#46 Let’s talk about the booing!

Conservative guesstimate, 75% of you reading this will have volunteered at some point in your lives. 

Whether it’s coaching, umpiring or as a committee member. Maybe you book the venue for training, wash the bibs, order kit or equipment or organise your team socials. 

Perhaps your volunteering doesn’t take place within netball or sport - you might listen to children read at the local school, visit a vulnerable pensioner or help out at a community centre - I suspect we’ve all completed some sort of volunteering at some point in our lives. 

Now imagine completing your volunteering with a baying crowd all booing at you! 

That’s exactly the treatment of umpires I have been witness to this Superleague season. 

I had an interesting (and good-natured, polite) debate with some of my fellow Surrey Storm supporters at one of the last home games of the season. One very passionate Storm fan thought standing, gesticulating and booing the umpire, was acceptable. She was probably far more surprised that the said umpire was a volunteer, than she was at me, calling her out for the booing!

I’ve thought on more than one occasion this season that the Vitality Superleague, National Governing Body or even the franchises should possibly do something about the booing - I really feel that it’s not in keeping with the game. Not sure what though and for the umbrella organisations, at least, fan engagement hasn’t really been a strong point! 

No doubt we will hear booing at the Commonwealth Games next month. We hear it on TV watching the Suncorp Super Netball and ANZ leagues. 

I heard booing at the 2019 World Cup although I much preferred the crowd’s voice used for more positive reasons - ‘we want Dunn’ for example! 

All of these competitions’ umpires, (and table officials for that matter) are volunteers. They do not get paid for their umpiring. They may get ‘expenses’ towards their travel - but I doubt very much that covers petrol, wear & tear on vehicles, public transport, food and accommodation. 

Whilst we’re on the subject, umpires do not get paid for their physical training to make sure they are in peak condition to ‘keep up’ with mostly professional or semi professional athletes. They may get funding for qualifications and CPD if they’re lucky, but the form filling for funding and time spent undertaking practice and qualifications, will be voluntary. 

Ideally our umpires, table officials and other volunteers who make the game happen, will be recompensed appropriately, in time. Will I find booing acceptable then? Probably not, but that’s a debate for another day! 

Netball can’t happen without umpires. 

Let’s see if we can remember that in the CWG final when the GK is pulled for obstruction with a matter of seconds to go. 😉 

Footnote: in looking for an appropriate image to accompany this blog there was not one image of a specifically netball crowd ‘booing’ to be found! Long may that continue!