The umpires – 11 male and 11 female – came through the courses in Plymouth and in Wolverhampton after qualifying via two training courses. 

The former, delivered by Paul Whiting from Joola Plymouth TTC, is designed to support their upcoming 4 star, while the latter was tutored by International Umpire Brian Jackson at the Women’s British Clubs League and aimed to provide umpires to support events generally around the Midlands. 

The umpires who passed are: Mitchell Bellham, Marie-Claire Davies, Scott Davies, Holly Fauchon, Len Field, Paul Giles, Carol Giles, Kate Hughes, Elliott Hey, Tra Hoang, Pete Jamieson, Susan Laffey, Helen Lambert, Shreyansh Makhanasa, Lee McHugh, Marketa Myskova, Phil Pagett, Jeff Rigby, Dawn Sagoo, Tim Strutz, Dominique Williams, Lin Wu. 

Meanwhile, Mohammad Sadek from Birmingham has completed two qualifications, stepping up after passing his Level 2 (National Umpires) exam and also his Level 1 Referee exam. 

The Technical Officials Committee (TOC) has also been busy, delivering an online ‘umpire and assistant umpire’ training session and shortly due to run an OVR Touchpad training session for our lesser experienced umpires attending the World Championships and Senior Nationals. Both of these are run by Tom Purcell, London 2012 Men’s Singles final umpire. 

Chris Newton, who is part of TOC, said: “This is part of our ongoing strategy to create a high-quality workforce of officials, safeguarding the future of officiating in the sport and providing officials with a pathway to progress to the top if they wish to do so. 

“It’s particularly pleasing to see an equal split of male and female umpires qualifying from these latest courses.” 

Click here to find out more about the officiating pathway and upcoming courses.