FOUR members of the Western District Umpires Association (WDUA) were selected to officiate the interleague games between Hampden FNL and Ballarat FNL today at Mars Stadium, Ballarat.

Caleb Millard (field umpire) and Jack Bell (boundary umpire) were selected by the Hampden League executive board for Under-23 game.

While Olivia Bell and Zavier Payne were also selected as boundary umpires for the Under-17 match.

“This is a big match during the year and to get chosen … it shows how you’re performing as an umpire and where you are,” Millard said.

“It’ll be really cool this time as a central, I’ve done a lot as a boundary umpire so this time being in control of the match is pretty high expectations.”

Jack Bell said he was excited to be able to experience the great facilities at Mars Stadium and felt “surprised” to hear of his selection.

“I’m very much honoured to have been selected by the Hampden Football League to represent them, and not only them but to represent WDUA for the interleague match,” he said.

“I’ve been umpiring since 2019 and have done games on Reid Oval (Warrnambool) and Alexandra Oval (Ararat) but this will be a step up, they host AFL games there (at Mars Stadium).”

Both Olivia Bell and Payne are still pretty new to umpiring and while that made them a bit nervous, they couldn’t contain their excitement.

Bell is just 13 years of age and has worked hard to get opportunities to umpire Hampden League games, the youngster felt some of her effort had paid off.

“This is my third season (umpiring) I’m really happy that I got in but I’m really nervous about it,” Bell said.

Payne lives in Portland but boards locally and is part of the WDUA, he umpires as much as he can to gain valuable experience.

“It’ll be a good experience to umpire with some new people and get some new skills with umpiring,” the 17-year-old said.