work in a factory manufacturing soft drinks. Like his father, he played as a wicket-keeper, keeping wicket for the Brompton Methodists, and later for the West Torrens Cricket Club in the higher-level SACA District competition. However, his playing career was short, as he was forced to retire due to a persistent injury. Like his father, Hele was also a keen footballer, and played senior matches for the West Torrens Football Club in the South Australian Football League (SAFL) during the period surrounding World War I. His brother, Robert Roy Hele, also played for West Torrens, and was later a SANFL commissioner. Umpiring career Following his father into umpiring, Hele umpired his first district cricket match in 1918, a B-grade game at the Adelaide Oval. He was unable to umpire the following season due to work commitments, but began umpiring regularly the following season, becoming one of Adelaide's leading club cricket umpires. Hele was selected to make his first-class umpiring debut in a match towards the end of the 1920–21 Australian season, between South Australia and a touring English side, captained by Johnny Douglas. The match, beginning on 11 March 1921, lasted four days, and was won by Douglas' side by an innings and 63 runs, with Wilfred Rhodes and C. A. G. Russell both recording double centuries in an innings total of 627. Hele umpired his first Sheffield Shield game the following season, a five-day game between South Australia and New South Wales, and would umpire regularly for the rest of the 1920s, becoming the South Australian Cricket Association's first-choice umpire by the middle of the decade. In March 1927, whilst umpiring a grade cricket game between Sturt and Kensington at the Adelaide Oval, Hele was struck in the temple by a ball thrown from the square leg fielder, and, after collapsing, had to be escorted from the field. Hele served as secretary of the South Australian Cricket Umpires' Association, and, following on from his football playing career, also served as a goal umpire for SAFL matches, subsequently also filling the role of secretary of the South Australian National Football Umpires' Association. In November 1928, Hele (along with Dave Elder, who had been umpiring Tests since the 1911–12 Ashes series) was selected to umpire in the First Test of the 1928–29 Ashes series, held at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground. A South Australian umpire had not been selected to umpire in