Category: Refereeing

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Back in Black

Pic of the week 2/8/20

So Saturday saw lock down conditions ease a little, and grassroots football to begin. Since the government announced the easing, my phone has been pinging through with requests for me to ref and, at high noon yesterday, 1st of August, I blew the whistle to begin my new season of refereeing, taking charge of a friendly between Ashcott reserves and Victoria Sports. It was good to get back in the saddle and I enjoyed the afternoon – something different after months of groundhog day. And today I did another game, New Forresters v Woolavington – the standard of football was pretty low, but again, good to be out and about once again.

With refereeing starting again, my running stats will begin to fall again, but here they are for the end of July:

So not quite the heights of April, but still a fair few k’s covered in July: 189 Kms to be exact, taking my total so far this year to 777 Km.

Friday was the hottest day of the year (so far!) and Becky, Sam and I headed to Burton Bradstock beach for the day – another lovely day out at the seaside, the sea was a little waveyer than before, and as ever, swimming in the sea was a highlight of a lovely day out.

Sophie didn’t come with us, she had an (virtual) induction day for her ONS work experience year, and she also heard her exam results for the year, scoring 82% – a First (the threshold was 70%).  Some great news to cap a great day.

 

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Promotion!

Pic of the week 12/4/20

This week it was official – I’ve been promoted by Somerset FA, to a level 6 referee. Due to weather, and then lockdown, I never received my third observation, but given that my first two were above standard expected, and that I’d met all the other criteria – including doing well in excess of my 20 qualifying games – I never really doubted the outcome, but I was pleased to get the letter nonetheless – an achievement!  I know need to decide whether to push on to become a level 5; I must admit at the moment I’m tempted, but not sure when football will start again, so will have to put that decision on hold for a while.

In other news, the weather has been glorious for the last few days and I’ve really enjoyed our family meals – lunch and tea – outside. Lockdown ain’t so bad – we live in a big enough house, have a lovely garden and all (ie the children) are old enough to do their own thing and everyone respects each other’s personal space, but we come together at mealtimes for some lovely family time – its possible that lockdown my be our last pro-longed family time. Perhaps in the years to come we’ll look back, through rose tinted specs, at the “happy times of lockdown”!  The wonderful weather has helped, and Becky having the last three days off has also been a big part in making this a wonderful Easter weekend to remember.

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A busy week

Pic of the week 15/12/19

Its been a busy week.

On Tuesday, Becky & I ventured out to Bristol to see Scouting for Girls. As ever, they were excellent.

On Thursday I  had a dental check up – all good.

Friday morning I ran my 400th Km of the year (have just looked back at last year – ran 424 Km in the year, so will hit a similar amount this year.

Also on Friday we went to Reading to collect Sophie. She had an exam in the afternoon, so Becky & went shopping before meeting Sophie “for tea” in “The Real Greek” (v. nice food) and then heading home through the dark and rain. Always nice to have the whole family back under one roof for Christmas.

On Saturday I refereed my last game of the (calendar) year – Wells City U16 v Saints South West. Cold & windy, but stayed dry. Was due to ref today (Sunday) but game was off due to a wet pitch. With the Y&DL and Bridgwater Sunday league both now on their Christmas breaks, I think I can now rest my whistle until January.

Oh, and Thursday was General Election day. The Tory’s romped home with a massive majority. Looks like we’ll be out of Europe by the end of January. Whilst a Conservative victory was expected, no-one expected it to be by so much.

I crunched some data and wrote a blog post on my maths teacher writes site but here’s a chart that shows the seats won.

 

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O.N.S

Pic of the week 24/11/19

Well, what a busy week that was.

On Wednesday Sophie had an interview at the Bank of England (right in the pic above) She says it went well, but won’t hear for a while.

But not to worry as on Thursday she was offered a placement year job at the Office for National Statistics (O.N.S) (above left in the pic) which needless to say she is delighted about. For some time this has been her number one target, and she’ll be spending next year working in Newport.

Still on the job front, on Thursday I interviewed for the Head of Maths post at Millfield. (A little annoyingly) I’m still waiting on hearing whether or not I’ve been succsesful. They say they are not sure about the structure of the department, and need to get that right before offering any posts.

On Wednesday (great interview preparation!) I fixed the Micra wiper blades which had stopped working (on the way back from Sophie’s interview at the ONS last week.) Once a special tool had arrived for removing the wiper arms, it was all fairly straight forward. Took about an hour to remove wipers & scuttle panel to access the wiper mechanism. Was instantly obvious that my diagnosis was correct that a linkage had popped off a ball joint. Remove the whole mechanism, fit a retaining clip and put it all back together. Rather enjoyed the job.

On Friday I failed to get Killers tickets, but Becky was successful, so in June we are off to see them (Manic Street Preachers supporting) at Ashton Gate.

And on Saturday, I refereed our 2nd XI v Marlborough in front of quite a big crowd, including a certain someone …

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Kick off – and New Order

Pic of the week 21/7/19

My (pre) season has begun, with games on Tuesday – Ashcott Reserves v Lantokay at Strode Astro, and a line on Saturday Bishops Lydeard v Exmouth Town, both Western League teams, Exmouth in the Premier Division and BL in Div 1, so Step 5 and Step 6 respectively. Enjoyed both games, am looking forward to the season to come.

On Thursday Becky & I went to see New Order at Bristol Harbour Festival – Lloyd’s Ampitheater – a great gig on a warm, cloudless night. Really enjoyed it, Temptation was, not surprisingly, my highlight. But their finale, Love Will Tear Us Apart was pretty good too (and better than Paul Young’s from earlier in the year)

 

 

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Well better than expected, I knew 4 tracks, this being my fave #lovewilltearusapart #neworder #bristolharbourfestival

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And just for good measure, here is Blue Monday (the one New Order track that everyone knows, but by no means their best)

 

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Blue Monday for all you @neworderofficial fans @emmavictoriabridger @juliacherrill @tappers127

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Update: Here is the official video of the evening


Running news: – Clocked up my 300th Km of the year today

Running shoes

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Another reunion

Pic of the week 23/6/19

Last night I went to another OW reunion, mainly on the basis that we’ve all turned (or will soon be turning) 50 this year.

Good to see people again, although fewer this time than two years ago (no, not because everyone is starting to shuffle of this mortal coil, but perhaps because the novelty is wearing off?)

Particularly good to see Ed (Fuller), Andrew “Klebs” Kirby and Rachel (Willis) who weren’t there last time. We laughed, we joked, we rolled back the years, a good evening, even if it did, at times, feel like I’d wandered onto the set of a Richard Curtis movie.

In other news, did my referee fitness test today and passed, no smashed, it. To go from Level 7 to 6 I needed to do 2,000m  (5 laps) in 12 minutes, I did circa 2,500 m (6 3/4) laps in the 12 minutes, more than I’d need to do to go from 6 to 5. (Also did x2 50 m sprints in under 7.5 seconds)

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Fourth Official

Pic of the week 19/5/19

And so the season ends.

On arrival at Cheddar FC it soon became apparent that my role for the night was to reduce the average age and waistline of the officiating team.

I’ve never been a Fourth Official before and my extensive briefing on my appointment mainly centered around the use of the electronic board for subs and time keeping, and I was advised to arrive in plenty of time to familiarise myself with this magical bit of kit. However, it transpired that the board broke the night before and it looked like I would simply be a glorified ball boy, with little else to do than roll on a new ball when, inevitably, the one in use was fired high, wide and ugly into the Cheddar night.

And that was how it was, until after about 20 mins the ref missed an obvious stamp on a Huish player in their area. Player on the ground in pain, ball rolls to a Hutton attacker who scores to make it 1-0.

Cue the explosion from the Huish bench, so I don my blue UN Peackeeper beret and head over to calm them down.

Two minutes later, a crunching tackle on a Hutton defender has the other bench in high dudgeon and so the tone is set for the rest of my evening: scurrying and shuttling between two benches, calming & cajoling increasingly irate managers and subs. I did find some success when I pointed out that the ref couldn’t be biased as both sides were equally upset with him. Imagine, if you will, being a supply teacher looking after a class of angry year 11’s at one end of the corridor, and a class of belligerent year 9’s at the other.

As for the game, Jack’s best friend (the tattooed monster of Huish) was not playing and, to be fair, Huish were, on the whole, a good bunch.  Hutton had one player sent off (x 2 yellow cards for dissent) but emerged as 1-0 winners.

I’d like to say football was the winner, but I’d probably be lying.

Nevertheless, and I can’t explain why, I rather enjoyed the experience.

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Easter hols

Pic of the week 14/9/19

And so the Easter hols roll on. The weather could be better, but it could be worse.

On the whole it has been dry and we’ve seen some sun, but sometimes, like today, it has been cold. Still, in weather forecaster parlance, there has been some usable weather that has seen me potter in the garden for a bit, sit in the garden for a bit, snooze in the garden a bit …

On Friday, Sam and I went for a walk along the Poldens, but this time we went West instead of East, parking at the YHA car park and then walking along the ridge to the windmill and back. A walk of about an hour or so, with some good views back across Street and to the Tor (above) or looking South across the levels.

On Thursday I tackled the hedge giving it a good trim and getting it back into shape.

It was all going so well until I cut through the cable of the strimmer. No drama, no disaster, no loud bang – it just stopped working. Am a bit annoyed with myself as I am normally quite H&S conscious. Not this time.

Anyway, 30 minutes of repairs later and I was back in action.

Becky & Sophie have been to Cornwall for the weekend for Auntie Avril’s 80th birthday – photo montage below. Looks cold & blowy, but the sea a perfect greeney blue, it would have been nice to see the sea.

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy refereeing this week – line on Monday (Floodlight U18 ), middles Thursday (Y&DL), Saturday (JPL U15) and Sunday (Bridgwater League) including a red on Thursday (dissent x 2) – my first non-school cherry.

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Welcome, March!

Pic of the week 3/3/19

Didn’t post last week – the day ended up running away with me, and now we are in March, always a great month!

The middle pic above is a montage of the month of February, which ended with some beautiful weather, fantastic sunshine and unseasonable temperatures. All that has since changed and we’re currently being battered by Storm Freya. Not to bad, a bit blowy, a bit rainy (on and off) and typical temperatures for the time of year.

Last Sunday, I had my first game on a new league Bridgwater and District Sunday League, and I had another game today – the first of my promotion season! So far, I’ve enjoyed both games – today’s, featuring the top team in Div 1, was a good standard, last week (a Div 2 clash) was more traditional Sunday league fare, but with a 10.30 kick off, I’m quite liking doing the Sunday mornings.

Other news – current problems with BT internet email, hopefully will be resolved soon …

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Committed

Pic of the week 10/2/19

(A hint of Spring to come today – a mix of blue skies and showers. The above are all flowering somewhere on the garden. Particularly pleased with the Hyacinth, bottom left, as this will be one that I planted after Christmas last year.)

Committed.

Today I paid my deposit and signed up to go on the referee promotion programme 2019/20. The big struggle will be getting the 20 qualifying games in (14 OA) – I’ll do more games than that, but not necessarily at the right age group. I need to explore officiating on the Uxella Bridgwater Sunday League, if I do so, along with the odd Saturday on Yeovil & District and the handy fact that for this promotion season only runs from March 1st ’19 to May 31st ’20 – giving me an extra couple of months to get the games in.

Looking forward to the challenge, and new experiences it will bring.