Referee Resources


Referees Newsletter April 2017

Hi All,

I’ve been asked to continue with the newsletters for another year and it’s hard to believe that we are at the start of another refereeing year.  This year promises to be a busy one with the Oceania Juniors in Henderson, World Master Games in Auckland and the World Junior Championships in Tauranga along with all the usual tournaments we cover.  I look forward to catching up with you all along the way and it’s good to see that we will all be at the Nationals in Havelock this year.  This has been brought forward by six weeks compared to other years.

Cheers

Janet Udy – Referees Panel Member


Refereeing Panel Selection

The current members of the panel are Glenn (Refereeing Director), Sam (Squash NZ Rep), Janet, Mike and Chris.  

The panel has had discussion on the makeup of the panel and in an effort to ensure succession and regular change on the panel we have agreed to modify the way members of the panel are selected. Each year a member will stand down, and each panel member, including the Referees Director will serve a 3 year term.  Nominations for the position will be called for with the member standing down being able to be nominated again (if they agree!).  The wider refereeing group will then vote to select who takes up the vacated position. This year Chris will be standing down after many years of service to the Squash NZ Management Panel – thank you Chris for your efforts over this time.  Please send your nominations to Sam as soon as possible so we can finalise the makeup of the Panel for this year.


December Panel Meeting

The last panel meeting was in December via Skype.  The main points from this meeting are listed below.

• John Small was to begin the refereeing review.  You should have all been contacted by now and given the opportunity to provide him with feedback. To those who have provided feedback, thank-you for taking the time to contribute to this review, which we hope will result in an improved refereeing programme.

• We have been working with several potential referees to progress them to national status in preparation for World Juniors, in particular Nicky McNaught, Michel Galloway, Nigel Lloyd, Neil Rossin, Paul Kennett and Terry Manuatu amongst others. Highlights so far are Paul Kennett achieving all criteria over the course of the last few months and just has to complete the General Principles of Officiating and he will be accredited. Terry Manuatu has re-qualified as District Referee and has started on National, and Michel Galloway is close to meeting criteria. It’s great to see some new candidates coming on board, and getting through the enhanced CBTA programme we have implemented in 2015 to become good National Referees.

• As our National Referee standards exceed the WSF standard, Glenn is going to include a section in the CBTA programme which will allow a referee to become accredited if there is evidence over multiple matches of a particular competency. For example, the problematic box 9 “Prevent Constant Stoppages” – the assessors will accredit a candidate at National Level on an interim basis despite this competency not having been demonstrated if there is clear evidence over multiple assessments of the Candidate giving influential “No Lets” early in matches. Another example is Box 11 “Apply Conducts”, we may accredit a candidate on an interim basis if an instance of conduct has not occurred in any assessed match, and the candidate has not missed opportunities to apply the conduct rule. Obviously we want all National Referees to meet all criteria, which is why the accreditation will be interim and the candidate will be expected to meet criteria within a certain time period.

• The assessment panel have completed reviews of all current National Referees records compared to the requirements in our CBTA programme and you should have received a letter advising you of what criteria you have outstanding. Obviously we cannot expect all to meet criteria overnight and it has only been at the very end of 2015 and in the 2016 season that we have assessed using the revised assessment methodology. This has made many more assessments valid, and even invalids will contribute a competency or 2 as well as to the over-all error rate – previously these ended up in the bin! We are committed to providing further advice, training and mentoring if required prior to assessment to help you to meet criteria so you can continue to achieve your goals in refereeing. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries with regard to your status or to discuss a plan for coaching/mentoring.


Prime Minister Scholarships

We’ve once again been successful with Prime Minister Scholarships with a total of $18,000 being awarded.  Jackie, Janet and Chris have been given individual scholarships along with a group scholarship for the refereeing group as a whole. This will enable us to again bring Australian assessors over to some of our PSA events to further improve our standards as a group.


Relocations

A couple of our referees have been on the move — Jan has moved to from Invercargill to Tauranga and Ross has moved from Cheviot to Ashley.


Newsletter Rules

Chris has put together discussion on some of the rules for Squash NZ to include in their newsletters.  I’ve include the one on Blood as there was much discussion about how to apply this in relation to the injury rule.

Blood (Rule 14.4)

When any bleeding occurs, play must stop and the player must leave the court to attend to the bleeding immediately. It must be staunched and covered. There is no specific time allowed for this, rather a reasonable time is allowed. It is important that the player understands that if blood is again visible during play, no more time is allowed and he/she must concede the game in progress and be ready to play again after 90 seconds. Conceding a game this way may only happen once. If the bleeding has not been fixed at 90 seconds, the match is lost.

If the bleeding was accidentally caused by the opponent, this should be considered an accidental injury by the opponent and the player has 15 minutes to fix the bleeding, and a conduct must be applied to the opponent. If the player is unable to staunch the bleeding within the 15 minutes, they win the match under the injury rule.

If the bleeding was caused by the opponent’s deliberate or dangerous play, then the bleeding player will win the match immediately given they are unable to continue without stopping to fix the bleeding.

Clothing with blood on it must be changed before play resumes, and the court must also be cleaned as far as possible.

It matters not if the bleeding occurred because of the player’s own actions, such as diving for the ball – the process still applies as stated above   There is no rule against diving!


Life Membership

Peter Highsted’s contribution to squash was recognised at the Squash NZ AGM when he was awarded life membership.  The link to the news article is below:

/news/index.cfm?content_id=3621


PSA Referee System

Attached is a newsletter describing the current system applicable to PSA matches which are recorded.


PSA Clothing Rules

The PSA has asked that the following rule on clothing be circulated to referees of all levels.

6.4.1 On-Court

The following clothing rule shall apply without exception to all PSA World Tour tournaments.
In all matters of judgement or opinion arising from the interpretation of this clothing rule, the decision of the tournament referee or on-site PSA representative shall be final, except that they may not rule illegal or unacceptable an item of clothing or a design which has been approved by the PSA.
In addition to the above, clean and customarily acceptable squash attire shall be worn.
 
Unacceptable attire shall include:
 
* Sweatshirts
* Tracksuits (tracksuit trousers may be worn for religious regions after approval from PSA)
* Long sleeved tops
* Promotional cotton t-shirts
* Leggings
* Aerobic bodysuit of any description
* Long sleeved compression garments
* Full length compression stockings (leggings)
 
Playing clothing shall consist of:
For men - a short-sleeved polo shirt with an attached collar or non-cotton t-shirt and shorts outfit, sleeveless playing top and shorts outfit, shorts, socks and non-marking indoor court shoes.
Compression shorts above the knee are allowed to be worn under playing shorts. Compression socks up to the knee are allowed.
 
For women - A short-sleeved polo shirt with an attached collar or non-cotton t-shirt, sleeveless non-cotton vest top, dress, shorts, skirt, socks and non-marking indoor court shoes.
 
Compression shorts above the knee are allowed to be worn under playing shorts, skirts and dresses. Compression socks up to the knee are allowed.
 
Players may wear clothing of any colour or combination of colours.
 
All clothing shall conform to the accepted standards of decency and cultural/religious tradition of the country in which the competition is taking place, as adjudged by the tournament referee.
 
Both players shall be obliged to wear distinctly different coloured clothing. The higher seeded player will have first choice. This colour/style must be worn for the duration of the match. If a player has to change his/her top during a match he/she must make sure that they wear the same colour and style of shirt as they started the match. It is the responsibility of the players to comply with this rule. As the PSA is very serious about its media obligations, non-compliance of this rule will result in application of the PSA Code of Conduct.
 
Headwear, other than that normally worn for religious, cultural or medical reasons, is not permitted, with the exception of headbands, bandannas and straps for approved eye-guards.
Junior members are to abide by the rules of the national federation sanctioning a tournament with regards to eye guards. If the national federation deems it mandatory for juniors to wear eye guards then this rule will be upheld by PSA.
 
Any jewellery or watches worn by a player shall not be so conspicuous or brightly reflecting as to distract or un-sight an opponent and shall not be potentially dangerous. The tournament referee may require the removal of any piece of jewellery deemed to violate the above.
 
Referees are given the authority not to allow any player, breaching these rules, back on court and the player may be disqualified.


Thanks all and we look forward to updating you again in the coming months. 


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