diamond sometime
August 2012	MWBU was registered with the Dept. OF Fair trading in 2012 and held its first AGM, with the first Executive being elected: – Chairperson: Gordon Blinkhorne – Secretary: Keith Layman – Treasurer: Steve Green
September 2012	Club delegates were appointed to all 4 junior clubs, these people attended club games and worked with our development team to raise awareness and involvement in junior baseball. The ensured three things: That junior players had a good quality of umpiring at their games.That all junior finals had our members officiating with 3 man systems at the higher levels.That the organisation would continue to be strong in membership.
2012 to Present	– The organisation has a continuing emphasise in development of junior team’s parents and players. The organisation has adopted a large number of initiatives over the years to encourage people to umpire. – We affiliated with the NSW Baseball Umpires Association (NSWBUA) and we continue to hold that affiliation and continue to grow strong ties with them. – We regularly have our members attend the NSWBUA Level 1 courses and they bring the knowledge back to our members. – A number of our members are instructors for NSWBUA and hold or have help positions in that organisation – We arrange for Community Umpiring courses to be run locally on an annual basis. – MWBU also has held very successful workshops of our members to enhance their knowledge and confidence in umpiring. – One of our great successes is the monitoring system, were junior umpires and always teamed with an experienced umpire to support them on the diamond till they feel capable of officiating themselves. – Recently we have move a little away from juniors to move into Minor League, currently providing umpires to as many Minor League games as possible. However, we still cover the Junior Finals Series and organise umpires for all Finals Series games. We are currently looking at re-establishing closer contact with the junior clubs – In 2021 we affiliated with the Manly Warringah Baseball Association (MSBA), with the aim of bringing the two organisation closer together. To this one of our members sits on the judiciary of the MWBA. – We are also sending some of our development officers to critic team umpires within Minor League, with the view of increasing the quality of umpiring.