REFS EARN PROMOTION TO LEN CLINIC

Two of the National League’s youngest referees, Mike Jukes and Damien Taylor, were chosen by GB to attend a LEN referees’ clinic in Hungary.

The event was preparation for sitting the formal LEN exam next year and hopefully qualifying as internationals from 2006.

The pair are the first GB candidates for LEN status since Andrew Allen’s success in 1997/98. This provides welcome evidence that there are now clear opportunities for young officials with talent and ambition to progress up the refereeing ladder.

Mike, aged 35, a soon-to-be-freelance quantity surveyor who currently works as joint general manager of a small building firm, is a member of the Warley Wasps club. “I took up refereeing around ten years ago in the Midland League,” he said. “I had started playing as a 10-year-old at Wednesbury and these days still enjoy splashing around in goal. But I realised in my early 20s that I wasn’t going to achieve much as a player and so thought I might still stand a chance as an official.”

How does he see the challenge of refereeing? “At a higher level, you have to firstly earn the respect of players, then the coaches – initially, all of these tend to test you out to the extreme. And coaches in particular will overplay the intimidation game!

“In any match, the challenge is to be both consistent (always the most important thing) and to understand what is happening in terms of advantage and the wider perspective of the game.”

For Damien, a 24-year-old Cheltenham-based teaching assistant, selection for the clinic has almost certainly been achieved in record time. It was only three years ago that he took the basic ASA referees’ course, officiating in his first Bristol & District League match immediately afterwards. He was introduced to the National League the following year and last season was promoted to Division One games for the first time.

Damien is a product of the Rotherham club, where he played in the same junior side as a younger Richard Leighton and featured in ASA semi-finals. He also plays for the Wiltshire club Wroughton and for Walsall in the Midland League.

“My ambition was always to get involved in international polo,” he said. “I knew from the early stages that I was never going to achieve that level as a player and so refereeing offered an obvious second option. Every game you do brings a challenge – but the biggest challenge comes when you are coping with the better players.”

The National League has made a commitment in the past year or so to encourage the development of new referees, backed by support from experienced mentors and delegates. There will be half a dozen new faces in Division Three this season. 

Meanwhile, a great deal of time and effort continues to be offered to the sport by the country’s established international referees, whose achievements are seldom recognised.

Andrew Allen went to Lille for the senior women’s four nations competition and earlier was appointed to a LEN junior/youth women’s tournament in Portugal.

Tad Detko travelled with the GB junior women’s team to Prague. He was also appointed to the LEN Youth Women’s European Championships in Portugal.

Chris Freebury was in Poland with the junior men and both he and Andrew have been to Israel for the Maccabi Games.

Brian Littlejohn was at the LEN Women’s Club Champions qualification round in Spain and also in Russia for the FINA Women’s World League preliminary round.