Last week I promised to keep all my loyal readers updated on how my referring course went. Unfortunately there’s not really a lot to talk about really, I even think the creative masterminds behind Dear Deirdre would struggle to turn the evening into a tale to catch the imagination of the nation but I’ll do my best. At worst, it’s going to be short and sweet.
Being the absolute paranoid man towards being late and finding places , coupled with my natural hatred of rush hour ,I hoped on a train from Charring Cross far too early and found myself in the culturally backwater that is Welling just after 5pm. After walking through one of the most despair inducing high streets I’ve ever seen I managed, using my legendary powers of map reading, to find the location of my course, in a church just off the main high street.
Satisfied that the church was the correct location I retired to have a quiet beverage in the local drinking parlour to mix with the locals and partake in general merriment. This was thoroughly enjoyable for 2 minutes before I decided that the book in my bag offered considerably more entertainment.
As the hour dawned nearer I went back to the Church only to find its hall occupied by the brownies! After finding out that the start time of 7 for the course was wrong and that the brownies had the hall tell 8 I retired back to the warmth of the pub, cursing the slackness of the FA and the evil masterminds behind the brownies....
Having received a phone call from the guy giving the course, apologising for his boss getting the times royally wrong, I made my way back to the church hall to start the course just after 8. All seemed good with the instructor Owen, telling us all about what a ref needs to do to before a match starts, such as inspect the pitch, equipment (balls, goalposts, corner flags etc ) and players themselves. Did you know the importance of socks pulled up over shin guards? – helps them stay in place, even under a challenge hopefully.
So overall? Enjoyable evening, with some good information and hopefully it will continue in this vain. I’ve got plenty of reading material to mull over so I should be tucking into that during the weekend. I’m guessing I’ll never watch Match of the day in the same light again though.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Oh so you did decide to do the Reffering (not sure what you meant my that at first!!) course. We need some decent refs. Played on sunday and had a really strict ref, sent off one of our players for a gentle kick of the opponents calf, warned me about a tackle that was fair and square and booked about 3 people. Still its a thankless task. Good luck Mr B
Post a Comment