All is not well ...

[ex-lucy]

one of my erstwhile fellow referees from Herts had a very bad experience ...

L10 merit table cup match ..
Home team's 1st xv is a L8 team.
Away team's 1st xv is a L4 team.
Home team 2nd xv v away team's 4th xv
away team brought some of their team mates from team above.

there were 5 yellow cards, most awarded to teh away team for backchat/ dissent.
referee abandoned match after 60 mins due to continuous dissent from away team.
He was persuaded to continue by home captain.
5 mins later more dissent from away team.
Referee yellow carded the player.
The player refused to go off.
Referee did abandon the match at this point.

2 players in front of DC for match official abuse.
The Disciplinary Committee found the away team's club guilty and fined them but teh two players were found not guilty.
The players were still showing lots of dissent in the dc meeting saying 'he's useless, incompetent' etc.
the dc consisted of a club member from the away team !

i dare not type what i think .....
same club and same individuals as i experienced a year ago !!!

 

[andyscott]

one of my erstwhile fellow referees from Herts had a very bad experience ...

L10 merit table cup match ..
Home team's 1st xv is a L8 team.
Away team's 1st xv is a L4 team.
Home team 2nd xv v away team's 4th xv
away team brought some of their team mates from team above.

there were 5 yellow cards, most awarded to teh away team for backchat/ dissent.
referee abandoned match after 60 mins due to continuous dissent from away team.
He was persuaded to continue by home captain.
5 mins later more dissent from away team.
Referee yellow carded the player.
The player refused to go off.
Referee did abandon the match at this point.

2 players in front of DC for match official abuse.
The Disciplinary Committee found the away team's club guilty and fined them but teh two players were found not guilty.
The players were still showing lots of dissent in the dc meeting saying 'he's useless, incompetent' etc.
the dc consisted of a club member from the away team !

i dare not type what i think .....
same club and same individuals as i experienced a year ago !!!

Without seeing the minutes its difficult to comment.

However, once I had the second in the bin for dissent, it would be Captain, chat about helping me etc, can't allow this, and the next one would be red.

I know a lot of referees who are at good levels, 6,5,4 etc who will not referee lower level games because of dissent. So you can be a cracking ref at level 5 and a level 10 player thinks you are crap, hmm it can't be like that. The refs would never say they won't ref a lower level game, but its amazing when no senior appointments are out, how many of them have work/family commitments. TBH I don't blame them.

I will never do kids games lower than U19, because of the shite you get from parents, and I really cannot tolerate the nastiness.

 

[PaulDG]

However, once I had the second in the bin for dissent, it would be Captain, chat about helping me etc, can't allow this, and the next one would be red.

I know a lot of referees who are at good levels, 6,5,4 etc who will not referee lower level games because of dissent

Those of us who do many lower level games are occasionally in situations where we have to be "selectively deaf" to get a game going - they're not angry at us, they're angry with themselves for being 4 stone overweight, for still smoking 20 a day and so on.

When we do a string of games like that, it can be hard to turn on what would be normal at a higher level game - the "setting out your stall early" and so on.

So when these mixed ability games happen, it can so easily be a train wreck. We're not used to their need for discipline and the sheer speed they want to play at.

They're not used to us being more "flexible" than the refs they see every week and they especially can't understand why we don't penalise that fat b*st*rd who was laying on the ball for half a second as that was a clear penalty!!! (When in fact, he was doing the best he could.)

I've personally had a couple of wrecks like this. Now I know to "act up" if I have a suspicion there are higher level players on the field.

It may not be as much fun for the older unfit guys, but it's a lot safer for everyone.

 

[Davet]

Ex-Lucy

I read this with dismay.

Frankly the level of competence of the ref is not relevant - teams must just put up with it and keep quiet. At least on the day. If they want to lodge a formal complaint, with detailed instances, later then that is their right.

It may be that the ref was rubbish - I have no way of knowing, but that's not the point. He was the appointed ref to the game, and L10 seems about right as described, it could actually be L11, but...

I have had issues myself with players from national league clubs, even though they are playing a few teams off the 1st team they may well have played at that level in years past, and can have a view of the game that is not quite L10, and be arrogant about it. Trust me - been there got that shirt.

The Disciplinary Panel need to back the ref up, and refuse to tolerate stuff like this

 

[Blackberry]

Hmmm, i wonder, are these Level 4 and 8 players allowed to play in a Merit Table game? Hope somebody checks this with the organisers.

 

[Davet]

I assume that players are not currently operating at L4.

As the 4th team of L4 club then the team would probably be around L10, and part of the Merit table.

It's the team not the players who have a level