So much has changed since Jan Hefford umpired her first Netball international test, between the Silver Ferns and England, 43 years ago.
And that became no more obvious to Jan than when she played a special role in the second Silver Ferns v Australian Diamonds test in the recent Constellation Cup.
When Jan was shown around the vast Spark Arena in Auckland before the match and saw the room set aside for umpires, it was a far cry from the facilities back her in day. “You’d arrive with your bag and have to find a space near the [outdoor] court to put it down,” she says.
“And as the umpire, you’d throw the ball to the centre on court, then blow your whistle for the game to begin. Nowadays, the ball is specially trotted out by someone, young or old, to hand to the centre and wish them a great game.”
And Jan was that ‘someone special’ who got to deliver the ball to Diamonds centre Jamie-Lee Price at that game in October, starting an unforgettable test which the Silver Ferns won by 11 goals.
Jan was given the chance to return to the international netball court after winning the ‘Money Can’t Buy Silver Ferns Experience’ – a competition run by Summerset, a sponsor of the Silver Ferns.
“It was special, magical and memorable,” says the 77-year-old netball veteran, honoured with a Netball New Zealand Service Award for a lifetime involvement in the game.
“As I walked out on court, I could hear my mum’s voice in my mind saying, ‘Shoulders back, head high and walk nicely!’ It’s an experience I will remember forever.”
Jan lives in the Summerset on Cavendish village in Casebrook, Christchurch, and entered the competition which asked Summerset residents to explain why they thought they’d be the ideal ball deliverer.
In her entry, she explained she’d been involved with netball for “a number of years” – over 60 years to be more precise – and had umpired her first test in 1981.
And the prize not only created new memories for Jan to savour – travelling to Auckland with her former neighbour, Gayle, and visiting the ‘Our Game’ exhibition at Auckland Museum, celebrating New Zealand Netball’s centenary. But it also took her on a journey down memory lane.
Jan began her love affair with netball at primary school in the small town of Southbridge, on the Canterbury Plains (the same town where All Blacks legend Dan Carter would grow up).
She was 13 when she umpired her first “rep match” in Leeston. “I was a country girl, and in the country, you did everything you could on Saturday at netball. Mum would drop you off in the morning and you’d make the most of the day,” she says.
Jan even remembers the dress she wore to umpire that first game: “It was a linen tennis dress embroidered with little flowers that Mum had ironed all the pleats in. When I put it on, I had to keep standing up, so the pleats didn’t crush.”
When Jan left the country to study at teachers’ college in Christchurch, she played netball for the college, but it soon became obvious she was too short to go any further in the game. So she decided to concentrate on umpiring.
It wasn’t a smooth start. The first time she sat her New Zealand umpiring exams in 1973, the examiner failed her: “She said I did a nice job, but I could have done better. I was so upset, I cried my eyes out, and I didn’t want to umpire anymore. But the next year, I was so determined to show her, and I passed.”
She made the grade to umpire at the New Zealand tournament that year – her first of her 19 national tournaments in succession.
A schoolteacher in South Otago, Jan returned to Christchurch with her young son, but couldn’t get a job in the city. So she gave teaching away to work in the post office, where she spent 30 years,
During that time her involvement in netball grew. She umpired her first international on June 6, 1981, the first test in England’s tour of New Zealand, at Dunedin Stadium. The Silver Ferns, coached by Dame Lois Muir and captained by Lyn Gunson, won 48-40.
She shared the umpiring duties that day with English umpire, Jean Bourne, who would later serve as president of All England Netball.
Jan umpired four internationals through to 1986, and then went on to become a New Zealand umpire examiner from 1987 to 1991. She sat on the committee of Canterbury Netball for two decades, and was president of the Canterbury Umpires Association from 1980 to 1993.
Her incredible commitment of the game was recognised with a Netball New Zealand Service Award in 1997.
When she returned from a NZ Post job secondment to South Africa in 1995, Jan took up golf, but soon found herself back in netball, serving on the Christchurch netball awards committee until only recently.
Now she meets up with old netball friends once a month at the new netball centre at Ngā Puna Wai, for morning tea and a chat about the changes they see in the game.
“Netball has been my life. I still umpire from my armchair… but I just don’t blow the whistle!” Jan laughs. “When people say there’s still a lot of whistle in today’s game, I say ‘Not as much as there used to be!’ But umpires still play an important role in the game.”