A DRYBROOK man has gone off to umpire at the Commonwealth Games this week.

David Gough, who is in his 70s, headed off to the games, in Glasgow, on Monday where he will spend two weeks umpiring the international table tennis.

He said: "I'm excited to be at the games as it's the first time I've ever umpired at this level. I have coached table tennis for many years and about seven years ago I fancied a change and went into the world of umpiring. This has led me to appear at national senior championships, and last year I was fortunate to umpire at the Belgium Paralympics.

"Apparently a select group of senior English umpires were asked to make a list of 25 umpires which was then forwarded to the Commonwealth Games Table Tennis Committee who selected the final 16 umpires. To say I was delighted when I was informed that I had been selected is an understatement, I was over the moon. This is, at the moment, the pinnacle of my umpiring career."

The competition commences tomorrow (Thursday) and concludes on August 2. David added: "The hardest thing about umpiring is blotting out the cameras and focussing on the game in hand."