Netball announces technical officials for Glasgow 2014

By Gary Anderson

October 22 - Glasgow 2014 has announced the 18 international technical officials (ITOs) and the 25 national technical officials (NTOs) that will officiate in the netball competition at the Commonwealth Games.

A total of seven nations are represented across the 43 technical officials, including Scotland, England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Jamaica and the Cook Islands.

There are three separate roles within the ITO category which will see England's Janet Wrighton and Tina Browne of the Cook Islands forming the jury of appeal panel, while the umpire appointments panel is made up of Jamaican Yvette Smith, Caroline Logan of Scotland and New Zealand's David Pala'amo.

New Zealand also provides two of the 13 umpires in the form of Jonathan Bredin and Yvonne Morgan who will be joined by Australians Rachel Ayre, Joshua Bowring, Sharon Kelly and Michelle Phippard, South Africa's Theresa Prince and Marie-Louw Van der Merwe, Jamaicans Terrence Peart and Dalton Hinds along with English trio Tracy Smith, Ian Fuller and Gary Burgess.

The SECC in Glasgow has been provisionally chosen as the venue to stage the Commonwealth Games netball competition in 2014

Hosts Scotland and England provide all the NTOs that will officiate at the netball competition, which is due to be staged in the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), however organisers are looking into the possibility of holding some or all of the matches at the larger Hydro arena also located within the SECC precinct, due to high demand for tickets.

Scots Frances-Anne Doyle, Rachel Hampton and Arlene Leary take up the three score bench co-ordinator/manager roles, with compatriots Margaret Barr, Kirsty Campbell, Emma Crozier, Karen Dunn, Jacqueline Gregory, Donna Greig, Amanda Hampton, Patricia Love, Linda Mitchell, Rhonda Phillips, Alison Smith and Catherine Turnbull, along with England's Margot Shawyer and Mary Stanley acting as score bench officials.

The statistics managers for the competition are William Alexander of England and Scotland's Clare Buckley, whose compatriots Sally Carns and Lisa Singleton are joined as statisticians by England's Helen Lillie, Felicity O'Leary, Pat Percy and Jennie Underwood.

Will New Zealand be celebrating a third consecutive Commonwealth Games title in Glasgow next year?

In all, 12 teams will be battling it out for Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow in what will be the fifth Games that the sport will be on the programme since it first appeared at Kuala Lumpar 1998.