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The Centre Départemental de Formation et d’Animation Sportives was the venue for the first ECC Introductory Umpire Course of 2004 led by Graham Cooper, ably assisted by Tom Keeble and David Rhodes, on 27-29 February.

Seven intrepid umpires braved the cold and snow to attend the whole weekend, where they were put through their paces, and even the presence of handball players and an International Indoor Athletics event could not prise the umpires away from the classroom where they listened intently to the Three Musketeers.

It was extremely pleasing to see Tom flexing his instructional muscles again as he dealt with the laws on No Ball Foot Faults and Dead Ball.  It was something of a landmark in Tom’s training career because it was the first time that he had ever used PowerPoint as a presentation tool and I hope he was impressed by how easy and versatile it is.

Local umpire David Rhodes acted as a translator.  This was an extremely important role since several of the umpires attending did not have English as their first language, and without David’s assistance the information would not have been put across anywhere near so effectively.  As things turned out the whole weekend was very successful and the umpires went away fully briefed on how to go about their arduous, but rewarding role in the game.

I sincerely hope that the following umpires continue to umpire in the French League and will one day will have the necessary experience to be nominated to stand in ECC tournaments.

Peter Christie, David Edwards, Piyushkumar Patel, Hussain Ziafat, Shahzad Asim, Sharkey Jayawardene, and Joseph Atukorale.

Thank you, one and all, for making it an enjoyable, and worthwhile, weekend.