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Pope Benedict XVI not only celebrated his first Mass on April 24th but he also found time to visit the ECC/ACU&S GL6 Umpires Course being held in the Hotel Casa Bonus Pastor in Vatican City (well, we can dream can’t we!!!.)

Following the success of the ECC Introductory Course held in November 2004 the GIAC (Italian Umpires Association) requested that the next level Course be run so that they could sit their GL6 Exam. Graham Cooper was duly despatched to Rome to run this event. 13 keen umpires attended and were enthralled as Graham took them through the vagaries of Injured Striker’s and Runners; Substitutes; Handled the Ball; Hit the ball twice, and various other ‘obscure’ Laws. Interspersed with this ‘new’ work was revision of some areas that they had covered during the Introductory Course.

Since English was not always fully understood Graham was expertly helped by Franco Esposito who managed to translate, almost word for word, everything Graham said – not an easy task but one that contributed greatly to the success of the weekend.

With such a busy schedule there was little time for any sightseeing but 5 of the group did manage to stroll down to St.Peter’s Square on the Saturday evening to watch the last minute preparations for the Pope’s first Mass the next day – no glimpse of the Pope but it was nice to see, in person, the place where so much of the world’s attention had been focused during the past few weeks.

At the time of writing the results of the GL6 Exam were not known but we wish each and every one of the umpires every success in this area.