Tim Cleaver attended the recent Birmingham Games as one of 14 referees from around the Commonwealth - it wasn't just a fantastic experience, it also helped with his development as an official.
"You arrive a few days beforehand for refereeing clinics, and to go over the tournament protocols. The clinics are really useful, there are loads of video clips and resources provided to us, and we can bring those back and use those to help out with referee development in New Zealand."
Tim started refereeing when living in Germany in 2009 - he was playing in a New Zealand team that needed to provide a referee. From that point on he's refereed in New Zealand and picked up two or three international appointments each year, mainly on the Asian leg of the World Tour, in places Thailand and Korea, as well as Olympic qualifiers.
The chance to travel to the Birmingham Games as something special.
"Generally, there were two appointments a day as a first second referee or reserve referee, where you're scoring as well. They're all challenging in their own right, there's pressure on right from the start."
"These games followed a very similar protocol to the Olympics, with teams able to challenge on certain things. That's something you might only get once or twice a season in other tournaments, so it's good to get a few games using it under your belt. It's a really good system, and I'm sure that the players will say the same. You can see on TV with the tiny block touches or the ball landing one or two centimetres either side of the sidelines."
"The games were really, really good, perfect stadium and crowd engagement through the announcers and dancers, the crowd made a lot of noise! You can really hear in your ear when you're on the referee stand. There was a bit of bit of extra pressure! The Olympic qualifier was amazing, and this was in a similar vein, it was good to get the experience under my belt."
