Over the next few years, an important focus of Skerries Hockey Club is the building of an ethos of respect, discipline and sportsmanship towards the opposition players and match officials at all levels of the club.
To this end, I want to circulate a recent email from an opposing umpire, that I feel deserves to be seen by all our membership. It relates to a Ladies 1st Team match against Rathgar on Saturday 18/02/2023. The team (and the club members) should feel very proud after reading the message below.
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I would like to bring the following to the attention of the Officers and Committee of Skerries Hockey Club.
Forgive me, but this is the avenue I found to communicate with the Club in respect of the match versus Rathgar Ladies 1st. Unfortunately Skerries lost and blame can often in those circumstances be attributed to the oppositions (biased?) umpire.
Yesterday I was the opposition's hometown umpire. So when it came to full time there was the usual shaking of hands with the victors passing no real comment on the umpiring.
Then there was Skerries. Separately in the line two ladies wanted to say something to me, so I was braced for the all too familiar observations that contain (un)helpful comments.
I was left completely speechless and embarrassed as both began to thank me profusely for umpiring the match "fairly". After match comments seldom if ever come in that form and it was an almost emotional moment. To think that the losers would take time, in the heat of the moment, to assure me they were accepting the balance in the match, made my enjoyment of the match too. Yes I am sure I made errors and there were appeals
I have written, solely to say these ladies are a credit to your Club and furthermore the ethos of the Club was evident by their actions. Congratulation to Skerries
It was sad to learn that your Club had some very bad experiences with home town umpires, however I would also like to compliment Steve , your umpire, who was equally as "fair"
Best of wishes for the rest of the season
Yours in Sport
Crozier Deane
