Gore is synonymous with country music, brown trout and local politics — but it is arguably also the home of netball umpiring.
It was at the freezing Preston St courts, before the MLT Event Centre was built, that five people picked up the whistle, little knowing what lay ahead.
Colleen Bond, Bobbi Brown, Alison Cormack, Jono Bredin and Kristie Simpson have all come through Netball Eastern Southland’s pathway, turning the thankless task into a career that whisked them around the world and gave the centre bragging rights for producing five international umpires.
Simpson, Brown and Bredin have umpired at both of the sport’s pinnacle events, the Netball World Cup and Commonwealth Games, and Bond and Cormack have also fulfilled World Cup duties. Some even have multiple events to their names.
Brown had an international career spanning 15 years, including three World Cups and two Commonwealth Games, while Bredin followed suit.
He became one of the most recognisable faces in netball officialdom during his recent tenure before retiring in 2018, after umpiring the 2018 Commonwealth Games final between Australia and England, a feat no other New Zealand official has had an opportunity at in recent times due to the Silver Ferns’ success.
But there was one woman who started it all — Colleen Bond.
After finishing school, Bond joined Ex High Netball Club, where then-national umpire Violet Lynch coached.
"She was the one that said to me ‘Colleen, would you like to take the whistle?’," Bond said.
"I did two games every Saturday from there on and played ... and then I never stopped."
She worked her way up the ranks and gained her international qualifications, but it took more than 20 years for her to get a World Cup appointment.
In the 1980s, each country was only allowed to take its top-ranked umpires to pinnacle events, leaving Bond as a reserve to New Zealand umpire Dawn Jones for three consecutive World Cups.
International opportunities still came her way. She umpired tests in Australia against the Caribbean countries at the World Games — in which netball is no longer involved — and still remembers her first international test.
Neutrality did not matter, so Bond was appointed to the Silver Ferns series in England and Ireland in 1982, controlling her first game at Wembley.
She recalled emotions of the day, with the crowd stamping their feet and the dust falling around her on the court, and she always counted herself lucky to be appointed to another test at Wembley 10 years later.
She was selected alongside Brown as one of the six New Zealand umpires to officiate at the Netball World Cup in Jamaica in 2003.
"That was pretty special because Bobbi was in it," Bond said.
"I was pretty proud of myself because I still got an appointment on the last day [of the World Cup]."
Bond retired from international duties following the World Cup, but has never been far from a netball court.
Working as Netball South’s umpire lead, Bond has coached thousands of young umpires and reviews national umpires — including for the ANZ Premiership — and is on World Netball’s international testing panel. She went to the South East Asia Games and Asian World Cup qualifying tournaments, and a smile spreads as she talks about watching Cormack umpire at the 2007 World Cup in Auckland.
Bond and Cormack laugh over a cup of coffee in Mataura, remembering that they both failed their New Zealand badge the first time they sat the test.
Their bond is evident and Cormack knows Bond was the first "big umpire" to pave the way for the rest of them.
Cormack — who took up umpiring at 14 when she followed her mother to the courts — controlled her first international between Australia and England in early 2005, before being appointed to the Netball World Youth Cup, in Fort Lauderdale, later that year.
It was "absolutely incredible" and left her wanting more, which came in 2007 with her World Cup selection.
"I think I was just like Colleen that when I went to Worlds, I was just delighted to be going," Cormack said.
"I remember Jan Teesdale telling me, she was the umpire coach at the time, she said ‘you’re umpiring so well’ and I said ‘I just love being here’.
"I was just lapping the whole thing in."
Asked for the highlight of her career, Cormack picks umpiring the semifinal between Australia and England.
She called it the "hardest game I’ve done in my life", but relished every minute, even if it gave her conflicting feelings watching the Silver Ferns play Jamaica in the other semifinal.
"New Zealand was losing and I remember sitting there thinking ‘if they lose, I’m going to get the final’.
"All the way through I remember thinking that. I didn’t know whether I was happy or not, because I was so nervous after my game, and then New Zealand won and I was feeling disappointed," she laughed.
She umpired the inaugural ANZ Championships the following year before retiring. She coached domestically for a while, but her true passion lay in Eastern Southland, where she nurtured young umpires coming through — and still umpired club games every Saturday.
"I love the centre stuff.
"I still feel like I can give something and I like umpiring with other umpires that I can help them with some stuff.
Asked why she believed five international umpires had come from the small rural centre, Cormack said it was the support from their trailblazer.
"I think it’s the support that Col gives and her leadership, because she has always wanted us to achieve as best we could."
That support was much better than in their heyday, and the pair still send messages of support to Simpson before her games.
It is that support that Simpson too credits with helping Eastern produce its international umpires.
Simpson started umpiring at primary school in Tokanui, and became associated with Eastern while attending Menzies College.
She had a "natural thing" for the whistle, and with Bond "always there helping" at Eastern, and Cormack and Bond performing as international umpires when she was coming through in the 2000s, Simpson could see a future in the sport.
"That was pretty cool because they were at Gore. You could see them and talk to them about what they’re doing," Simpson said.
"They definitely were always really supportive — anything you ever needed or questions, they were always happy to help."
That led to Simpson joining the national umpiring squad — used then for the transtasman ANZ Championship, and now for the ANZ Premiership — in 2010, and she became New Zealand’s most capped national league umpire last year.
She joined the international circuit three years later, and officiated at the 2015 World Cup and 2018 Commonweath Games, and is heading to this year’s World Cup in South Africa next month.
"It’s going to be so cool. It’s going to be really exciting."
Umpiring had been Simpson’s way of giving back to netball, but equally, it provided her with a constant challenge.
"Every game’s slightly different, there’s always something new, you never quite know what you’re going to expect.
She was proud to be one of the handful of international umpires from Eastern — and it all came back to that support.
"I think what Gore’s done really well at Eastern is there’s always been really supportive people in place for umpires.
"They’re always there and they’re always watching you and they always want to see you do your absolute best, and I think it’s just so supportive and I think that’s the reason why.
"They’ve got so much knowledge. There’s so much knowledge there to be able to pass on and they’re so happy and willing to do it — I think that’s the key."
Cormack also beams with pride when reflecting on the international umpiring success that has come from little old Gore.
"I love telling people," Cormack said.
"Absolutely. I feel very, very proud."
