Congratulations to Mason Wright who successfully passed his Regional Umpire Coach Award on 8th Dec at a very wet Wimbledon HC. We welcome Mason to our coaching ranks along side his umpiring in the South and the National League

Congratulations and welcome to David Pease- Watkin who passed his Level 2 assessment on Saturday and is now a full member. Thanks to all in Surrey HUA who have assisted in David's development.

The below message has come from the EH Ethics and Compliance team:
We are seeing an increasing number of complaints regarding urinating at the side of the pitch. As we are sure you will all agree, this behaviour is not only unpleasant but also a contravention of the EH ‘Respect – Code of Ethics and Behaviour’ – Disrepute Offence, not to mention in some cases a criminal offence. We expect all members to refrain from such behaviour. However, in the event of such incidences, in keeping with the revised Disrepute Complaint Regulations, we kindly ask that these be referred to EH as a Disrepute Complaint in the first instance. It is likely that offenders will face a suspension.
If you have any questions, please refer to Bridget Midwinter or Steve Godwin.

Congratulations to Ryan Croxon and James Freeman who both recently passed their Level 3 assessments and are now full members of NPUA. This is reward for the hard work put in by Ryan and James and by all those assisting in their development..

Please can we remind everyone that, as specified in both SHL and SCWHL rules, all matches should be conducted in line with the SCHA Code of Pitchside Conduct. In particular, spectators are not to be allowed in the bench area. Ideally, the bench area should be located on the opposite side of the pitch to spectators, although this is not always possible. Only substitutes and team officials should be present in the bench area, and everyone else kept away. Umpires should confirm this with the home team Captain before the start of each match.

You will see that all South Finals appointments have now been published. On 2nd and 9th December we have 2 events (one boys and one girls) and 14 umpire appointments available. On these weeks we have over 30 umpires available, hence we cannot appoint everyone. All umpires should have a Finals event of some description - schools or clubs and all NPUA umpires will have an Under 18 or Senior Finals appointment as preparation in the gender that they umpire.
For Sat 15th and Sunday 16th appointments have been made but we may need to move people around once we have more information on the numbers of each event. We will make contact nearer the time with details and event appointments.
Thanks,
Lia (Chair Indoor Selectors)

Following the recent announcement that Burty has decided to retire from active SCHUA duties, we are pleased to announce that he has accepted our invitation to become a Life Member of the Association. Congratulations Burty, and thank you once again for your service to SCHUA.

Following EH Board approval, as of 21 September 2018 the revised Disrepute Complaint Regulations have come into effect.

In summary, complaints of disrepute are to be sent to the Head of Governance at England Hockey in the first instance.

Please see Information and Downloads for the revised copy of the Disrepute Complaint Regulations and Code of Ethics & Behaviour Disrepute Incident Form.

Should you have any queries arising from the revisions to the Regulations, please contact your Regional Disciplinary Administrators.

There is a list of important contacts in the Information and Downloads section of the website.

As many of you will have noticed, the next part of the 2018 system upgrade has been implemented.
The major changes are in the personal and club administration areas, where both of these areas are now fully mobile friendly (i.e. they adapt and work on small screen devices as well as traditional larger screen devices e.g. PCs).
You should note that the layout of all functions in these areas will be different depending on the screen size of the device you are using.
In addition, the order of items will vary depending on the screen size and the day. This is so that, on mobile phones, the things you are most likely to want on a match day appear nearer the top of the page.
The old small screen systems for umpires and for club or team administrators no longer exist as all of the functions (and many more) have been transferred to the full personal area and club administration area respectively.
If you are logging on via a device with a small screen, you will see that there is an option to have "continuous login". If you select this option your log in details will be stored on your phone and you will be able to log in in future just by clicking the quick log in bar at the top of the schua.co.uk home page.
If you are a club administrator, but are not your club webmaster, you have a new function in the club administration area to remove access rights that you do not need. This will temporarily remove them from your pages and will prompt your club webmaster to remove them permanently the next time they log in. This will help you remove the functions you will never need (particularly for teams that you are not involved with), in case your club webmaster has been over-generous with your options.
If you are a club webmaster, you also have new functions in the View/Update Administration Rights programs to remove all access for a person or to add all access for a person. This means you need fewer clicks to set up the correct access rights for each administrator.

Holly Redpath passed her Level 3 assessment on Saturday and is now a full member of NPUA.
This is reward for the hard work Holly has put in to complement her undoubted talent. Thanks also to everyone who has helped Holly in her development.

Philip Hook has decided to step down from umpiring for SCHUA although he will continue to umpire for Surrey HUA. Philip qualified as a Level 2 umpire in 1997 and as a Level 3 umpire the following year. Thank you Philip for the many years you have dedicated to umpiring at this level and the support you have provided to the Association and to your colleagues, in recognition of which we welcome you as a Life Member. Great to see that you are staying involved in umpiring.

Chris Burton has decided to retire from his umpire support role in SCHUA to concentrate on his roles in Surrey HUA. Burty has been helping in the development of south umpires for 15 years through coaching and assessment. Thank you Burty for all your hard work on behalf of the Association.

Our technology partner, Tex Solutions, has rolled out an excellent new tool to save members time and effort when completing their mileage expense claims for SCHUA appointments! Here's what's new...
When you enter your expense claim after an appointment, the SCHUA web system will suggest the return mileage for the most likely route - not necessarily the shortest, but almost always the quickest - from your home address to the match venue. If you're happy with this mileage, just enter it into your mileage claim and you're done!
If, on the other hand, you need to claim higher mileage for a valid reason, please do so and then give a short written explanation in the free text box at the end of the expenses claim form.
The system will enable the Treasurer to send a standard email to your registered email address if, for any reason, the claim appears to have been completed incorrectly. You will then have 14 days to drop the Treasurer a note to either correct the claim or to explain the additional mileage, after which time the claim will automatically be amended to show the expected mileage.
If you have any questions as to how the system works after trying it for the first time, do feel free to drop the Treasurer a quick email.
Now you have one less thing to worry about on Saturdays, the SCHUA Management Committee hopes you'll have more time to enjoy what promises to be a cracking 2017/18 season!

The process if an umpire's radio develops a fault is as follows

Go to http://www.umpiretalk.com/returns.html (see link below) and follow the instructions. There may be an amount of £25 payable by the umpire, but if the issue is found to be a fault with the radio, this will be refunded.

There appears to be a common complaint that the Jabra headsets lose connection during a game and either all communication is lost, or communication only works in one direction. This may be an issue with the compatibility between the Jabra 2.5mm plug and the socket on the radio, or may be a faulty Jabra. In both cases the supplied boom headset and microphone will usually work.

Ian Anguige

Ideally, the home club will have called you before you set off from home: in this case, please go straight to your Personal Area, confirm the match as cancelled AND enter a zero expense claim. The sooner you do this, the less hassle for Allan & me - thanks!
If you do not get the call before you set off, please make sure you have your phone accessible in case you get a call en route (in which case, please pull over at the first opportunity and check messages). Once you've been informed of the cancellation, turn round and, once home, enter your Personal Area, mark the match as cancelled, enter your mileage expenses for the aborted journey and email me (treasurer@schua.co.uk) to confirm the time you received the call and any other details you feel I need to know as soon as possible . This is important as it will have an impact on whether SCHUA decides the club should be charged for the rearranged fixture (which will not be the case if sufficient notice of cancellation is provided).
In the unlikely event that you travel all the way to the ground only to find the pitch unplayable (and remember, that is the home club's call right up until the first whistle, after which it becomes your call on the grounds of safety. NEVER advise either team that you think the pitch is not playable before the start of the match!), then you should repeat the above procedure upon your return home, making sure to email me to confirm the details and timings of the day's events asap. In such a case, the home club will almost certainly be charged for the rearranged fixture.
Cheers, Matt (Treasurer)