End of the Year Report - 2003/2004

Following the success of the Special Olympics Summer Games of 2003 all qualified umpires were invited to attend a meeting on 4th Sept 2003. The meeting decided to form Leinster TT Umpires Association. The management committee of the association is composed of Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary and 3 elected Committee Members. The officers of the association will hold office for a year.

The purpose of the association is to provide umpiring services to events in the Leinster region and extend helping hands to other provinces, when required. The association adopted a policy to educate umpires for the next higher level. With this in mind, a method was devised to record the amount of time each umpire will spent on umpiring duty. Thus, by the end of the season, or at any time of the year, the association will be in a position to know the exact amount of time each umpire spent on umpiring. Each event is classified as Ranking or Non-Ranking. All umpires must complete a certain amount of time umpiring in Junior and Senior Ranking tournaments before sitting for the National Umpires qualification.

During the 2003-2004 season umpiring services were provided in 12 separate events spreading over 22 days. The total number of umpires on duty were 122. The association also provided services to following events :

1. Munster Open - Cork - 2 Referees - 3 days,
2. Veterans Open - Isle of Man - 1 Umpire - 3 days,
3. World School Championship - Germany - 1 Umpire - 8 days,
4. Ulster Open - Belfast - 2 Umpires - 1 day.

The association arranged 2 Refresher Courses (RC) during the year. The 1st RC held on 21st Feb 04 was attend by 11 umpires. The 2nd RC held on 7th April 04 was attend by 13 umpires from the association and 10 from the Wheelchair Association.

The association hopes to provide umpiring services to the forthcoming Schools International Championships in Limerick from 25th to 27th June 2004.