Ireland
v England

Remembering Renno

A tribute to Paul Reynolds by Andrew Leonard

Ever since I can remember, even from a very young age, I always got a bit melancholic in September.

The realisation that the long summer evenings had already been drawing in for a while, coupled with the change in seasons, always left me feeling blue. It pre-empted what was destined to be a long, cold, but more importantly, cricketless winter.

Even though I don't get the opportunity to play much cricket any more, that feeling of melancholy still hits me wherever I am, year after year, like clockwork. This time, however, when it hit me, it wasn't cricket related but it was around the realisation that a friend of all of ours was no longer with us, and it was the first time a cricket season would end in Ireland without him being a part of it.

It was Monday the 2nd of September 2024, and I was returning to Ireland for a very short 24 hour stopover. I landed late into Dublin Airport, and it was well after midnight by the time I was driving down the N11. On that drive, a significant feeling hit me, in fact it overwhelmed me.

Nearly a year prior, on the 10th of October 2023, Irish cricket lost one of our greatest servants, Paul Andrew Reynolds, who died at the age of just 50 after a very lengthy and incredibly dignified battle with a prolonged illness. Just 55 days prior to his untimely passing, he was still standing as an umpire in what would turn out to be his last international match as Ireland played India in Malahide in front of a sold-out crowd.

Even though I knew just how ill Paul had been, not that you would ever hear him say a word of complaint of his illness, the news of his passing last year completely blind sided me. Only days prior he'd been messaging me about watching the coverage of the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier for the American region that I was commentating on in Bermuda, he wanted to know what the island was like and how it was all going. Then, just eight days later, I had just arrived in Nepal for the Asia Qualifier when I received a message with the devastating news that crushed me completely.

I didn't know how to react, I've been very lucky to have been untouched by much grief in my life and Paul was one of my closest friends and confidants in Irish cricket. In reality, I don't think that I had properly grieved his passing until that drive down the N11 last month.

A wave of happy memories came over me, I smiled and cried my way down the road and I felt compelled to write something to explain my friendship with Paul, and maybe get across something of his impact on the sport within Ireland.

Whenever you needed to know anything about basically anything in Leinster Cricket, you got in touch with Paul.

Fixtures, Renno.
Umpires, Renno. 
Playing Conditions, Renno. 
Cup Draws, Renno. 
Refixes, Renno.
Statistics, Renno.
Player Eligibility, Renno.
Player Transfers, Renno.
Award Winners, Renno.
Next Year’s Structures, Renno.

Basically anything related to Cricket in Ireland, check it with Renno.

Officially he was the Secretary of the Leinster Cricket Union for 11 years, in reality he was a close to full-time volunteer that made every aspect of cricket in the province hum so sweetly. His work ethic and output were absolutely remarkable; for me, he was one of the best administrators I've ever seen operate at any level in cricket.

There was nothing he couldn't turn his hand to. And his love of the game at all levels was awe-inspiring. He would genuinely get as much kick out of a Leinster Division 14 game between Tyrrelstown 2nds and Civil Service 4ths as he would out of a Test Match. He also had an incredible ability to switch paces between umpiring Kagiso Rabada vs Paul Stirling on a Saturday in Malahide, to being hugely engaged in a CL Youth Development league match on a Sunday in Adamstown.

I wanted to look up when we first met each other, I had a presumption that it would have been playing, but I didn't have much of a memory of it. Of course, for a question this specific, I'd always just have asked Renno himself, and he'd have come back promptly with the accurate answer. I asked another legend of Leinster Cricket in Eddie Lewis, who said we actually never played against each other, but he umpired me a huge amount. I definitely remember that being where our friendship started. Like many other Irish umpires, he didn’t give me too many LBWs, unlike some others he was always willing to explain why, and he was usually right, too!

His genuine joy for umpiring at whatever level was very apparent, and it is fair to say we were kindred spirits in our love and obsession for cricket.

Paul embodied the very best of everything that is great about Irish cricket, in fact I find it hard to even comprehend that he was English originally! He became truly one of ours, a totally adopted Irishman. He moved to Ireland in 1995 from Gloucestershire, where his cricket career started at Chipping Sodbury CC just outside Bristol. When he landed in Dublin, he immediately became a key member of Leinster CC in Rathmines and played a key role with the gloves for the Rathmines in their senior sides from 1995 through to 2014 when he called time on his playing career finally. 

He adored the social side and the camaraderie of cricket, and he used to turn out occasionally for the Leprechauns once his regular playing days for Leinster CC were over. We enjoyed a brilliant South-East tour together with a lot of laughter; some cricket and many a lap; lengthy tea-break or rain delay and then in-depth discussions of every tangent related to Irish and World Cricket.

I can't think of many areas of our sport in Leinster Cricket Club, Cricket Leinster or Cricket Ireland that he didn't have some impact on. He was overwhelmingly and contagiously positive and he never had a bad word to say about a single person in our community. He saw the best in everyone, a bastion of common sense, flawlessly fair and managed to always see every side in the sometimes quite political landscape of Irish cricket, whatever the topic.

It was in the umpiring World, though, where Paul would start to have his most elite impact on the game. He was always one of the best and fairest umpires on the circuit in Leinster, and his promotion up to the international level was not before time. Granular knowledge of the laws, with a fine presence and control of the game coupled with a deep understanding of the sport from every angle, he had all of the attributes to take well to international cricket, and he did.

He made his full One Day International umpiring debut when he was standing in the 2nd One Day International between Ireland and Afghanistan at Stormont in Belfast. I remember how excited he was about it and knew weeks in advance it would be his debut in a big international series and with the additional scrutiny that came with it. In a twist of fate, after the first ODI, I received a late call up asking could I come in and commentate for the final two games there. Elated, I of course accepted and immediately told Paul, who explained that we would be making our television debuts together! So, in the late August sunshine in Stormont, I was the one on call describing one of the first really big decisions in his career, as he correctly gave out Kevin O’Brien trapped LBW to Rashid Khan.

I looked back to that day on our Whatsapps where we shared congratulations on messages, I think both equally as chuffed as each other, and Renno had time for a giggle as always.

“Thanks a million, what a day. The fact that it was so one sided made it easier. I’d rank Rashid Khan ahead of you, but only just!”

Paul and I shared a lot of landmarks, every single year he'd have to remind me that we shared a birthday, as I always forgot. We both, like Graeme Hick as Paul would tell me, were born on May 23rd, but 11 years apart. He would message saying “Happy Birthday to Andrew John from Paul Andrew”. I’d always forget it was his birthday the same day and then belatedly wish him Happy Birthday in the coming days when I saw it online or somewhere.

Paul had a profound impact on me as a man. I don't feel I'd be anything like where I am without him - his belief in me, his encouragement of me, and his pride in my journey in the game from an aspiring to a full-time cricket commentator. I, too, was so proud of the progress he had been making as an umpire.

I think the biggest thing that will always stay with me about Paul is his pure, genuine and unbridled joy at all things relating to cricket. I didn’t have the good fortune to know him as a young man when he was growing up in his home club, playing with his dad Clive, and brothers Dave and Mark, or when he was coming through University in Aberystwyth, but I imagine he had the same impish smile throughout his whole cricketing life. His kindness and compassion shone through to everyone he ever met in Irish cricket.

All told, it took me over a year since that drive down the N11 to gather these thoughts about Paul, maybe it’s part of the process of mourning someone who meant so much to you. I’m still not sure I’ve captured the profound impact he’s had on so many people, or conveyed how tragic his loss continues to be for his family, his wife Jen, sons Iestyn, Rhys and Ieuan.

Now, two years on, as Ireland hosts its first Men’s T20I series against England, how I wish Paul could be here in Malahide this week. I know for a fact that there would be no divided loyalties or bias from him, but at the same time, I know what joy it would have brought him if Ireland managed to beat England (again he’d remind us of course). He was taken from us far too soon, but I know he will be with us in spirit this week. And I know there’ll be more than a few there in the Irish cricket family thinking of him again, too.

I think most of all, I just know I miss my friend.

Paul Andrew Reynolds, 1973-2023