As we near the end of National Volunteering Week, we wanted to thank all of our members who assisted the hockey club with volunteering the occasional game - as well as those who were seen regularly with the whistle in their hands.

Having people umpiring our matches is a really important component to having games which are well organised and ultimately supports a more enjoyable fixture. Every year, we ask our adult members to lend a hand and umpire a couple of games each so as to share the activity (and receive a small payment for the role). We are in the process of organising those payments at the moment and so those of you who did help out should receive that payment shortly.

We know that umpiring a match can sometimes be a little daunting at first, but in reality all of our members are well capable of spotting what needs to be called and putting the whistle to their lips. As a club, we want to grow our umpiring capabilities within our members and will support those who are interested in additional training and courses to build their umpiring knowledge. If you are interested or just want to ask a question about umpiring, just pop an email to railwayunionumpires@gmail.com

Towards the end of this season, we trialled an internal Railway Hockey Umpires WhatsApp Group and we will look to develop this further for 2025/2026 to help members source a volunteer umpire for any of their rostered matches.

There is additional information on the Hockey Ireland website for those who'd like to know a little more about umpiring and the development pathways - https://hockey.ie/get-involved/umpire/