KEY POINTS:
Top netball umpire Bronwyn Meek has trained as hard as the Silver Ferns to be in peak condition for the world champs, fighting back from a life-threatening stint in intensive care last year.
The 40-year-old, who played at junior representative level for Auckland, is one of New Zealand's
six umpires overseeing games at the Netball World Championships which start today.
But after she returned from officiating at the Commonwealth Games last year, it looked like her umpiring career was over.
Meek spent seven days in hospital with clots on her lungs that had travelled to her heart.
"I thought long and hard about whether I had the ability and strength to recover, let alone get back to peak fitness. It even occurred to me that there was more to life than netball, then I realised what a huge void it would leave in my life if I didn't make the effort."
So Meek took on a punishing fitness regime. She trains a minimum of five days a week, sometimes six, mixing weights and gym work with running and speed sessions and umpiring in the national league.
The exact cause of the clots is still unknown and she is regularly monitored and takes medication to ensure more don't develop.
She has also battled the pain of a fused big toe, with years of netball causing bone chips.
Meek says the game is ultimately about the players. Her focus is to contribute positively.
On the brink of her latest big assignment, she says she is more hyper than nervous. "I get into a zone and become almost oblivious to anything around me. It is crucial I don't make mistakes."
As a sports fan, she admits to getting as worked up about the officials as anyone, confessing that when watching rugby she has been known to hurl abuse at the ref if a call looks dodgy.
As an umpire, she has to be emotionally robust and is her own harshest critic, sitting down after each match to watch a video and file a report on what she could do better.
This is then reviewed by Jan Teesdale from Netball New Zealand, who is in charge of the squad of international umpires.
Meek's mother was a netball administrator and Meek was umpiring by the time she was 13. By 18, she had a place in Auckland's under-21 squad, all the while systematically working her way through the national umpiring ranks.
Her parents support her career by caring for her two young children while she is out of town, which can be up to four to five weeks a year.
"You miss birthdays, school trips, that sort of thing, but I try to organise my own training around the afternoons so that I can be there when the kids get home from school."
Netball New Zealand leads the way in paying umpires, but at $80 a match for the National Bank Cup it's not big money for the training involved.
So Meek, an accountant, also juggles three part-time jobs to support her family.
It's the love of the game that keeps her going.
The ultimate netball umpiring prize is a NZ /Australia face-off, but this will elude Meek as neutral umpires are employed in the internationals. She has had a shot at the next best thing, games between Jamaica and Australia, and says the pace is fast and furious, with contrasting styles. Australia play fast and low to the ground. Jamaica are challenging and extremely tactical.
To umpire such games well you have to be alert and ruthless. For this Meek values her own playing experience, which she says has honed her instinct for the game.
