Oamaru cricket umpire Derek Walker's life-long goal of officiating at the home of cricket, Lord's, will become a reality as soon as next month.

Walker is putting his Prime Minister's Scholarship, awarded in January, to good use by travelling to England on Friday for five weeks, where he will umpire 22 days of cricket. Walker will stand in the MCC Universities Challenge Final on July 5 - the highlight of his trip.

"It was always an aspiration, but it's come around very quickly," he said.

Walker will also spend more time at Lord's thanks to contacts from his playing days.

"It's lovely because I've also managed to make arrangement with (new England coach) Peter Moore's - I played with Peter at Worcestershire - so I've got a day with them at Lord's when they play India umpiring in the nets," he said.
"It's just another chance to go to Lord's and do something."

Walker will start in London with the MCC fixtures, before heading north to stand in second XI, one-day and league games, before returning to London for some more MCC games.

"Initially, I thought I might get some league appointments only, but now I've got these MCC and ECB games," he said.

"It's all fallen into place really well."

Walker applied for the scholarship with no specific plans.

"I applied for that and put together a proposal at the time without really having any appointments guaranteed," he said.

Once he got the scholarship though, he contacted the English Cricket Board appointments manager, Chris Kelly, who got some contacts working for him.

"It's allowed me to cover the airfares, car rental and some of the accommodation while I'm away - some I'll have to contribute myself - but it's allowed me to do it.
The New Zealand first-class umpires' panel isn't called into action again until October, so the trip is a good way for Walker to keep his eye in.

"This all works in nicely to fill in that period over winter where you get out 'of nick' as such," Walker said.
"I've found in umpiring you get into form, so if you're doing it regularly, you're seeing the ball better and better positioning."

Walker is unsure whether he'll have to walk through the famous Long Room as he heads out to umpire at Lord's, but he doesn't want to replicate a former English international.

"I don't want to get lost like David Steele when he made his test debut." Steele was unused to the 'home' dressing room instead of the 'away' one and went down one too many flights of stairs and found himself in the basement toilets.