Among the busiest members of the North Harbour bowling community in the first half of the 2024-25 season have been the centre’s small, but dedicated band of umpires.
They have already been involved in a range of tournaments starting in late September and their role will continue well into the new year.
In early October they were out in force in the Metlifecare Masters which involved many 'senior' bowlers for the best part of the week. That was followed in November by major centre championships, then towards the end of last month by the most prestigious event ever hosted by Bowls North Harbour.
This was the world men and women’s champion of champions singles tournament at the Browns Bay club and as Harbour’s umpires acted not only as umpires but as markers, it meant several training rehearsals.
That had been preceded by a warm-up event, the Oceania Challenge hosted by the Auckland centre, and then over the Christmas-New Year break they will be again active when Auckland and North Harbour host the national singles and pairs championships.
This is all a big ask for a Harbour umpires membership of just 22. As umpires association past president, and Bowls North Harbour board member Sue Rossiter says , this is “not enough.”
“But,” she says. “We have a lot of fun with regular gatherings for training and swapping stories.”
As with referees and umpires in all other codes, umpires are the unsung heroes of bowls, often spending long days from early mornings into the evenings overseeing tournaments.
While bowling is essentially a simple exercise, of merely propelling a bowl towards the smaller object known as the jack or kitty, it has a surprisingly lengthy and complex set of rules and regulations.
Umpires need to be experts of any contingency that can arise in the heat of battle. They also need a firm hand in seeing that the etiquette and sportsmanship which underpin the sport are always observed.
It also helps if umpires have been competent players themselves and as Sue Rossiter points out, North Harbour is fortunate in that respect. One of its members, Sheryl Wellington, from the Mairangi Bay club, has won five centre titles and so has her gold star. And as two of the newer umpires, Michelle Macdonald is in the centre’s women’s representative development squad and Deanne Broland is in the one-to-five-year representative squad.
Sue, herself, has been a useful performer on the green, in the 2011-12 season winning the Takapuna club’s women’s singles, pairs, triples and four. She, Lorna Donald and Margaret Eames have the distinction of being internationally qualified umpires.
To raise funds and to give umpires greater rapport with the centre’s playing members, the umpires run three tournaments each season, the first of which this season, was held recently at Mairangi Bay and was won by a team from the Riverhead club.
This was for a trophy named in honour of an umpiring legend, Jean Ashby, who after being an official at many high-profile international tournaments has been honoured with life membership of both the Harbour centre and Bowls New Zealand.
The fund-raising at the tournaments is for essential umpiring equipment such as high-tech lasers which will further ensure greater speed and accuracy in measuring.
Meanwhile, North Harbour will have a representative at next year’s world champions of champions. Keiko Kurohara, a popular member of the Takapuna club and its secretary, recently won the Japan national singles title as well as the pairs. She has represented Japan in international events for some years.
