Squash has taken Jackie Hamilton to some exciting places in the past few months.
She officiated in the first sporting tournament in Saudi Arabia for women and then was a referee at the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast this month.
Hamilton (43) said she had enjoyed her time at both tournaments and it was an unique experience to go to Saudi Arabia and work at the first tournament of its kind for women in that country.
"They are trying to open up their doors to women and it was history being made. It was the first professional sports tournament for women in the country and they were trying to show how much progress they had made.
"It was a big tournament and we were so far away from home and they were playing for a prize pool of US$165,000 ($NZ228,000), so every top player was there.
"It was women only. There were no male coaches, no male officials, no male physios, no male spectators. Just totally women. But women have not been able to go to sport, so the stadium where it was played had just male toilets, no women’s toilets."
When the overseas players and officials went outside they had to wear an abaya but once inside the stadium in Riyadh could wear normal clothes.
The tournament was a real eye-opener and had been driven by Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, who is also the president of the Saudi Federation for Community Sports.
Hamilton said it was an enjoyable time and both players and officials got on very well.
It was unusual to have only women watching but most just got on with it.Hamilton began refereeing the sport when she was playing, and said it was an opportunity to give back to the sport and find out a little bit more about herself.
She said refereeing at the Commonwealth Games was the pinnacle for her and was something she had been targeting for years.
She was one of two New Zealand referees who had gone to the Games, along with Glenn Carson, of Hamilton.
The success of the New Zealanders at the event — they won two golds, a silver and a bronze — meant she did not get to referee many of the finals as the New Zealanders were involved.
But she could sit in the crowd and cheer on the New Zealanders.
The job of a referee was one which required a lot of concentration and composure.
"It is very intense. You have to be really mentally focused for a 45-minute game. You are trying to do the very best you can within a three-referee system," she said.
Referees in a three-referee system have one in the centre while the other two are on the right and left service line. Video replays are also used.
"It is probably the only sport in the world where you as the referee are sitting in the middle of a crowd. You have to make split second decisions where you have coaches and supporters of one player on one side cheering them on and coaches and fans of the other player on the other side. It is daunting.
"The biggest challenge is doubles. It is a fast moving sport and you have to come to grips with who the players are. Say you are refereeing a game between Pakistan and Sierra Leone and they both look similar from the back ... and you have to come out with the person’s name and right pronunciations — that is most challenging for me.
"But I think I performed pretty well and did a good job and I can look ahead to Birmingham."
She was ranked to the regional Oceania level and enjoyed the role of a referee.
"I am a pharmacist, so I have a bit of a thing for accuracy. Things being straight down the line, liking things to be quite defined.
"I just started out in it and it just grew from there.
"I was doing OK, so I went to the next level. Then I found myself in Australia, found myself in somewhere like Saudi Arabia."
