News

Posted: 04 November 2026

Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week is the perfect opportunity to highlight the amazing women and girls within the rowing community. As part of our celebrations, we caught up with our Official of the Year, Lizzie Briggs from Aberdeen BC to find out more about her journey as an umpire. 

1. What inspired you to become an umpire? 

In all honesty, I came into umpiring by accident. I started rowing at University - we had five beginner girls in my year. The other girls became the 4+, and I spent a fair bit of time coxing. I still love every single one of those girls and really enjoyed my beginner year, but wasn't really part of a set boat and was missing feeling part of a crew. Towards the end of my first year, Aaron (our equipment manager at the time) said that he was going to do the umpire training and asked if anyone else wanted to join. I've always liked volunteering and thought it sounded interesting, but knew absolutely nothing about umpiring or what it involved. Four of us from Dundee sat the exam that January - I'm the only one still umpiring! It might have been a spur of the moment 'why not?' decision, but it's the best one I've ever made.

2. What has been your favourite event to umpire?

There's no one event, but there's a few that I have really good memories of. Last Scot Champs, we had an 8-lane final for the Women's Championships 8+. I was so happy to see that level of women's racing come to Strathclyde Park, and for us to be able to run semi-finals for the event. This year, I was lucky enough to be one of the Scotland umpires for both HIR flat water and beach sprints. The regatta at Docklands was brilliant - I'd always been told that the course was next to an airport but hadn't quite appreciated just how next to an airport it is. I'd never been to a race where the assistant starter's main job is to plane-spot! It’s very easy to doubt your ability, so I can't really articulate how much it means to me that I was asked to be one of the Scottish umpires. Castle Semple is always a fantastic regatta and would earn my award for best event, but they keep scheduling it for the same day as the Eurovision final and honestly, it really hampers my ability to attend.

A special shout-out has to go to the Aberdeen Head where it was requested that we reply to the umpire invite in rhyme. There were some fantastic entries, but Grant's macaroni-pie-themed Address to the Haggis has forever cemented him in the umpiring hall of fame. See, umpires can be fun!

3. What misconceptions do people have about umpiring?

I have often heard that the umpires are a bunch of grumpy old men. Whilst I can be very grumpy, I haven’t gone grey quite yet! I want people to know that every umpire is ultimately just there to ensure that you have a fair and safe race. We're all volunteers, we've all sat multiple exams to get our qualification, we all spend a significant amount of time and money to attend races and umpire them. We aren't making any decisions lightly. I think the hardest part of umpiring, especially of being Senior Umpire, is having to award a race-changing penalty to a crew. We're not enforcing rules to be mean - we're enforcing them so that everyone has a fair and safe race. We're also just human; we can't see everything. If you have a protest, come and tell us as soon as possible!

I don't know a single umpire who doesn't have a real passion for rowing - so many umpires know competitors by name, and know so much history about rowing in Scotland. People like Carol, Gary, Ron, Ailie, Neil - they're all deeply part of their clubs and are such a key part of rowing in Scotland. They are so engaged with furthering the sport, particularly in helping young people develop. They are utterly involved and put in an unbelievable amount of effort - mostly quietly unseen and unrecognised. You don't appreciate how much work people like Jen Thompson put in until you see behind the scenes! I have such a deep love and respect for so many of the umpires - people who give so much of their time and their energy to rowing. If I can be half the umpire that they are, I will be happy.

4. How has umpiring helped you develop new skills or confidence? 

I think the main skill you need as an umpire is to be able to make quick decisions under pressure, and to have confidence in them. As an umpire, it’s your decision that’s final. You can discuss it with others, but it’s your decision and it can’t be overruled. You need to be able to explain your decision-making process. It’s quite a lot of pressure when you only have a second to make that decision and takes quite a lot of time to develop that confidence in your decisions. Umpiring has also helped me develop my communication skills – I definitely still need to work on them, but it’s made me think about how I adapt my communication style to the situation.

I think it’s important to be able to say when you were wrong – sometimes a rower appeals or new evidence comes up, or you realise that you made the wrong decision. I think it’s important to be able to be honest and apologise when needed, and I think that umpiring has helped me with that skill.

Oddly enough, all those skills are also really key in my job – I think umpiring has definitely helped me at work!

5. What does Umpire Training involve, and why should people do it?

The Scottish Rowing Umpires are a lovely bunch of people. We have a really fun time - I genuinely enjoy the other umpires' company and I look forward to seeing everyone at races. If you're contemplating coming along to the training, I want you to know that it's not all rules and regulations. It's a very supportive community of people and you will be welcomed. We have a whole range of ages and backgrounds and life-experiences. I started umpiring after less than a year of rowing, Matthew Pinsent started after winning a couple of Olympic medals. It really is for everyone.

Most importantly, races can't run without umpires. We don't have a ton of umpires in Scotland and anyone who's been on an Organising Committee can tell you that it can be tricky to get enough umpires to staff a race. There's also a lot of races in the calendar – this summer, I spent 8 out of 10 straight weekends umpiring. When you become an umpire, you'll never be expected to do everything - but by being available for just a few events, you ease the pressure and that allows competitors to race. Some umpires tend to do their home races, but it's great fun to be a part of races you maybe haven't been to before. Likewise, I would encourage clubs to make sure they have a few umpires in their ranks - if you're a club that often bemoans a lack of umpires at your races, have a think who in your club might be worth putting forward for training! I think it definitely helps the club as a whole to have someone who knows the rules and regulations, and it's a really good way to give back to the sport. It's definitely worthwhile for University students to get involved as well.

Umpiring does not mean that you have to give up racing. A lot of our umpires actively race. Being a small group allows real flexibility and you'll never be denied racing opportunity. If all you can give is one division of umpiring out of six, your Senior Umpire will happily have you for that one.

The majority of umpire training involves shadowing at races. It's ideal if you can shadow for a whole year as that lets you experience both Head and Regatta season. The Senior Umpires will make sure that you get experience on all the different positions and there’s a lot of support. There are also some training sessions online around the rules and different aspects of the race. I really enjoy the training sessions - a lot of qualified umpires attend and it's great to hear everyone's stories and opinions. There's then a couple of exams; a few written and a practical. If you've studied the rules well and shadowed plenty, it's very passable. Once you have your national license, you can move on to exams like the multi-lane qualification if you want to - and eventually the FISA exam to become a World Rowing umpire. You can progress as far along that path as you choose - no pressure.

If you have any interest at all, come along and shadow at a race - there's no obligation and you might just find that you love it.

6. What opportunities has umpiring opened up for you?

I have met so many amazing people through umpiring. For the past few years, I have been making the effort to travel down to British Rowing events. This year has been lovely – there's a group of brilliant young women who are currently sitting their BR multi-lane and we've been at a lot of the same races. It's been really nice to get to know them. One of my favourite things about larger regattas is that they give time for the umpires to meet and chat afterwards. There's such a wealth of experience that you can learn from and people are really good at giving you feedback. One of the best things that chatting to other umpires ever got me was an invite to umpire at the Dutch Masters Regatta a couple of years ago. It was so interesting to see how a different country umpires and the differences in their rules. The course was on a canal, and one bank was a safari park at which a musical festival was happening. I ended the day crouched in the bushes of the safari park with many tipsy people, attempting to align boats in Dutch. It's one of my favourite umpiring memories.

Most recently, being an NTO at the World Masters in Bled was absolutely incredible. It was great to see rowing on such a different scale and to be part of such an international group of umpires. I learnt so much just talking to people about their experiences and their lives. It was a truly multi-cultural group and it was absolutely fantastic. The atmosphere of the event was amazing, and Lake Bled was stunning. I had such a good experience, and it was fascinating to see how such a large-scale event operates. I think that you really see a different side of rowing when you're an umpire, and you certainly end up right in the middle of the atmosphere - things you might miss when you're just competing.

If you are interested in becoming an umpire, get in touch with Neil MacFarlane, neil.macfarlane@scottish-rowing.org.uk today.