I first remember Vance as a mechanic at NZPO/Telecom, but over the years it has been mostly through softball that our lives have been so intertwined. He wasn’t one of those people who played through the age groups and then went on to play senior softball before taking up umpiring. He was a parent who supported his kids – Shaun and Lana – by umpiring and coaching when they played T-ball and then softball, and he developed a passion for the sport.
His attitude was; “If I am going to do this, I am going to do it right”, and so he studied up the rule book and sat and passed his umpires theory. He got his NZ Umpires badge in the 1986/87 season and went on to become a grade 6 umpire (the highest grade a NZ umpire can aspire to other than a full international qualification).
As an umpire, he had a very good strike zone, great rule knowledge, and good judgment of out/safe calls. He could take a ribbing from players who felt hard done by on a call, but he also knew where to draw the line, and gained a lot of respect from the top NZ players for his control of major games in many National competitions.
In 1994 he went to Australia as a Trans Tasman exchange umpire and also umpired many top level NZ and international fixtures throughout the 90s. SNZ Chief Umpire, Wayne Saunders remembers Vance as a very competent umpire who worked well with players and coaches and was respected by his colleagues.
But it wasn’t just umpiring that he put his time and effort into. Vance was president of the SCSA and the South Canterbury Umpires for a while, and was also involved in a management role with the SC United men’s team that played in the Canterbury competition (which meant travelling from Timaru to Christchurch every weekend during the season).
Off the diamond he developed a real interest in computers. Mostly self taught (at first I remember him asking me a lot of questions about computers, but later the tables were turned and it was me the was asking him for advice), he set up the first Softball New Zealand and Canterbury Softball websites (and helped out with other softball websites as well). He has been the SNZ webmaster for many years and has contributed significantly to the development and maintenance of the SNZ umpires, scorers and coaches WebPages.
And then there was the “Meanie” – a 1600cc Kawasaki Meanstreak. Not his first motorbike, but man he was proud of it, and I have to say – it is still a great bike. Vance never missed an opportunity to point out the subtle superiorities over my humble 750cc Honda.
On a personal note, I want to say Vance was one of the best mates a guy could ever have.
You could be a stirrer when you wanted to mate, but damn – I am going to miss you.
Russell Moffat.
