SOFTBALL AUSTRALIA UMPIRING MAGAZINE

February 2017 EDITION

Blues News Online The official Softball Australia

National Umpiring Committee Publication. Published Since 2001

Softball Australia

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National Umpiring Committee NATIONAL UMPIRE IN CHIEF Operations Tricia Sibraa (QLD) UMPIRE IN CHIEF Communications Scott Rindfleish (NSW) UMPIRE IN CHIEF Development Debbie Grove (VIC) UMPIRE IN CHIEF Technical Leigh Evans (VIC)

National Staff Members

COMMUNICATIONS Richard Barrow (VIC) Jesse Smith (NSW) DEVELOPMENT Kyira Cox (NSW) Ron Houison (NSW) OPERATIONS Krissi Travers (NSW) TECHNICAL Jason Carter (VIC) Darrell Shephard (NSW)

State Director’s of Umpiring Australian Capital Territory Mark Gallagher New South Wales Scott Rindfleish Queensland Darren Sibraa South Australia Neville Lawrance Tasmania Wayne Clarke Victoria Trevor Murphy Western Australia Roy Cox

In This Edition Calendar of Events 2017 National Championship Reports Visiting International Umpire Reports 2017 International Appointments Level 7s and Level 8s Awarded

Calendar of Events

12 May 2017 - 14 May 2017 2017 Australia Cup, West Beach, SA 03 Jul 2017 - 07 Jul 2017 International Friendship Series, Redlands, Qld 05 Jul 2017 - 08 Jul 2017 U23 Men’s National Softball Championship, Redlands, Qld 05 Jul 2017 - 08 Jul 2017 U23 Women’s National Softball Championship, Redlands Qld 21 Oct 2017 - 28 Oct 2017 XVI Australian Masters Games, Ulverstone, Tas

SAVE THE DATE - 2017 Playing Rules Assessment

Softball Australia Playing Rules “Open” Assessment 12.00am EST Saturday 29th April – Sunday 7th May 2017.

Softball Australia Playing Rules “Basic” Assessment

Saturday 29th April 2017 until the end of March 2018

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2017 National Championships Open Women & U17 Girls

Championship Report – David Addlem As the 70th year of the Australian Open Women’s Championships and combined with the Under 17 Girls National Championships it was a big tournament with a lot of extra celebration touches arranged for the opening and closing ceremonies. Umpires arrived on New Year’s Day by plane and car from various states, wearing the new white umpire walk out shirt. We also had visiting umpires Andrew Gallant from Canada and Jan Hora from Czech Republic. The local NSW umpires provided transport (to and from the grounds, accommodation and airport) which is always appreciated and invaluable to the success of the tournament. They also provided some local sightseeing for the international guests. Compared to last year, the weather gods were fairly kind to us and though we had a couple of days with rain delays, in general the tournament ran very smoothly with no games lost. Downtime during softball tournaments (if due to weather issues or just having games off) is always something to consider when going away to a tournament. Books, iPads (especially with the Wi-Fi availability at Blacktown), playing cards etc. are always useful to keep the mind active and were no exception this year. UNO was played hard with most having the friendly intention to beat the Canadian and sabotage the rest. The umpiring crew enjoyed a number of social meal outings together across the week, starting with first night tea at the Chinese restaurant, breakfasts, dinners and a barbecue upstairs at the accommodation. Ron Houison, despite some concussion from on the field, also did a great job off the diamond looking after much of the groups’ food supplies for the week. The onsite coffee van and the Blacktown canteen seemed to cover the rest of the essentials. Late in the week we changed accommodation from the Astina apartments and moved across to the high rise Meriton apartments in Parramatta. The move of luggage and people from one to the other was a well-co-ordinated and again thanks to those who provided the essential transport to facilitate the move. Similarly with the very early morning transfer to the airport on the last day it was great to have Leanne and Andrew getting us to the airport for our flights.

Debbie Grove as TCU was ably assisted across the week by her quartet of assessors in Andrew Rindfleish, Leanne Gearside, Richard Barrow and Kyira Cox. These guys gave great support and feedback to our mix of umpires across both championship crews to enable successful tournaments. Success was also enjoyed by candidates Richard Dodds, Dale Kaimoana and Krissi Travers, who all capped off a lot of hard work over the year and during the tournament by earning their level 6’s. We congratulate them on their achievements. Congratulations to those umpires appointed to the grand final:

The crew for the Open Women’s grand final between New South Wales and Queensland (L-R): Kyira Cox (U2), Andrew Gallant (U1), Richard Barrow (Plate) and Jan Hora (U3).

2017 National Championships Open Women & U17 Girls

U17 Championship Report – Jessica Rooke and Breanna O'Connor

During our time at the U/17 Women's 2017, Breanna and I were given the privilege to work with some of the most experienced umpires Australia has to offer. We were both filled with excitement and honour to be able to work alongside such great role models. We kicked off our week with a team bonding session/ dinner. This enabled all the umpiring crew to meet and greet each other. It allowed umpires to catch up with friends from other states who we may have not seen in a while. This is always one of the highlights getting to see friends again and watch new friendships form.

After our bonding session it was time to get to business, this is where the nerves kicked in and excitement was among us to kick off the first games of the series. We started off strong, the weather was great, the sun was shining and everyone was having a great time. We generally had two games per day, enough to keep us busy and enough to allow us to watch some amazing softball. About mid-way through the week we hit a "little bit of a rain delay" but not to fear the sun came out and the games began again! By this stage, the competition was well on its way, teams were fighting for the top positions. Throughout the tournament the umpiring crew had some fun and played some games between each other. During the rain delays, the cards came out, and so did the competitiveness between umpires. It was a great way for umpires to get to know each other and form friendships. Over all it was one amazing experience. With some amazing softball, lots learnt along the way and friendships that will be kept for a very long time. Fingers crossed there will be lots more Nationals to come.

Also congratulations to those umpires appointed to the grand final:

The crew for the Under 17 Girls grand final between New South Wales and South Australia (L-R): Norelle Thomas (U1), Stephen Gutteridge (Plate), Janelle Hicks (U2) and David Crowe

(U3).

2017 National Championships Open Men Championship Report

Hosted by Softball ACT, the 34th John Reid Shield was played under sunny skies in Hawker from 9-14 January. Six teams and eleven umpires took to the diamond for the six-day competition, which saw large score lines due to quality batting. The Australian umpires were fortunate to have two visiting umpires join the crew: Andrew Gallant [New Brunswick, Canada] and Yan Hora [Prague, Czech Republic]. Our international visitors were made to feel most welcome and thoroughly enjoyed their time working the men’s games, plus taking time to see some of the sites of Canberra. After a double round robin, the final series saw defending champions NSW take on the ACT 89ers in the major semi, whilst Queensland and Victoria battled it out in the minor semi. The Patriots upset NSW in the prelim final and went on to fight hard in the Grand Final against the 89ers but ACT proved too strong, winning their 15th John Reid Shield. Congratulations to the umpires appointed to the Grand Final: Plate – Damien McCauley 1st Base – Jason Carter 2nd Base – Andrew Gallant 3rd Base – Debbie Grove You can watch the Open Men’s Grand Final by clicking here.

2017 National Championships U19 Men & U15 Boys

Championship Report - Alan Walsh The 2017 U/19 Men’s Australian Championships and U/15 Boy’s Regional Championships were held at Redlands in Queensland. The week started with the usual formalities with airport pickups, introductions, diamond inspections and pre-tournament meetings. We also participated in an on-diamond clinic session. During the session we went through positioning with some emphasis on secondary plays and secondary positioning. That evening, we had a barbeque while getting to know each other. Day 1 of the tournament bat checks, crew photo, opening ceremony and then games were on the agenda, or so we thought. We managed to get all the bats checked, had our crew photo taken just before we went out for the opening ceremony, everything was looking on track but just before the first game was scheduled to start, the heavens opened and the first day was eventually abandoned. The games started the next day with high heat and high humidity which resulted in games being played with the Heat policy in place and this became the trend for most of the games throughout the week. Luckily for us we had Nicole Crowe (in the role of Sports Trainer) on board to help us with monitoring our hydration levels and with our health and wellbeing throughout the tournament. Nicole also assisted us with pool sessions at the accommodation to assist us with muscle recovery with most people taking up the opportunity.

(L-R: David Crowe (U2), Richard Barrow (Plate), Chris Trengove (U1), Richard Dodds (U3)

During the week, there were some great games played, which all culminated with a great Grand Final. Unfortunately not everyone can be on the Grand Final, however, we would like to congratulate Richard Barrow, Chris Trengove, David Crowe and Richard Dodds for being appointed to the Championship game. On behalf of the entire crew, we would also like to congratulate Claire Austring and Andrew Compton, who both successfully achieved their Level 6 accreditation and we’d also like to congratulate Yvonne Kahler who was presented her Level 7 accreditation at the Closing ceremony of the Tournament.

Andrew Compton Claire Austring Yvonne Kahler

Finally, we would like to thank Darren Sibraa, Jay Gibson and Richard Barrow for all of their feedback to help us improve our game and help us with strategies to deal with situations in the game. We would like to thank Nicole for all of her hard work in looking after our health and wellbeing through the week, without you most of us would not have been able to survive the week.

Combined U19 & U15 Umpire Crew

Back Row [L-R]: Darren Sibraa, Richard Barrow, Aaron Robertson, Andrew Compton, Chris Trengrove, Michael Bendall, Trevor Murphy. Middle Row [L-R]: Jay Gibson, Jamie Harries, David Crowe, Neville Baggow, Steve Gutteridge, Georgia Kiel, Allan Walsh. Front Row [L-R]: Richard Dodds, Claire Austring, Breanna O’Connor, Jessica Rooke, Lailani Shepherd, David Casey, Lochlainn Martin, Yvonne Kahler.

2017 National Championships U19 Women & U15 Girls

Championship Report - Steve Wallace-Yarrow and Dave Addlem The crew arrived over the course of Saturday 14th January and either made their way directly to the accommodation at Hillarys Harbour or to the grounds in time for the ground inspection, bat certification checks and an on-diamond clinic, with Leanne Gearside and Kyira Cox as assessors. Shopping for the weeks necessities and a late crew meeting with the arrival of the rules master Leigh Evans (who flew in from the Canberra Open Men’s National duties) to set the tone for the tournament. We all needed to take responsibility for our learning and our leadership crew were there to assist as much as possible. The Under 19’s tournament was run in conjunction with the Under 15 Girls Regionals with Kev Tannebring as the TCU and Dale Kaimoana as his Deputy and as much as practicable we were encouraged to, and indeed did, combine our support and learning for each other. There were a lot of umpires here from many levels, both from interstate and locally. This meant that there were always plenty of people to talk to and learn from across the week. The Under 19 games were on diamonds 1 and 2 which are skinned diamonds. Access to them for the umpires and statisticians is through the ‘tunnels’ which are always a novel experience for the first timers at Mirrabooka. The tunnels are also very close to the diamonds and when the heat policy 5 minute breaks are taken after the third and fifth innings, the tunnels provide quick access off the diamond into cooler respite areas. Over the week in the 35 games that were run we had 11 umpires taking the diamonds. We had a variety of games to undertake, with the norm being 3 and 4 umpire crews. This ensured plenty of games to work on standard rotations. Leigh, with his deputies Kyira Cox and Leanne Gearside, provided some useful insights on rotations and a variety of issues at the day-time crew meetings. We progressed into the finals, where we went into 6 umpire games which for many of us was something completely different to work on. Yet another experience to talk about in our umpiring journey.

Mention needs to be made at this point of the wonderful support shown by all crew members towards each other. Softball WA had a sponsor that provided a caravan and this gave umpires some air conditioned respite from the heat and a place to eat lunch in comfort. On Monday we had cake and sing song as we acknowledged James Townsend’s birthday celebration.

Team building and trust were common threads throughout the week as we spent a lot of time in each other’s company having coffee, meals, playing cards and wind down time. The discussions about plays that had occurred and rule application were candid and showed the level of trust that had developed in the group. The tone set by the management crew was for open communication and direct and open feedback with an opportunity to explore issues. This was met as the group worked effectively together for the week. Feedback would lead to further discussions and shared experiences. We shared a common pool-side BBQ Breakfast on Friday morning which was great.

Towards the end of the week a number of the game scores were closer as teams readied themselves for the title tilt. The early finals games were terrific and were all good contests, see-sawing affairs where all teams were in with a chance. South Australia made their way through with a well-earned win in the preliminary final and set up a showdown with New South Wales.

A 6 umpire crew (pictured below) was appointed to the Grand Final with Warren Duff on the plate, Kyira Cox at 1st, Ron Trow at 2nd, Norelle Thomas at 3rd,, Steve Wallace-Yarrow at Left Field and Dave Addlem at Right Field. On this occasion NSW won the day quite comfortably.

A full crew photo:

International Umpires In our October 2016 edition we heard from those Australian umpires who had recently travelled overseas to officiate. In this issue we reverse the hemispheres and hear reflections from two international umpires that joined us here in Australia at our National Championships. Our global sport provides great opportunities …

Jan Hora (Czech Republic) “After 36 hours on the trip from Prague, via Dubai and Bangkok to Sydney, I was welcomed by my friend Ron at the airport. He picked me up, we set off and he took me directly to the fields in Blacktown. It was a shock for me, being New Year’s Day 1/1/2017 and being on the sunny field during the afternoon is something I never experienced before, being deep winter back home. Nice Blacktown Olympic stadium and more than 20 umpires prepared for tournaments, it was a nice start of year for me. During the whole week of the tournament I did twelve games and each of them was very nice and was big challenge for me. Not only because of weather, it is true, that during winter month like January in my hemisphere, my body is used to different temperatures than 25 – 30 °C, but there was more thing I enjoyed on every game. Teams playing this tournament I have never seen, most of blue crew I have never met and so on. I brought new experience with three-umpire system, changing nearly every second game to the four-umpire system. It had me at a heightened level of concentration. An advantage is running out to the outfield, it is same in both systems. A nice surprise for me was to see how many young and female blues were in our crew. This is nice experience for me to see, and I know I will try to help back home to bring more young boys and girls to blue crews. I am really happy that I can be part of the blue crew for this week. I am happy we can spend time on the field together, we can shop, cook, buy food, go for dinners, breakfasts and have barbeque together. I really appreciate, I can enjoy all these things. Grand final game assignment was very nice finish for this tournament. Many thanks to all of the umpires I worked and stayed with, thanks to Ron for the care he took of me, to Kyira for the night drives and thanks to Debbie for supervising me and leading me through the week. I hope there will be chance to meet again.” Jan Hora

Andrew Gallant (Canada) Tell our readers a bit about yourself I’m from Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. I’m a foreman with the city of Moncton Public Works and I’ve been umpiring for 30 years. What have been some of your umpiring career highlights? To date, this Australian exchange program is the highlight. In 2012 I was appointed to the Pan-Am world qualifier in Colombia. I have also worked seven senior Men’s Nationals in Canada as a level 5. (Eds note: Level 5 is the top level awarded in Canada) Tell us about the process of applying for this exchange program and why you wanted to come to Australia. In Canada we apply at the end of each season for international events, and Australia was my first choice as softball is big here and a beautiful country that I would love to see. What were some of the highlights of your Australian tour? Highlight #1: Working with Australian umpires and making new friends. Highlight #2: Being able to tour parts of Australia. Sydney, Blacktown, Canberra, Brisbane. Highlight #3: Working two tournaments, Open Women’s and Open Men’s – a great experience. Away from the ball park, what memorable things did you get up to? My wife and I got in early and did the Sydney Harbour New Year’s Eve cruise, which was a wonderful highlight. We also stayed a week after the tournament was done and explored the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. We also had an up close and personal encounter with the Koala at the Australia Zoo. We visited Bondi beach and had a great view from the Brisbane Wheel and a tour of the Brisbane River on board the River Cruise. How things were similar to softball as played in your homeland? No big changes as softball is similar in Canada. How was the softball different in Australia? The heat was a challenge, had to keep hydrated. What was the best lesson learnt during your trip? The umpires have the same passion for the game of softball in Australia as in Canada and work very hard to achieve their own goals. What do you think will be the life-long lasting memory from your trip? Being able to bring my wife to Australia and she got to experience what I did and also she got to meet all the umpire crew. The people we got to meet and become friends, and now we can keep in touch on Facebook. They treated her like a crew member. Thank you Australian Umpires. Finally, how will you use this experience to help other umpires back at home? By sharing your experience and talking to young umpires that anything is possible if you work hard and set goals. Thank you Softball Canada.

2017 International Event Umpire Appointments

Softball Australia and the National Umpiring Committee extend congratulations to the following umpires on their 2017 appointments:

Japan Cup 23 – 28 August

David Casey, Qld

12th World Cup of Softball 5 – 9 July, Oklahoma City

Leanne Gearside, NSW Trevor Murphy, Vic

Canada Cup 10 – 17 July, Surrey, BC, Canada

David Casey - QLD Warren Duff - WA Leanne Gearside, NSW

David Casey Leanne Gearside Trevor Murphy Warren Duff

Softball Australia Accreditations New Level 7 and Level 8 Presentations Congratulations to the following umpires who were recognised with their Level 7 and Level 8 awards across the summer of softball:

Level 8 Level 7

Kyira Cox – NSW Richard Barrow – VIC

Amanda Houison – NSW Jason Carter – VIC

Ron Houison – NSW

Yvonne Kahler – QLD These awards recognise the distinguished contribution these umpires have made on and off the diamond, at the local, state, national and international levels over many years. To achieve Level 7, in short, umpires must demonstrate a commitment to their ongoing rule knowledge and WBSC certification maintenance, serve the broader umpiring programme through the training of umpires and the promotion of umpiring at the state and/or national level, in addition to officiating at one Junior or Open World Championship. To achieve Level 8, in short, umpires must demonstrate a commitment to their ongoing rule knowledge and WBSC certification maintenance, serve the broader umpiring programme through the training of umpires and the promotion of umpiring at the state and/or national level, in addition to officiating at a minimum of two World Championships, one of which must be at an Open championship level. BNOL asked each of the umpires to offer a short reflection on their award.

Kyira Cox – Level 8 "I am extremely honoured to be recognised with my level 8. As a young girl I dreamed of representing my country but never thought it would come true and to receive the highest level in Australia is far beyond my expectations.”

Amanda Houison – Level 8

It was an unexpected surprise to receive my Level 8 in Sydney, and an honour to be recognised next to so many greats of our sport. Umpiring internationally and giving back to the sport have been highlights of my career so far. Umpiring the Junior Women's in 2013, Brampton Ontario, and the Senior Women's in 2016,

Vancouver, British Columbia, will be experiences I won’t forget. I thank the softball community for this honour.”

Richard Barrow – Level 7 “Being presented with my Level 7 during the closing ceremony of this summer’s Nationals came as a complete surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed my World Championship experience last year and was pleased with my performance, so receiving this recognition was like the icing on the cake. Joining some of my mentors and people who have been instrumental in my development is quite an honour.”

Jason Carter – Level 7 “It was a terrific surprise to be presented with my level 7 at the recent Open Men’s tournament in Canberra. I was appointed to the Junior Men’s Worlds in 2014, which was truly an honour to represent Australia. I couldn’t have achieved this milestone without the assistance and mentoring that I’ve received along the way from so many people and I encourage any umpires out there with a dream to work hard, listen to good advice and love what you do.”

Ron Houison – Level 7 “It is an honour to be recognised as a Level 7 umpire alongside so many great softball umpires from across the country. I have been fortunate enough to have umpired the game at many levels over the years, with my international tours forming some of my fondest umpiring memories to date.”

Yvonne Kahler – Level 7 “I am incredibly honoured to have been awarded my Level 7 at the 2017 U19 Men’s and U15 Boys. Being presented in my home state gave me a huge sense of achievement. Having so many friends there to recognise my achievement was a wonderful feeling.”

On behalf of the Softball Australia umpiring community, congratulations!