Surprise at awards honour

MURRAY WILSON/Manawatu Standard

OFFICIALLY A WINNER: Lisa Aull, officiating at the Lower North Island Secondary School netball tournament at Whanganui this week.

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Lisa Aull is the second Manawatu woman in a row to win the Netball New Zealand volunteer-of-the-year award and says the news took her by surprise.

Aull follows umpires coaching stalwart, Linda Liggins, who grabbed the award last year.

Aull will be presented with a prize at the Silver Ferns test against Australia in Auckland on Sunday.

"It's just amazing really, isn't it?" Aull said. "I had no idea I'd been nominated."

Aull began umpiring 12 years ago and was awarded her New Zealand badge this year. She has also been a bench official for the past eight years.

She only took up umpiring because players were forced to officiate at the games played after their own on a Saturday.

"It was something you had to do and I grew to love it," she explained.

While she is a premier one umpire in Manawatu now, that wasn't always the case and doing the bench officiating, such as keeping the score and the time took her close to the action.

"You get to sit courtside on those games because it's the best seat in the house."

Aull has also done statistics for Netball New Zealand for the past three years after they brought in a new computer system in 2007 for the world championships.

At ANZ Championship fixtures, she keeps track of the stats, such as rebounds, accurate passes and intercepts, and will keep the numbers at the Silver Ferns test against Australia in Wellington tonight.

Details of what she can expect in Auckland were unclear but she said she had a flight to catch on Saturday and would be put up for two nights. "I'm assuming somebody will pick me up in Auckland when I get there," she laughed.

Western Netball's Annette Pearce was also highly commended in the coaches' section.

Award winners: Sandra Robb (Netball Southland) administrator award, Lisa Aull (Western Netball) official award, Jess McCarthy (Netball Waikato) youth award, Julie Erskine (Netball Southland) coach award.

- © Fairfax NZ News