Northern Regional Umpires Commission
ChairmanSecretaryMembers
Peter HoareJohn InmanKen Hastie, Dilwyn Jones,
21 Heugh EdgeChapels HillFred Snowdon, Lynn Pain,
SacristonGreysouthenBob Manning, Mark Bell,
DURHAMCOCKERMOUTHSarah-Louise Milsom,
DH7 6AUCA13 0UFNorman Howitt
Tel: 0191 371 2816Tel: 01900 828554
Mob: 07811
6 November 2006
ANNUAL REPORT TO THE N.R.C. A.G.M. 2006
This has been a turbulent year from the point of view of our region’s umpires and in particular, the composition of the Regional Umpire’s Commission (RUC).
Most of you will know that Ken Hastie resigned as Chairman in October 2005, after a long-standing dispute with the National Umpires Commission Secretary over the procedure and criteria for licence renewals. I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the N.R.C. and thus the region, to publicly thank Ken for his efforts during his several years as Chairman – fortunately, Ken has agreed to continue as a member of the RUC, at least in the short-term, where his experience and knowledge will be invaluable.
I officially took over the Chairman’s role in February 2006, after we had gone through the required procedures at regional and national level.
Ian Wagstaff also took this opportunity to step-down as the long-serving Regional Secretary and was replaced by John Inman. Again, I would like to express our gratitude to Ian for his work in this role for several years.
We began this regatta season with only 22 licensed umpires and genuine fears that we may run into problems in adequately umpiring every local regatta. Fortunately, in the final analysis this proved to be a pessimistic assessment and every event ran successfully – admittedly a few did run with the bare minimum team of umpires. My thanks to all our umpires for their sterling work under difficult circumstances this season.
We are delighted to have welcomed back Chester-le-Street Regatta to the region after a 14 year absence, and as their Chairman of Race Committee, I am looking forward to working with the Regatta Committee to develop the event over the coming years.
Ken ran a very successful umpires training course, supported by myself, the other members of the RUC and our local regattas and umpires during the season and, at the time of writing, we have 5 newly-qualified umpires:
Adrian Champion (Grey College B.C.)
James Lamb (St. John’s College B.C.)
Andrew Oakenfull (Yarm School B.C.)
Ken Murray (Q.E.H.S. B.C.)
Pat Seed (Durham A.R.C.)
Congratulations to all of them and we look forward to them all officiating at our local regattas next season.
There are also a further 6 trainees who have yet to take their final exams, for a variety of reasons. It is hoped that they will all qualify before the start of next season. These include the first from Chester-le-Street in recent years and a further two from Hexham.
This will take out compliment of umpires to 33 for next season, a much healthier position than this time last year!
By Club, they will be distributed as follows: Berwick (1), Cambois (2), Chester-le-St (1), Durham (13), Grey College (1), Hexham (3), Ponteland HS (1), QEHS (1), St John’s College (1), Tees (5), Tyne (2), Tynemouth (1) and Yarm School (1).
We have only “lost” one umpire this season, as Ronald Bradbeer (Tyne R.C.) has reached the statutory umpire’s retirement age. Many us will know Ronald, who has been umpiring continuously in this region for many years. I would like to publicly thank him for his years of service to our region as an umpire and his fairness, good humour and unflappability under pressure will be remembered – I was on Race Control at Tyne at Home Regatta a few years ago and well remember Ronald, who was the starter, coming over the radio to announce that “he was suspending racing and could we please call the police as the starter (him) was being shot at by some youths with an air rifle”! We all wish you well in your enforced umpiring retirement, Ron, but trust that we will still see you at some local events in a non-umpiring capacity?
I am not one to rest on my laurels, as those of you who know me well know – we will continue to look for further recruits to our team of umpires for next season, as the more we have, the less each of us has to do! . We will be looking especially to target those clubs who are currently under-represented on our list, but who run at least one open event – these include Cambois (2), Tyne (2), Berwick (1), Talkin Tarn (0) and City of Sunderland (0), but we will always welcome potential trainees from ANY club. I intend to run a further training course next spring/summer – details to follow in the new year.
We also ran our first Regional Umpire’s Seminar for over three years on 1st October and were delighted to welcome Paddy Ibbotson, the National Umpires Commission Chairman, as our guest speaker. These Seminars will become biannual events, with one to be held each April prior to the start of the regatta season and one in September/October at the end of it. Attendance at a minimum of one seminar within the three year period is currently one of the guidelines for the renewal of an umpire’s licence.
Peter
Peter Hoare
[NRUC Chairman]