(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
  Four Dutch umpires successfully complete CEB Umpire Clinic
Nederlands
| List of International Umpires 2015 |
| Country | AAA | AA | A | N | New | Total |
| Austria | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | 1 | 7 |
| Belarus | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | 2 |
| Belgium | - | - | 3 | - | 1 | 4 |
| Croatia | - | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | 6 |
| Czech Republic | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | - | 10 |
| Denmark | - | - | - | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Estonia | - | - | - | 1 | - | 1 |
| Finland | - | - | 1 | - | - | 1 |
| France | 1 | 2 | - | - | 2 | 5 |
| Georgia | - | - | - | 3 | - | 3 |
| Germany | 3 | 2 | 2 | - | - | 7 |
| Great Britain | - | - | 2 | - | 1 | 3 |
| Greece | - | - | 2 | 1 | - | 3 |
| Israel | - | - | 4 | 1 | - | 5 |
| Italy | 4 | 2 | - | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| Lithuania | 1 | - | 3 | - | - | 4 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | - | 9 |
| Norway | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | 2 |
| Poland | - | - | 2 | 1 | - | 3 |
| Romania | - | 1 | 2 | - | 1 | 4 |
| Russia | - | - | 3 | - | - | 3 |
| Serbia | - | - | 1 | 5 | - | 6 |
| Slovakia | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | - | 4 |
| Spain | - | 3 | 1 | 2 | - | 6 |
| Sweden | - | 2 | 2 | - | - | 4 |
| Switzerland | - | - | 3 | - | - | 3 |
| Ukraine | - | - | 4 | - | 2 | 6 |
|
| Totals | 17 | 24 | 48 | 23 | 12 | 124 |
 BARCELONA (Spain) -
Four Dutch international umpires successfully completed the 3-day CEB Umpire Clinic last weekend (March 6-8) in Barcelona (Spain).
With that, the four officially earned the certification CEB Umpire.
It was the second time that the CEB Umpire Commission organized a clinic for new and/or potential CEB Umpires.
The CEB organizes these clinics for umpires who have been on the international lists of their federation for the first time in 2013, 2014 or 2015 and also will be on the federation's international list for the current year.
The policy of CEB is that all active CEB-umpires should have a license and therefore have to participate in a CEB-clinic.
Amongst the topics on the program during the clinics are the official baseball rules, the 3-man crew mechanics and positioning and the CEB-rules/policies.
The CEB also will organize an one-day clinic this year in advance of the two European Cup Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Paris (France) for the participating umpires in order to improve the level of umpiring within CEB.
The clinic in Barcelona was led by CEB Umpire Director Paul Bokern (Netherlands) and instructor Mojmir Jankovic (Slovakia), who himself is an international umpire and recently was named CEB Umpire of the Year 2014.
The four Dutch umpires, who successfully completed the clinic in Barcelona, are in alphabetical order Martijn Bosschaart, Peter Brink, Edwin Louisa and Efrem Silvania.
The quartet is active in the Dutch big league for some years now and all developed into very talented umpires, who are very capable of leading the games in the highest division.
Of this quartet, Silvania made his big league-debut in 2007, then became a regular since 2009, which was the year in which Brink made his debut in the highest Dutch league.
Bosschaart joined the big league in 2011 and Louisa followed in 2012.
All four were assigned to games in the best-of-seven Holland Series last season, which was the first time in their career that they officiated in the championship-final.
It also underscored the quality they developed through the last years.
On February 22, the European Baseball Confederation (CEB) already published its list with their 124 international umpires for the 2015 season.
Included on that list are 17 umpires with the highest qualification, which is AAA, meaning they are the top-umpires on the CEB-list.
Amongst those 17 umpires is one Dutch umpire, being Henri van Heijningen.
This year, Van Heijningen will officiate in his 25th season in the Dutch big league.
The AAA-category is compiled of umpires from Austria (2), Czech Republic (4), France (1), Germany (3), Italy (4), Lithuania (1) and Slovakia (1).
Following the AAA-umpires, there are 24 umpires on the list who have the so-called AA-qualification, including Dutch umpires Winfried Berkvens, Peter Brink, Niek Elshof, Stenar van Groningen Schinkel and Roy van de Wateringen.
The list continues with 48 umpires with the A-qualification, including Dutch umpire Efrem Silvania.
Next are 23 umpires with the N-qualification, including Dutch umpires Martijn Bosschaart and Edwin Louisa.
These are also qualified umpires on international lists, but were not judged yet by the Technical Committee of the CEB.
The list ends with twelve newcomers on the international list.
The list includes umpires from 27 different countries, led by the Czech Republic (10), Italy (10), the Netherlands (9), Austria (7) and Germany (7).
...Martijn Bosschaart... | 
...Peter Brink... |
...Edwin Louisa... | 
...Efrem Silvania... |
| (© All Photos: Henk Seppen) |
...The umpires who successfully completed the CEB Umpire Clinic in Barcelona...
...Back: Cuauhtemoc Suarez (Spain), Martijn Bosschaart (Netherlands), Jerónimo Moreno (Spain),...
...Edwin Louisa (Netherlands), Yuri Macchiabelli (Italy) and Instructor Mojmir Jankovic (Slovakia)...
...Front: Umpire Director Paul Bokern (Netherlands), Eivind Pagander Tysnes (Norway), Jean-Paul Jacobs (Belgium),...
...Ken Macri (Belgium), Peter Brink (Netherlands), Franco Borselli (Italy) and Efrem Silvania (Netherlands)...
(© Photo: CEB) |
 |  |  |  |
...The other four Dutch umpires on the international list of the CEB...
...left to right: Winfried Berkvens, Niek Elshof, Stenar van Groningen Schinkel & Roy van de Wateringen...
(© All Photos: Henk Seppen) |
(March 11)
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