Cheshire HA Umpiring Report from NWHUA Representative, Chris Todd

Season  2005 / 2006

 

The total membership of the NWHUA increased substantially following ratification of the rule changes of the Association  during 2004. However, a large number of members joined to receive the benefits of the insurance package, but sadly they do not umpire regularly for the NWHUA.

At the start of this season there was a mini crisis concerning the number of umpires who confirmed their availability to umpire on a regular basis for NWHUA and this affected the service that the Association was able to provide for League hockey. Umpires were appointed to N2W matches, but not always to NW1 matches during this season.

The Saturday Appointments Secretary, Tony Shutt, worked tremendously hard to find new umpiring talent to fill the gaps and his enthusiasm and persistence paid dividends. There is optimism for next season.

The Sunday Appointments Secretary, Bill Connor, has also worked extremely hard to ensure that all Sunday matches have been supplied with umpires.

The NWHUA fulfilled all its commitments to appoint to the various rounds of the Cheshire Plate and Cup and also to the Cheshire Under Twenty One Competition staged at Deeside Ramblers Hockey Club.

The formation of the Cheshire Hockey Development Group also required a representative from the NWHUA and Tony Crisp has taken on the role. A report on the work of the Cheshire HDG will be found elsewhere.

The YEAR 2005 was the “Year of the Umpire” and the emphasis was on young umpires and consequently various Young Umpire Action Groups (YUAG) were formed to deal with this initiative.

 

Chris  Todd