Netball: Official hopes to avoid spotlight

While players will be out to make maximum impact at the world netball championships over the coming week, one Tauranga woman with a crucial role will rate the event a success if she goes totally unnoticed.
As manager of the bench officials, Beryl Harvey bears ultimate responsibility for the bench's personnel and their duties of precision timekeeping and recording the scoring.
From tomorrow night's opener, when the host nation takes on Botswana at 11pm, through to the July 10 final, Harvey will be stationed behind the official bench at most matches, making sure everything runs like clockwork.
"The sign that things are going well on the bench is if people aren't aware of what's happening there. If it doesn't seem to just happen automatically, that's when you get trouble," Harvey said before flying out for Singapore earlier this week.
The management role is a further step up for the lifelong netball devotee, who served as technical official or "bench referee" at last year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Accustomed to a demanding schedule through her job as second deputy principal at Mount Intermediate, Harvey has two scorers and two timekeepers to select and assess for each clash in Singapore, while also ensuring technology is up to the task.
"I'm really looking forward to it, though it's no holiday," Harvey said. "I'll have meetings and preparation up till the first match then it'll be full-on netball, up to eight games a day."
Appointed by the INFA, she will have three Kiwis among her pool of "benchies", along with officials from Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and the UK. The host country is providing 50 per cent of the bench personnel.
To stay up with play in the rapid-fire sport, one scorer informs the recording scorer who is shooting and whether shots are "in" or "out". Timekeeping is done via two timers, one controlling the score and time on the venue scoreboard, while the countdown of each quarter's final minute is done on another timer.
Meanwhile, the bench referee monitors everything that happens on-court, "sub-writers" note player substitutions and information must be passed to the broadcasting contingent.
"It's a concentration thing, being a good benchie," Harvey said. "Two seconds can mean a goal - and that can be a result. It's a matter of having the right people in the right place.
"It is draining to do back-to-back games and at international events you're likely to. I have to judge how many matches bench people can handle in a row."
And if you find yourself watching a tense spell of extra time, spare a thought for Harvey and her colleagues.
"That's when the pressure is highest. There's lots to do in the three-minute window before play restarts, including a whole new lot of paperwork to set up.
"The Silver Ferns v Australia final at the [2010] Commonwealths was a classic, the score still tied after a seven-minute period each way of extra time. That's when the flag goes up for extended extra time, which runs till a team is two goals ahead."
The TV aspect has brought the need for more rigour on the bench, Harvey explained. "Because games are going out live there's absolutely no room for mistakes with timing.
"I think the ANZ league has helped put netball up front in the media, week in week out it's fiercely competitive on both sides of the Tasman."
A shooter in her playing days, the Mount resident was a regular in the Palmerston North teacher training college No 1 team and continued to play at club level while teaching in Tokoroa. Umpiring for 13 years, she then took the introduction to scoring and timekeeping about '97.
Now in her mid-50s, Harvey is bench official co-ordinator for Netball Bay of Plenty, the Magic franchise and the Mount's Harbourside centre.
"It's been an interesting journey, watching the sport develop. Bench work is an enjoyable way for me to stay involved."