2016–17 Club Umpire Briefing
Ulster Hockey Club Forum
Tuesday 6th September 2016
Over the summer your will have received several letters from Ulster Hockey requesting nomination
details of either your panel umpire or your ‘own umpire’ for the 2016-17 season. If you have yet to
respond to Ulster Hockey, I would suggest that you contact the Hockey Office as soon as possible.
Since last season, Rule 6 has been amended by Ulster Hockey. Now ONLY Premier and Senior 1 clubs
MUST nominate at least 1 graded umpire to be available to the panel to officiate neutral appointments
from the start of the season. For other clubs with teams in Senior 2, Senior 3 and Senior 4, your 1 st XI
matches will be umpired by ‘own umpires’.
The amended rule states that from the 1st January 2017, these ‘own umpires’ MUST:
1. Have completed an approved Rules Course;
2. Have passed the examination; and
3. Be registered on the Ulster Hockey Umpires portal.
In order to be deemed ‘qualified to umpire senior matches. Clubs who fail to provide qualified umpires
for Senior 2, 3 or 4 matches will face a fine per match as determined by the Ulster Hockey Board.
Umpires are an integral part of the game. The purpose of Rule 6 is to improve knowledge of the rules,
improve the standard of umpiring and the consistency in how The Rules of Hockey are interpreted. It is
therefore disappointing, that what was conceived as a ‘win-win’ for everyone has been so difficult to
implement over the last couple of seasons.
Regrettably, last season the Ulster Hockey Management Board were forced to apply sanctions to some
clubs who were found to be in in breach of this rule and will do so again should clubs ignore their
responsibilities. Although clubs are expected to provide an umpire to the panel very week during the
season, the Ulster Hockey Management Board have decided that if clubs provide an umpire at least
80% of the time (last year this was 75%) then they were deemed to have complied with the rule.
Although, not yet agreed by the Ulster Hockey Management Board, the Umpire Executive will be
recommending to the Board that there should be two review points during the season – one for matches
played up to the Christmas break and the other at the end of the season (actual dates will be notified to
clubs). Throughout the season, we will publish updated availability statistics on the Umpire’s portal and
we would encourage you to regularly visit the site, view the statistics and if you believe them to be
wrong query them with either Adare Brady (Ladies) or Gareth Herron (Men).
2016–17 Club Umpire Briefing
Again, the Umpires Committee are happy to work with clubs to help you meet your obligations. We will
be running rules courses in the autumn, so look out for the dates – these will be published on the
Umpires Portal and on the Ulster Hockey website. If your club has sufficient numbers we will consider
running rules courses for your club - or perhaps two or three local clubs could group together and we
could run a course in your area – so there should be no reason why clubs cannot get at least one
person on to a rules course. Our basic objective is to do everything that we can to help clubs meet their
responsibilities; thereby avoiding potential sanction; but clubs need to understand that we cannot do
this alone.
Umpires Portal
The Ulster Hockey Umpires Portal www.ulsterhockeyumpires.com is a rich source of information for:

Umpire appointments for your 1st XI matches (Premier & Senior 1)

Umpire appointments for IHL, ISC, IJC, IHT and IHC matches

The latest match details of Premier, Senior 1 and Irish fixtures being played in Ulster

Contact details of all umpires on the panel;

News Items from the world of umpiring

Details of Rules Courses, Roadshows and other Umpire Events.
In addition, each club has its own secure page on the portal, where information relating to forthcoming
matches is displayed, fixture details, umpire appointments (including contact details); information
related to the availability of your panel umpires (very handy if you want to manage your nominated
umpire availability targets for 2016-17) and contact information relating to your club. If you have not
already done so, please ensure that someone from your club reviews and updates this information
before the start of the season – particularly the contact details of your Match Secretary.
Fixtures and Appointments
Ulster Hockey are responsible for entering the Fixture Information in ‘FixturesLive’ which is linked to the
Umpires Portal. Match Secretaries are responsible for informing the appropriate Umpire Appointment
Secretary:
Ladies:
Adare Brady
Men: Gareth Herron
077 3226 5842
078 1398 6713
[email protected]
[email protected]
If there are any changes to the time, venue or date of your home 1st XI matches from the Fixture
Information published. Match Secretaries should get in the habit of regularly checking their 1st XI fixture
details by either logging on to the secure club page on the Umpires Portal, or looking at the published
fixtures and appointments for the week ahead.
2016–17 Club Umpire Briefing
The job of the Umpire Appointments Secretary can be onerous. But it can be made much easier
through careful planning and good communication by and with club Match Secretaries – that means
advising the relevant Appointment Secretary in good time, ideally 5 – 7 days of any changes to a fixture,
so there is sufficient time to advise the umpires and find a suitable replacement.
Failure to provide notice of fixture changes will result in the Umpiring Committee recommending to the
Ulster Hockey Management Board that your club is fined for failing to inform the Umpires Appointment
Secretary. Normally only the club Match Secretary should contact Umpire Appointments Secretary.
Reporting Yellow & Red Cards
Ulster Hockey Panel umpires will report all yellow & red cards via the Match Card together with a
separate report of the incident sent in by the umpire themselves. Offenders in junior matches should be
punished in the same way. Too often they get away with indiscipline and poor behaviour. It is not fair if
persistent offenders at junior level go unpunished season after season.
Please inform your club umpires they must report all yellow & red card incidents on the Match Card and
via email to Ulster Hockey within 72 hours of the match taking place. Your Umpire Liaison Officer
should enforce this requirement and support Club Umpires with disciplinary reports as much as they
can.
Report forms for red and yellow cards, and guidelines on how to complete them, are available on the
Ulster Hockey website.
Behaviour towards Umpires
We continue to hear from our umpires of some unsavoury behaviour towards them – which has led to
several umpires stopping umpiring. Ulster Hockey, has also shown that it treats all such incidents very
seriously and has in the past heavily fined clubs. Clubs are reminded that they have a responsibility to
ensure that their players, managers, coaches, club officials and spectators do not verbally abuse,
harass or threaten umpires. We understand that sometimes emotions can run high, but that does not
excuse such behaviour. We do ask our umpires to be agreeable to discuss the game with players,
coaches, etc. at a time after the match when everyone has settled down a bit. Some points to bear in
mind:

Ulster Hockey has a Code of Conduct for dealing with unwelcome behaviour, this is published
on the Ulster Hockey website.

All unsavoury incidents will be reported to the Ulster Hockey.

There is an onus on all clubs to ensure umpires are treated courteously and with respect. We
would ask you to be proactive in ensuring your members are made aware of this requirement.
2016–17 Club Umpire Briefing

There is no game without the umpires so please ask your members to treat them as they would
expect to be treated themselves.

Equally RAP [Respect All Participants] is recognised as a two way street by umpires.
New FIH Guidelines
In line with IHUA, Ulster Umpires have decided to adopt new FIH Guidelines in relation to players’
misconduct towards umpires (including crowding of Umpires), which often occurs following the award of
goals, penalty strokes and penalty corners, etc.
While there is no ‘right’ for a player to protest any decision by an umpire, from the start of the 2016-17
season, if there is a challenge to an umpire’s decision it MUST be made by ONLY one player
(preferably the captain). Any other (i.e. second or more) players approaching the umpire are liable to
green card personal penalties. Repeat offences may result in yellow card personal penalties.
Players are reminded that player protests and crowding of umpires is NOT acceptable and that the
repeated questioning of decisions or ‘approaching’ will be dealt with accordingly.
Contacting the Umpiring Committee
Ulster Hockey Umpires are managed by an Umpiring Committee which reports directly to the Ulster
Hockey Management Board. If there are any umpiring issues or matters that you would like the
committee to consider (except appointment issues) please contact the Umpiring Committee Honorary
Secretary. Gordon Gillespie at [email protected]