Whistle Choice

[Robert Burns]

I have those wrist straps, no idea where i go them from, I am going to try out the Tornado this year, I will let you know.

 

[Simon Griffiths]

Did the chicken come before the egg?

Another one of life's great mysteries.

Until the beginning of the spring, I had been using the Thunderer 63 - very small and very loud, but a little too high pitched. On the advice of an assessor I replaced it with another larger whistle, one with a deeper tone - the 58 mentioned above.

One week later, I was given a 58.5 (I needn't have bothered buying one), but being a semi-supersticious person, after having a distinctly average first outing with it (as I tested it), I went straight back to my recent purchase of the 58 (which I had previously performed admirably with).

I don't personally have a preference between the 58 and 58.5, both very good for rugby, but I do miss my 63 because with a large crowd it cut straight through the noise being very loud and of a slightly higher pitch - not the best for rugby though.

 

[Simon Griffiths]

Robert, just read your post.

Warning: Do not blow the Tornado too hard - with the way the air flows through it, you will end up permenantly damaging your hearing - I almost did. It's very, very, very loud (and that's at a great distance - I read that it can be heard over three miles away given correct parameters) and when it's aimed directly into your ears it hurts!

I too have the elasticated wrist bands - I've got three or four (one for each whistle) - I think our finance manager was sent some by the Referees Dept. at the RFU.

 

[Robert Burns]

Don't say i don't do anything for you!

This is what you mean, and you can get them here for £2 each, cheapest I could find in UK, You do need to ring them though, not online ordering. think I'll set up a resourses forum.

http://www.juscossports.com/currentRefereeProducts.php?pageNum_rsOfficialsProducts=1&totalRows_rsOfficialsProducts=7

 

[Robert Burns]

What about this?

http://www.newitts.com/product/OS-221/Molten_Electronic_Whistle.htm&etp=dealtime&WT.mc_id=dealtime&WT.mc_t=feed&WT.mc_r=60

 

[OB..]

It looks to me as if you might be able to "blow" that electronic whistle by accident.

 

[Mat 04]

I can just see it now, biggest fight ever, absolutely pissing it down, battery dies, ref in the middle..................just stop for a minute and think about it - A very funny story to tell there lol

 

[threegatesexpress]

I'm converting to the plastic Thunderer next season. I managed to chip a front tooth towards the end of the season when a careless (I hope) U17 lock managed to catch my elbow as my metal whistle went to lip.

Maybe I should dust off the mouthguard instead. That might get an interesting response as I start the match - quite a statement of intent, the ref who is prepared for contact!

 

[Mike Whittaker]

Ever thought of wearing a head guard as well?! and very prominent shoulder pads??
About time a few front row forwards were intimidated by the ref....

 

[Will]

My Thunderer came with a rubber guard for the top of the whistle, so the metal part does not make contact with my teeth, only the rubber guard does...the draw back is that at the end of the game your mouth feels very very dry...and if you have more than one game, you struggle.

I wash it thoroughly at the end of the games, and put it in the freezer whilst it is wet...it keeps it in good condition!

 

[Deeps]

There's no answer to that.

 

[Robert Burns]

I have only ever used a plastic one, wouldn't dream of using a metal one on a game.

 

[Mike Whittaker]

Although I always used a metal one, I had plastic one one a lace around neck. Latter useful when fell on the other one in the mud..(too often an occurrence!!) and on one occasion when ref on close adjoining pitch had identical whistle and players kept stopping at wrong times. But then surely all of us carried a spare whistle????

 

[Robert Burns]

And Pencil too, I'm not part of the two watch brigade though, I don't think watches are that unreliable these days.

 

[OB..]

One stop watch, one for running time? Have you never pressed the stop button in error?

 

[Simon Griffiths]

I always have two watches. One which I stop at stoppages and a running watch. That means that if I'm unreliable and forget to restart the watch after a stoppage I've got some idea where abouts we are in the match.

Plus, on a sneaky note, if it's a rubbish game and everyone's got it in for you (or you've simply had enough) you can stop and reset the 'stopped' watch and use the running watch to show we've played 40 minutes (it means you haven't played stoppage time though!).

 

[Robert Burns]

I have a watch that does both, in addition it has a rotation on the face, so I can set the 0 to the minute hand, this gives me a running time as well as the normal digi display. so all still 1 watch.

 

[Pablo]

In full agreement with OB and Noddy - one watch for stopping time, one for running. System works like a charm...

 

[Robert Burns]

so you wear two watches?

Same wrist or one on each?

 

[PeterTC]

One on each. Stop the left one like I would any normal watch (being right handed) and just start the other one at the start of the game.

Being multi-functional digital watches, it also allows me to time more than one sin-bin, and/or blood injuries.