The HVA will be hosting a Grade 4 referee course on Saturday 30th November at Ridgeway Academy (Herns Ln, Welwyn Garden City AL7 2AF). This is part funded by England Volleyball and part funded by HVA. The cost to anybody who wants to be on the course is £55 and as usual HVA will cover the cost of a single attendee per club. Hopefully your club can cover the cost for additional attendees. Once qualified, you can formally referee HVA matches that require a qualified referee and we'll add you to the list of referees we're collating.
We will be given a special course finder code by EV shortly and when we have that I'll publish details here. It will remain closed until 27 October and then it will be open to all. There are no other grade 4 referee courses noted on the England Volleyball website this season, so it could fill up quickly once it goes public.
More details on referee courses generally can be found here, but having attended one myself last year it's thoroughly worth it. The practical session is very enjoyable and although you do need to pass the exam, if you've played for a few years, studied the FIVB rules beforehand and know how to complete a FIVB scoresheet, it won't be difficult. We had people on our course who had never played volleyball... I have no idea whether they passed. You even get a free whistle and red/yellow cards for attending the course, which makes it worth the £55 in my books.
Thanks to Steve and Lynne at WHVC for liaising with EV and Ridgeway Academy to sort this out.
Duncan
UPDATE 9/11 we're still waiting for EV to assign a coach and get this up on their system. We are chasing so keep that date free in your diaries.
UPDATE 12/11 still no coach assigned, so postponing to late January. 25th has been proposed.