If your idea of a cricket umpire is an old fogey in a white cap look no further than Lloyd Maynard to have your illusions shattered.

Lloyd is scoring a success for himself in the game - at the age of just 21.

Lloyd, from Bevendean in Brighton, is decades younger than many of his counterparts in the Mid Sussex league. But that does not stop him from enforcing the rules of the game and keeping players firmly in their place.

Lloyd, who works at his parents' newsagents in Upper Bevendean Avenue, started umpiring for Mid Sussex side Plumpton and East Chiltington last summer.

Now he has given up playing cricket altogether and spends every Saturday and Sunday in the summer umpiring.

His dream is to umpire a Test Match, but for now he is happy to be involved in the sport at local league level and has earned a good reputation.

Lloyd said: "Other teams are a bit surprised when I turn up to umpire. The other umpires in the league are a lot older than me, the average age is probably 50 to 60."

Most umpires, like cricket legend Dickie Bird, take up officiating and don the white coat after retiring from playing cricket.

Lloyd used to play for Brighton RAFA team and began helping out at Plumpton after a friend told him the team needed a new umpire.

He underwent a 20-week evening course for umpires at the Sussex County Cricket ground to improve his knowledge of the laws of the game. He said: "I am not good enough to play in this league and I prefer umpiring now to playing. I really enjoy it.

"As an umpire you have to be level-headed and not easily wound up. I sometimes get a bit of stick, like any umpire, and some players think it might be easier to get round me because I am young, but it won't work.

"I would love to umpire a top-level match one day. It is highly unlikely, but you never know, I might have started young enough."

Sussex County Cricket Club says it is rare to find an umpire as young as Lloyd and hopes more youngsters will follow suit.

There is currently a shortage of umpires as older officials give up because of ill-health or age.

Steve Peyman, Sussex cricket development officer, said: "We are trying to encourage more people to take up umpiring, but we are not getting the youngsters coming through because it does not have the street-cred. Hopefully more youngsters will follow Lloyd's example."