I have received the following letter from Alan Yolland, a past SHUA circuit umpire. Our condolences go to Paul's family and friends.

Hello Burty,
I hope you are well.
I have the sad duty of informing you that one of our Umpire members, Mr Paul Bassam, died suddenly over the weekend.
He was a member of Byfleet Ramblers Ladies Hockey club for over 18 years, our club treasurer for most of it and very actively involved with grass roots hockey.
He was one of the hundreds/thousands of unsung heroes up and down the country , who every weekend went out and umpired for his club, or other clubs that wanted an umpire, In all weathers and conditions.
He never did appointments, although did try for his level one in 1998, preferring to stay at club level and was never happier than when he was on the pitch umpiring or watching the club teams in all competitions.
A dedicated member, he was always there at training passing on encouragement and in charge of the kits and equipment or giving lifts to players to and from matches around the county.
Quite often he was with me at League and Fixtures meetings throughout the season as he was always keen to be active with the administration side of hockey as well. As if being Umpire, Treasurer and club logistics officer wasn’t enough for him.!
What may surprise quite a few people is that he only had one leg, losing his right one from the knee down in a motorcycle accident in his youth. But he still displayed a vigour and enthusiasm for hockey even with his artificial leg as he went about his umpiring.
His dream was seeing the Olympics this year and a large group of our club members took him to the Olympic Test event on Saturday 5th May to experience the stadiums and atmosphere in Stratford, as we watched GB Men draw 3-3 with Australia.
Sadly it was to be his last hockey fixture.
We will pass on details of the funeral in due course.
Keep up the good work and kindest regards.
Thank You
Alan
Fixtures Secretary
Byfleet Ramblers Ladies Hockey Club

We have made some changes to the Personal Area on our site and would encourage all site members to log in and familiarise themselves with the new windows.
There is now a To Do list that identifies missing information or actions that you need to carry out and it would be appreciated if you would attend to these as soon as possible.
As we approach our year end there are some vital pieces of information that if not attended to will make the completion of the accounts more difficult for our Treasurer. These particularly relate to match expenses and feedback.
One very common To Do item will be your missing EH Registration Number. If you know what your number is and it is not entered in your Personal Area can you please email the Membership Secretary by clicking ”here” in the To Do list. If you are being asked to email the Membership Secretary because your EH number is missing please can you refrain from doing this as we are trying to collect this information direct from EH over the next few weeks. If your EH no. does not feature by say 1st July please email the Membership Secretary for an update.
If there are any items in the To Do list that you do not understand please contact the Webmaster at webmaster@surreyhua.co.uk.
IDW

In the picture (courtesy of Tony Rowe);-

Top left: Tim Collett and Mags Johnson
Middle left: Chris Page and Andy Parker
Bottom left: Glyn Jones and Stratton King
Centre top: Dion Oliver and Mike Davidson
Centre bottom: Matt Miles and David Thompson
Top right: Peter Horsfield and Neville Wrench
Middle right: Kirit Sharma and Ian Hawkes
Bottom right: Mike Head and Tony Rowe

SHUA had a successful day at Surbiton umpiring the London League Play offs and our colleagues umpired with their usual skill and panache. The hockey was very good and we are grateful to the London League for their very kind hospitality.

Result:

Purley Walcountians beat Spencer 2nd X1 4-2.

My thanks to all at PW's for staging this event once again and to Matt Miles and Dion Oliver for umpiring what was a pretty good game.

Burty

Surrey HUA have made a number of changes over the last couple of years after suffering losses in the previous three years. Some of these changes have meant SHUA has become more efficient in calculating and collecting monies owed to them.

Because of this, SHUA has made the decision to reduce the charges to clubs for umpire appointments for this season only. This affects all clubs that receive umpire appointments from SHUA.

For the last two seasons, clubs have been charged £17.00 per umpire per appointment. The decision has been made that, for this season only, clubs will be charged £15.50 per umpire per appointment.

When the ‘Umpire Charges’ invoices are generated at the end of this season, the charges for the whole season will be calculated at £15.50 per umpire per appointment.

It is important that you logon onto your clubs area in the SHUA website to check the charges made to your club, any recalculations made and therefore the amount your club is to pay to SHUA. The total to pay SHUA is shown as “Total To be Invoiced” at the bottom of the screen.

Any questions or queries then please do not hesitate to contact the Treasurer, Dave J Thompson.

George Croft's funeral will be on Tuesday 17th April at Randalls Park Crematorium, Randalls Road, Leatherhead starting at 3.30 p.m. Family Flowers only, Donations to Parkinsons UK.

Ladies and Gents
Here is a reminder that the inaugural SHUA golf day will be held on Friday 24th August at Croham Hurst Golf Club in Croydon.
If you haven't yet registered your interest (to play and receive more details) please send an email to shua.golf@btinternet.com.
The day is open to ladies and gents and will cost around £48 and will be great fun.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Ian Witchell

As our season closes we have 2 further promotions to announce.
Chris Page has successfully moved from B3 to B2 on the men's lists.
Matt Town has satisifed us of his ability to umpire SHUA matches and joins the men's list at B3.
Congratulations to both.
IDW

Ladies and Gentlemen

Sadly I must inform you of the death of our President For Life George Croft who died yesterday. George had had Parkinson's Disease for a number of years. I know no further details at the moment but as soon as I hear anything, I will post it on this website. In the meantime our thoughts must be with Lyn, his wife and his sons Richard and David.

Burty

Date: Sunday 10th June 2012 (the course and test will be run in one day)
Time: start 9.30am – 3.30/4.00pm (approx)
Location: Wimbledon HC, Opposite Wimbledon Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Church Road, Wimbledon, SW19 5AG.
Attendees: Any level or age welcome. Book early to avoid disappointment. Complete an application form and ideally email the form to Jane Binner (janebinner@hotmail.co.uk) and transfer the fee by electronic transfer with your name and Level 1 as the reference. Bank details are on the application form. Alternatively email your application form and post a cheque made payable to SHUA to Jane at her home address, which will be on the application form.
Fees: £25 for over 18, £20 for 18 and under
Booking: If you wish to discuss anything then please call Jane at 07836 226175

The SHUA Honours Board with information about Life Members, colleagues who have umpired for higher HUAs, award winners and Surrey Cup semi final and final umpires (since 2007) has been updated today.
See the Honours Board section on the webhandbook and downloads page.
Webmaster

Please welcome to our ranks Matt Town who is an ex-1st X1 player at London Wayfarers and will clearly become a part of the current LW Mafia! Matt takes his first appointment this coming Saturday and once he has completed his Level 1 is going to be a very useful SHUA member. Welcome Matt!

Burty

A few images recalling the refs day out at the St George's College Sixes in March.
IDW

I am pleased to inform you of the progress made by certain members in their quest to reach the higher echelons of the SHUA grading structure.
Ian Hawkes has been promoted to Grade B2
Anthony Gamble has passed all our tests and has been accepted for a trial game with SCHUA. We wish Anthony all success in his game later this month.
Stratton King has been screen watched by SCHUA and will get a trial game with them in the near future (hopefully this season).
Matt Dean has also been screen watched by SCHUA is now on their short list for a trial game at the start of next season.
IDW
S+CC

Our final Monthly Meeting of the season will take place on SATURDAY 24th MARCH at the Trinity Midwhitgftians HC. There are still quite a few people who never seem to get to these and those are the people we'd really like to see turn up. So don't be shy, come and join us!

On Friday 24th August SHUGS (Surrey Hockey Umpires' Golf Society) will hold it's inaugural meeting at Croham Hurst Golf Club (see link for more details of the course) in South Croydon. A full day of hospitality and golf is planned starting with coffee and bacon rolls at 8:30 and culminating with prize giving on the terrace at about 5:30pm.
Cost per umpire will be in the order of £48 and you are asked to register your interest by emailing shua.golf@btinternet.com as soon as possible. Further details will be emailed out later in the year.
Ian Witchell

Expenses

Although expenses can be paid at any time you request, in practice people tend to claim at Christmas and at the end of the season.

We currently have over £5000 of travel expenses entered onto the website by members taking appointments.

I am sure that a number of people would appreciate a little extra of their own cash in the Christmas period.

If anyone wants to claim their expenses then please do so as soon as possible. We have a daily limit at the bank and will therefore pay all expenses as soon as possible if lots of people claim at the same time.

It would be helpful when you claim your expenses if you email me to let me know it has been done.

Dave Thompson
Treasurer

All umpires are asked to urgently review their availability for Sunday 23rd October. Rob Butlin requires 4 more umpires (3 in the Croydon area and 1 in Guildford) for important matches. If you can help please change your availability on the website and email Rob at robert.butlin@talktalk.net.
Thanks.

For a quick link to all the fixtures and appointments pages for National League and South games use the Links menu and select from the Higher level appointments section.

Our shop has received several enquiries about buying a suitable stopwatch for matches. Unfortunately we do not stock stopwatches but please click ...more for a supplier and mention SHUA when ordering.

The new 2011 version of the Rule Book is now available on the web handbook and downloads page.