The cricket world was shocked by Russ’ sudden death on November 30th, 2017, he was just 52 years of age. The next day was the first day of the Ashes Test in Adelaide, the England team wore black armbands as a mark of respect to Russ.

​

Russ was a passionate cricket man, he joined Nottinghamshire CCC straight from school and played professional cricket until 1990. He also represented Lincolnshire in the Minor Counties competition.

After cricket Russ worked for Gunn and Moore before leaving in 2012 to set up his own bat making company, B3 Cricket. At the same time, he was pursuing his dream of becoming a first-class umpire. In 2014 Russ was promoted to the ECB list of first-class umpires.

Russ was a man who had time for everyone and was well regarded by all who knew him. Some of the tributes at the bottom of this page show how shocked and saddened the professional cricket world was at Russ’s untimely death.

​

However, Russ didn’t just show an interest in the upper echelons of the sport, he was passionate about helping others and was a big supporter of the amateur game and was deeply involved in helping the Nottinghamshire Umpires Association.

​

On many a dark, cold winters Wednesday evening, he would show up at the umpires meetings and offer support, guidance and advice. His dry humour and enthusiasm endeared him to everyone he met and he had a lot of friends in the umpiring fraternity.

​