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Interesting column (originally at www.sahockeyworld.co.za) by the South African international umpire John Wright about his experiences as the neutral umpire at the recent European Championships :

To be appointed as a neutral umpire for the European Nations Championships 2009 in Amsterdam was indeed an honour when one considers how strong European hockey is at present. They always seem to be a step ... if not more, ahead of other countries competing on the hockey front.
This was my third Euro tournament; my first was in Podova, Italy some years back, then Manchester in 2007.

The quality of hockey produced by the top teams was amazing - the skill levels of the players just seems to be getting better and better, which makes me wonder when will they ever reach their optimum? This said, there were vast differences between the top 5 sides and the rest.

Let's start with England. I've been fortunate to see England develop over a number of years; I'm sure many South Africans can recall when England toured to SA some years back. If I'm not mistaken that was in the late 90s, and our South African men's side competed favourably with them. Almost 10 years on, and only now have England really come of age.

In my opinion they were the best side in Amsterdam, in all aspects, and were fully deserved winners of the tournament (5-3 over Germany, Wright umpired). The Germans under-performed as far as I'm concerned (make no mistake they are a good side) and missed influential captain Timo Weis. However on the day they didn't seem to fire as a unit.

The locals were disappointed in the Netherlands men's performance. Again a good side; however when it counted they lacked the cohesion we have come to know of them. They missed vital penalty corner conversions at critical times, and at this level a short corner should be a goal.

Spain don't seem to have lost many of their very experienced defenders, however they lacked the strike force of Santi Freixa (out with a knee injury for at least 6 months, which puts his World Cup in jeopardy). And then the change of coaching staff must also have had an impact on the guys, trying to follow in former coach Mauritz Hendricks's shoes can't be easy.

Belgium disappointed me; I expected a lot more from them. The Belgians have spent a lot of time and resources on getting their men's team back to the top of World Hockey. They played well when in the lesser games and then failed to impress when it counted against the big dogs. Australian coach, Adam Commens has a lot of work to do with these guys, they have the making of cracking the big time. France, Poland, Austria played according to their capabilities, one side that did show a lot of improvement is France, beware for them.

In my opinion we as umpires always seem to be playing "catch-up" when it comes to competing with the teams. "Catch up" in the way of being on top of the new developments of the teams, new skills, tactics etc. All the teams have video camera men, as well as analysing equipment - the team coaches analyse footage for hours.

The coaches communicate with 2-way radios between each other, and then they have a full support team of amongst others a doctor, physio (sometimes 2), and at least 1 assistant coach (sometimes 2 or 3). Yet we as umpires are expected to go out and deliver a performance suitable enough to ensure that the game remains a spectacle, the right decisions are made, and at the end of the day the best team wins.

How do we achieve this, when we have 1 umpires manager, analysing our performances match by match, using DVDs from the TV coverage (which we receive a day later if we're lucky), 2-way radios that are insufficient for this level of the game? And no TV umpire for referrals! We are going to battle!

Nevertheless, we have been taught to use what we have and make the most of the situation, and I suppose at the end of the day the performances of the group were good. Umpires, just like the team players, also have off days, that's what makes the task of the umpires manager that more difficult, as he strives to get the best performance from all in the group.

My tournament started with a relatively easy Netherlands vs Poland affair. The Dutch swept the Poles away. A great way for me to get the tournament underway with a capacity crowd of about 9 000 crammed into the Wagenaar Stadium. In the end I did 5 games, and to be honest the competition amongst the umpires was stiff, something that has developed over the years.

We all have our own styles, and ways of doing things, and controlling the games. Good competition promotes better umpiring amongst the group and that's exactly what the teams want. I blew the semi-final between The Netherlands and England, it was a hard game, moving from one end of the field to the other, and when England eventually sealed the game in extra time, I was mentally and physically drained ... again!

An interesting study was done on the umpires during the tournament, where we were fitted with GPS tracking devices to monitor our movements throughout the game, as well as record our heartbeat. Some interesting results. On average we cover about 7 to 7,5 km per game, and it's interesting to see how the heartbeat rises when we are under pressure or have to make an important decision.

Often a final is very much an anti-climax for the umpires; there are a lot of expectations yet many fail to deliver. The teams usually play a conservative style of hockey waiting for the other to make a mistake and then try and capitalize on the mistake. And taking into account the Dutch men were not in the final meant that the stadium would not be as full. Not so! The stadium must have been about 95% full, and both teams wanted to provide the crowd with entertaining hockey.

An 8-goal final is not something often seen, and some great goals were scored at that. When the teams want to play, it makes our job as umpires that much easier ... if that's possible. So England (who were not on my list of finalists) played really well, they converted their penalty corners and played with much meaning and desire.

Unfortunately I didn't get much time out to go and see much of Amsterdam, I often refer to this as my job away from work. Any time off we have we usually use to recuperate. Michiel Brunnig, the Dutch umpire, kindly took the group of umpires on a boat trip around the canals of Holland, a great experience, seeing Holland from a different perspective.

We did get to watch some of the ladies matches; unfortunately the pace of the game is somewhat different from that of the men's game. The Dutch ladies side were in top form, they brushed aside the England ladies in the semi-final, and then came up against a more competitive Germany in the final. All-round the Dutch have great players, with lots of talent, and they like to perform in front of their home crowd.

Something that the rest of the world can learn from the Dutch, that is they surely know how to present a tournament - the finest detail is taken care of - making Holland one the best places in the World to go to for a tournament.

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