Golden Whistle for Wanderer Ged
Posted by Carmin Dow on 31 July 2012
Ged will take up his whistle for the 100th time at an international game at the Olympic Games in London. This means he will become one of only two Scottish males to be honoured by the FIH with a Golden Whistle. Craig Madden is the other Scot who features on the list of approximately 30 people across the world achieving this honour so far.
Curran's international career began in 1995 when he umpired his first outdoor international match in Genoa. Since then he has umpired in many World and European tournament finals including the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, two Champions Trophies, in Melbourne and Monchengladbach, the Champions Challenge I in Johannesburg and Challenge II in Dublin and most recently at the Olympic Qualifier in Kakamigahara in Japan. He was also appointed as the reserve umpire for the last Men's Outdoor World Cup in New Delhi.
One of the things Ged enjoys most about umpiring at this level is being able to see some of the most fantastic players the world of hockey has produced over the years. He says that "umpiring Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, India and Pakistan are very special occasions. Games between Australia and Germany are wonderful as is umpiring the likes of India and Pakistan, particularly against each other, who just want to run and attack the opposition all the time. This was especially good at the World Cup in 2010 in New Delhi, the noise that 20,000 Indian spectators can make sounds like 70,000, believe me".
Ged will be umpiring the game between New Zealand and India on Wednesday 1st August 2012 at 13:45
