WDFUA field, goal umpire to reach 250th match with association

Clapp didn't play footy but it's been part of his life for decades.

He's set to umpire his 250th match for Warrnambool and District Football Umpires Association (WDFUA) at D. C. Farran Oval on Saturday.

Most of his games have been as a field umpire but he also does goal umpiring.

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That's on top of his more than 800 as a Warrnambool Blues' club umpire.

Clapp, who does field umpiring in the morning and goal umpiring in the afternoon, has the Terang Mortlake versus Portland clash in the Hampden league this weekend.

"Some guys I played cricket with, coaxed me into coming up and watching them play footy and there was no boundary umpire one day so I did the boundary with them and it all just took off from there," he said of how he first started as a club umpire.

He would eventually switch to central umpiring.

"The umpires association couldn't supply field umpires so there was a group of us that got together and started to doing the Hampden league reserves field umpiring," he said.

"And we probably did that for six or seven years."

It was an experience he valued.

"Probably doing that enticed me to think I could probably go a bit better and I ended up doing a few Hampden league senior games with the association but then old age set in," he said with a laugh.

Clapp joined the WDFUA in 2008 after his daughter, Amy, took an interest in running the boundary.

"She used to follow me to the football all the time and she decided to start boundary umpiring," he said.

"So I sent her over to the association and then I came across as well.

"And then two years after that they said come and coach."

Clapp became the boundary umpires coach, a role which he held for six years.

"My main role was coaching the boundary umpires but when you went to observe games - there was only one observer - you had to know what all the disciplines were about and give feedback to goal and field umpires at the same time," he said.

Watching his daughter progress through the ranks brought him the most joy.

"Obviously doing grand finals has always been good and probably the biggest highlight was watching my daughter do Hampden league senior footy in field umpiring," he said.

"And obviously coaching and to see the kids you coached come up through the ranks and really start to excel.

"That was really rewarding through that period.

"At some stages we had up to 60 boundaries you were coaching, it a was a lot of work."

While he doesn't have an official title, Clapp is still mentoring field umpires on Saturday mornings.

He's paired with learning umpires for junior games.

WDFUA has struggled for numbers this season and Clapp highly recommends getting involved.

"It's the best seat in the house to watch a game of footy and it's good camaraderie. It's like any other club, you've got people around you all the time, we party, we have social functions like everybody else," he said.

"We'd love to see some past players up here and getting back into it because the numbers have been decimated last year, so it's a big rebuilding now.

"You just do it to get out of the house on a Saturday."

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