A member at Canterbury Bowling Club has had double cause for celebration.

Sue Mates officiated at the World Indoor Bowls Championships, which came to an end on Sunday, but has learned more good news.

She has also been selected to umpire at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer.

She explained: “I have been back a couple of days and the email came through with the letter attached, saying my application has been successful.

“So I’m off, probably, on July 26. The Games start on the 28th but we will probably go early for a training session, as well as having some of those beforehand.

“There will be umpires coming from all over the world and the Home Nations, so I’m really looking forward to that.

“The Commonwealth Games is the highest level of bowls you can get. It’s not yet an Olympic sport - they are trying - but it’s not there yet.

"The two things together are just amazing - to get involved with World Championship bowls and then the Commonwealth Games.

“It’s like all your London buses coming at once!”

It comes after Mates was part of the umpiring team at the World Indoor Bowls Championships, held at Potters Resort in Hopton-on-Sea, this month, with the competition first starting on January 7 and lasting more than two weeks.

“At the World Indoor Bowls Championships they have a team of umpires,” said 60-year-old Mates, who has also worked closely with Oyster Indoor Bowls Club in Whitstable.

“It’s the World Bowls Tour umpire team and, to my knowledge from this year, there were eight of us - six who are already approved if you like and myself and another chap, Malcolm Ramage from Scotland.

"We were asked if we would like to go along for a trial.

“They, literally, put us straight on the rink! We know what we are doing as umpires but this was a very different set-up - they have their own set of playing conditions and rules, which you had to learn before you went.

“It was straight on the rink and there was a debrief each day. The idea was to pick up on how you have performed and the debrief you are given, and improve every day which I know I did.

“I improved every day for four days and, at the end of it, we had a large debrief with Allan Thornhill who is the head umpire at the World Bowls Tour. He said ‘We will invite you back next year’.”

Mates says the umpires were certainly kept busy.

Matches from the championships were live streamed on various channels, too.

She stated: “They work in teams of four each day, and there were four games each day. They go on a cyclic rota so there is always one that is resting.

“The marker first thing in the morning, shot-clock operator first thing in the morning and umpire first thing in the morning all go round one, so the marker goes off and has a rest because that’s the most physical job.

“The umpire becomes marker, shot-clock becomes umpire and the person who was having a rest goes into the shot-clock position.

“But it goes round in circles as the day goes on. You end up averaging four games a day.”

Mates, who concedes she struggles to play as much nowadays, was impressed with how the officials worked together, adding: “The team of umpires there are so supportive and helpful, and you do work together as a team.

"They cover each other if one person is not quite sure.

“But it really is full-on concentration the whole way through - no matter what role you are doing.”