Arnold School

Fair Play

On Friday and Saturday of last week, two more national hockey finals took place at Cannock: the U13 schools 7 a-side and the U12 clubs 7 a-side. Arnold was represented at both finals - not with the winning team this time, but with an official!

Hannah Denison was honoured to be part of the umpiring team who officiated at the event. She was following in the footsteps of Lauren Simkin from Year 11. Two months ago Hannah achieved her EHB Level 1 umpire accreditation, and she is now one of four candidates hoping to get appointed to the North Most Promising Young Umpire panel. Three weeks ago she umpired her first regional event at the U16 girls' county finals in Leeds. Lauren was also there umpiring the U17s.

Hannah had a great two days. There were 19 young umpires from around the country taking part in the National Young Umpire Challenge. The group was split into two to cover the girls and boys competitions respectively. On Friday Hannah umpired four round-robin matches for the Schools U13 girls competion and as a result of her assessment she was appointed to umpire the grand final. On Saturday she umpired another five round-robin matches in the Clubs U12 girls competition, and she was appointed to the girls' grand final again. She received some positive feedback from her umpire coaching assessors and several of the playing team coaches went out of their way to congratulate her on her performance.

Well done Hannah, and good luck on your quest to be appointed to the North Most Promising Young Umpire panel.

Posted by: Miss A DeMiranda
Date: Wednesday 16/05/2012