Our own Malcolm Banham was shortlisted for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sports Officials UK awards recently for his unstinting dedication to our sport. Malcolm was nominated alongside three other officials for the awards, which took place in Chesford Grange Hotel in Warwick. His nomination recognises the significant 25-year contribution he has made to all levels of officiating for the BUAofE, BE and the BWF.

Malcolm started his umpiring career when he joined the BUAofE in 1989. After seven years Malcolm had progressed to becoming an International grade umpire, and in short order qualified as a BE Certificated umpire, a BWF (IBF back then!) Accredited umpire, finally reaching the top world level, BWF Certificated, in 2000. Malcolm officiated at a huge number of tournaments around the world during his career, including the Athens Olympics, the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, five World Champs, three Sudirman Cups, two World Junior Champs, three European Champs, the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals, the SuperSeries Finals, a number of Premier SuperSeries and SuperSeries events, many other International events, and of course, every All England since about 1993, either as an umpire or, in recent years, as Umpire Manager.

Not only has Malcolm been a heavily committed umpire, he has also dedicated much of his time to the development of others, where he has tutored hundreds of umpires of all levels (grassroots to top world grade) nationally and internationally. He currently heads up the BWF umpire training programme, and has been appointed as Chair of the BWF Umpire Assessor Panel from 1 January 2017, having been an Umpire Assessor on that panel for a number of years. Malcolm has also been a stalwart member of the BUAofE, has been on the National Committee for many years, has mentored countless umpires in his illustrious career, and is still contributing to the sport!

Congratulations, Malcolm, on your achievements and on your shortlisting for the SOUK Lifetime Achievement Award!