Referees

Referees and Umpires

The function of Referees and Umpires

Association Croquet (AC)

• judging still ball positions such as whether a ball is on or off the court, whether a hoop has been made, whether hoop and roquet in the same stroke may or has been made, etc;
• adjudicating on wiring; timekeeping and matters involving double banked games; and
• adjusting equipment, etc.

Referees are required to have a full understanding of the meaning, intent and practice of the AC Laws of the sport together with the ACA Regulations applying to tournaments.

Referees are required to carry out a range of duties including Tournament Referee (TR).

A TR appoints Referees for events and allocates them to certain courts.

Referees act as required by the TR and may be required to deal with one or a number of games during the same time period.

The function is to make rulings on matters of fact and resolve appeals from players.

Who may become an Umpire or Referee?

Any registered player is eligible to firstly study and then take the Level 1 exam to become an umpire.

Once thus qualified the Umpire may then take the Level 2 Referees exam.

Copies of the examination questions (without answers) and tutorials are available from the State Directors of Refereeing (see State Directors). The examination comprises two parts.

The first part is the Umpires Exam (Level 1). This is largely a test of adjudicating practical situations on the court. Passing this practical exam qualifies the candidate to become an official Umpire.

The second part (the Level 2 Referees exam) is an oral test off the court and comprises two sections; the first one is a series of questions without the use of the Laws Book and the second section is questions using the Law Book. The emphasis of this latter part is to have a good knowledge of the structure of the Laws Book so the referee is able to quickly find appropriate references if required. Candidates are to study the Laws of Association Croquet, the Official Rulings on the Laws of Croquet (ORLC) issued by the International Laws Committee (ILC), the ACA Regulations for Tournaments and the ACA AC Refereeing manual.

The ILC is the international body that prepares the Laws and comprises the UK , USA , NZ and Australia.

Accreditation

Both referee and umpire qualifications are valid for 4 years.

To be reaccredited at the end of this period, the official is to have attended at least 4 days of refresher courses over the 4 year period. These courses are designed to keep officials up to date in the latest interpretations and also cover a range of refereeing practices.

Copies (hard copy) of the new 'AC Referees Manual - 2008' are available from each State Director of Refereeing.

Golf Croquet (GC)

To become a GC referee it is necessary to pass a two part examination. Copies of the examination questions (without answers) are available from the State Directors of Refereeing (see State Directors). This is a largely test of adjudicating practical situations on the court.

While National Director of Refereeing Owen Edwards produced the ACA Golf Croquet Referees Manual which is a good guide for aspiring GC Referees to study and is available for downloading at the above link.

There are also several tutorials that are available from the State Directors of Refereeing.

State Directors

Each state appoints a Director of Refereeing, usually responsible for both AC & GC.

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Last Modified: 9 June, 2010