FOR OFFICIALS, ABOUT OFFICIALS, BY OFFICIALS

April 2006

Table of Contents

1. Welcome
   - a message from the editor.
2. President's Report
   - from Jim Briggs.
3. General Secretary's Report
   - from Tony Newsham.
4. Director of Training's Report
   - From Davie Parsons.
5. Youth and Developement Report
   - from Terry Treloar.
6. Operations' Report
   - from Peter Thom.
7. Finance Report
   - from Charles Dean-Young.
8. Game Management Breach
   - wot, no chains?
9. War Story #1
   - tales from the trenches.
10. Blast From the Past
    - as it used to be.
11. War Story #2
    - more from the front.
12. Humour
    - from Dougie
13. Classified Ads
    - buy and sell.

WELCOME

Well here we go again and yes April is almost halfway over and this edition is a little late, I delayed the publication in the hope that I would receive some more articles to include. I received very little so I have included the Directors reports which most, if not all of you would have already read via Newsflash, but I had to put something together. Remember, this publication is for you to use as you so wish, experiences, questions, stories, even your name can be withheld if you so wish, so there will be no victimisation.

What do you want included, would you like a Rules, Question and Answer Section, Gripe Section, Humour or even a Quiz let me know and I will work on it, however I do need your input as I cannot "ghost" write 20 plus pages each edition. Hopefully the next edition will be published around August so please get writing or e-mailing, if you are a rookie, write down your experiences, did the coach give you "gip", did you blow an inadvertent, did you enjoy the game?

The college season will be over and the Senior Season just starting so make yourselves available and enjoy all the games you do, even if you can only officiate once a month, fill in your availability form and let people know you are still around.

It was good to meet some new faces at the Convention, it reminded me of the early days of BAFRA when we held meetings in Luton, at the first ever meeting we had 40 people turn up, a month later we had over 100, so it is very encouraging that the game and officiating has not declined to the extent where all of the work done by the Directors and members has been wasted, let people know you are an official, you never know they might want to join you on the field.

Ed ( aka #3 )

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

I only took over as President from Keith Wickham on 1st January 2006, so many of the initiatives reported here were actually started under Keith's stewardship.

I would once again like to thank Keith for all that he has contributed to BAFRA over the past 3 years. When Keith took over, BAFRA was in a bit of a slump, with falling membership and general inactivity off the4 field. That has been turned around, we now have a steady flow of new members, and many new activities planned.

One of the areas in which Keith did most to advance BAFRA's corner was in relations with BAFA and the other BAFA organisations. BAFA is a rather immature organisation, relying on its constituent members for almost all of its functions. Its development agenda has had mixed direct success, but we can all see the growth in the sport that has been evident over the past year or two and is somewhere reminiscent of the rapid growth that took place in the mid 80's. I believe we are at the start of a new golden age for football in Britain.

BAFRA needs to do its part to grow in line with the rest of the sport. In many ways the most pleasing aspect of the past year has been the amazing response we received to the Kevin Cadle feature on Sky. Our ability to integrate significant numbers of new members has been tested, but, thanks to Davie Parsons and others, we have welcomed many new members onto the field. We need to identify other ways where we can reach large numbers of potential officials. Unsuccessful college players and disillusioned soccer referees may be our next two target groups.

As well as quantity of officials, we also need to think of quality. Part of our development agenda has to be to instil advanced skills in our members and prepare them better for higher profile games (including internationally). We are setting up an Elite Programme (Elite is not the best word, but we have not thought of a better one) to give members with higher levels of ability, commitment and potential additional training and opportunities to work games. In the next year, we will also be looking to increase the range of ways we help all our members to improve.

We are also looking at ways to improve our internal communications. Roger Stangroom is about to launch our revamped website, one of the central features of which will be a new online members handbook.

This will eventually bring together all our training material, reference material, as well as details of the workings of the Association.

In the next year, we expect to go ahead with the reconstituting the Association as a Company Limited by Guarantee. This will not have any day-to-day impact on members, but it will provide us all with the important legal protection. At the same time, we will give everybody an opportunity to think about the way in which BAFRA is governed.

We have already set out to try to get more people involved in running BAFRA. This is important as we grow, to ensure that we work effectively, and that we have resilience in the event that someone gets run over by bus.

We are also looking at ways in which the board can work better. We are in the process of developing an action plan to meet our key targets, such as recruitment, retention, training, communication and running the Association efficiently and resiliently. It is my aim that the directors of BAFRA should do more planning for the future, and less day-to-day clerical work.

At the end of the day though, we need to remember why we're here. We want to officiate football. Providing seven competent, neutral officials for every game of American football played in Great Britain is our ultimate goal. BAFRA is on its way to achieving that.

Jim Briggs #31

GENERAL SECRETARY'S REPORT

Membership

Membership has increased this year, mainly due to a concerted campaign through Sky TV. The membership has increased up to 63, with a further 36 currently going through their rookie training. We still need to go forward and recruit and we will continue to seek out opportunities to promote Refereeing within the UK and attract more members. The sport is still growing and we need to grow with it. While we say hello to all those who join BAFRA we must also remember those that sadly departed over the past few months.

Insurance

I have copies available of the BAFRA insurance document, should anyone require one, our insurance is adequate but we strongly recommend that all active officials source their own injury insurance to cover any eventuality.

Health and Safety

I am currently putting together a Health and Safety document as guidance to the membership, there are pitfalls out there, this should help the more seasoned official, and help rookies realise the dangers that are within the sport.

Thanks

My thanks go to all the executive committee for their help during the last twelve months, especially Keith, and to you the members, who have made BAFRA what it has become. Together with your help, we can progress and continue to grow and attract members. The committee are approachable and if anyone needs information, help or advice please contact us. We will try to help or find someone who can.

Tony Newsham #302

DIRECTOR OF TRAINING REPORT

At the last Annual General Meeting in August 2005 it was very evident that communication within BAFRA was a major concern to everyone. Especially between the Board of Directors and the members in general. The turnout at the meeting was, to say the least, embarrassing and the Convention had to be cancelled due to the lack of numbers. The concerns expressed did have some foundation and as such, the Board have been working hard over the last 6 months to bring some transparency to the Association. More information has been going out in Newsflash every week and we welcomed back an old friend in the shape of Flagdown.

In my first few months as Director of Training I was fairly naive as to the workings of the BAFRA Board. Hopefully the mistakes I made then will stand me in good stead for the future. I have been a member of the Association for 20 years and I suddenly realised I didn't know as much as I thought about how we operate. Anyway, the last 6 months has seen a lot of improvement and I am looking forward to meeting everyone at the Convention and AGM.

The response to this year's convention has been overwhelming. We have 45 plus registered to attend which is great and most are actually staying overnight at the hotel on the Saturday. There's also around a dozen staying on the Friday night. Why the big change from last year? Well I believe it's down to a combination of factors such as; the game is on the up again, we have a lot of new members, we are communicating better with the membership, details of the Convention were issued in plenty of time and Jamie Grant is coming over from the States as a guest speaker. My thanks to everyone for supporting this year's event and fingers crossed it all goes well.

There is another tongue in cheek viewpoint as to why we have so many attending the Convention this year. When we confirmed that the EFAF DVD would be issued free to everyone who registered with Charlie, the numbers shot up by about 200%.

The 2006 Annual Exam has reverted back to a True or False format and hopefully we will get abetter response than last year. I believe the change will be welcomed by most and hopefully the return timescales allowed will afford everyone the chance to get it completed and the answer sheet submitted to Roger Stangroom.

Training: The last few months has seen the biggest influx of new officials for many a year. It is in this area that every member of the Association needs to become more involved. Co-ordinating training for so many new recruits is virtually an impossible task for 1 person and we need to be more structured in our approach. I have had great assistance from a number of people already, however I believe the time has now arrived when we should look at having another 2 or 3 people co-ordinating regional training activities and arrange local mentors for the rookies. This is the area I will be concentrating most of my efforts once the convention is over.

During 2005 we assessed around 40 officials. Some were assessed 2 or 3 times. This year we will try to assess everyone at least once, however as we have a lot of rookies I intend to use assessments as part of the training programme.

Last year we had some issues with regards to the availability of BAFRA publications for new recruits. I can now report we have reprinted a number of books and the following are readily available. Induction Manual, Log Book and Rule Book. Game cards have also been printed and will be issued at the Convention.

On closing I would like to thank everyone for their support and help over the last 12 months. BAFRA and the sport in general are moving forward again and the future is looking good.

Dave Parsons - Director of Training

YOUTH AND DEVELOPMENT

The Association is on the increase in numbers with the success of the TV program shown on Sky featuring Kevin Cadle. For this article we have increased our numbers by over another 30 recruits, my thanks go to Glen Schild ( BAFL ) and Luke Smith (Sky) for the work put into this, also to the members who put the time and effort into planning and training the new recruits.

As we start another season we are looking at 3 new teams in the Senior League, with another 7 looking to be ready for the following season. The College League has as least 1 new team, and from a Youth point of view they have in excess of 40 teams at all levels and the numbers are still increasing every day. So things look very stable with an increase in all Leagues and Officials as well.

We are planning to look at how to get new officials out of the college league during their fresher fairs in an attempt to increase our membership longer term. Having talked to several coaches we are aware that some teams have over 70 players sign up events so it may be possible to get some new blood. Any member who has any ideas on how to get new members please do not hesitate to put pen to paper and forward to me.

Terry Treloar - Director

CLASSIFIED

BYAFA

The youth kitted schedule is due out shortly and we can expect around 40 regular season games plus playoffs. The YKL season will once again run concurrently with the senior league season as has been the case in previous years, we cannot expect to be able to cover all their games, last year we were only able to cover a total of 11 games ( 7 regular season together with all post season games).

We have provided officials for the 4 NFLE flag football tournaments over the past year, these have been badly organised but well attended with up to 30 teams taking part, by covering these tournaments we are supporting the development of the sport and youth players who enjoy it so much. We will therefore continue to cover these events but will review the situation if improvements to the organisation of events are not made.

BCAFL

As the college league season comes to a close, I'm pleased to report that 114 regular season games plus playoffs and plate games were covered, 18 more than last year.

The league continued to expand with Royal Holloway joining, I am aware of 2 more new teams, Lincoln and Portsmouth joining next year.

The Bulldogs have another international tournament planned between 29th July and the 2nd August with the USA, Canada and possibly Australia taking part, full details have not yet been announced but it is likely to be held in Coventry.

BAFL

The BAFL season starts again in 5 weeks time with 37 teams including the newly formed East Kent Mavericks and the reformed Reading Renegades. Playing 185 league games over 17 weeks. This means more games to cover each week.

AVAILABILTY

We will have around 70 members active during the BAFL season but less than half of those have failed to complete the latest availability form, if you haven't filled one in yet, please do it now, if you are not sure whether you've filled one in or not then please contact me.

The On-line form has been very successful and more and more people are using this method, if you are having problems getting into the members area of the web-site, I will be only too happy to send you an Excel copy to complete and either you can e-mail me or print it off and send by "snail mail" back to me.

Finally, Thank you to all the officials who helped me out throughout the year by going out of their way to get a game covered, to those who changed games with very little notice when asked and to those who made themselves available when in fact they were not.

Peter Thom - Director

FINANCE REPORT

Looking at the financial position, currently we have £15k in the bank, which is a very healthy position. We have always attempted to keep this much available in case the Leagues went bust, and so that we could fund the admin of the League to keep football going. It is no longer required to keep so much money. This year we are running a deficit of about £2k which allows us to increase game fee and travel expenses, whilst not over burdening the teams. I would expect this to continue next year, with a view to having £10k as the normal amount in the bank.

We have no bad debts, no major expenses to find, and the growing number of officials which means we can cover more games. We are budgeting for the "elite" programme, training weekends and rookie training. More and more of our admin is done electronically which brings down our overheads, and the Leagues are co-operating with regard to fixtures so that our travel costs are improving.

Overall the finances of Association is healthy and within budget for this year.

My thanks go to BAFA, for paying for the Rule books, and contributing to the visit of Jamie Grant from the USA for our convention, Robert Banks for auditing the books, Paul Sutton for doing the correlations of the expenses, and mostly to the members who have worked games and been a credit to BAFRA.

Charles Dean-Young Director

GAME MANAGEMENT BREACH

On recent BAFRA Incident Report, it was noted that the chain set was inadequate, in the details field was marked the following;

No Chains on arrival at ground. When they were brought, there was no down box. A cheerleader was used as a down box and put an orange cone on her head when it was 4th down.

This by all rights worked very well and thanks go to the cheerleader without whose assistance the game could not have proceeded.

Thanks Richard, Ed

WAR STORY #1

Talk of having an elite panel of officials reminded me of the last time officials were graded to work different games. In the late 80s there were lots of different standards of football from the newly formed teams with no experience up to the top teams who generally played in decent stadiums usually in front of a sizeable crowd and usually had three or four import players who had played at a decent level in the States - quite often appointing an American coach. Crews to work these games were generally fixed and went from fixed five man crews to six man crews in the early 90s. Because this was a National panel - games were assigned to crews as they were played - with no thought of distance or travelling expenses. Thus over a period of about five years I was sent to Glasgow three times - all three games memorable for various reasons.

The first time Glasgow were playing Leeds Cougars - after a 6 hour plus drive we got completely lost in Glasgow and after asking for directions a few times eventually paying a taxi driver to drive to the ground with us following. Glasgow won easily but the game was delayed in the second quarter after the Leeds coach decided to pick a fight with the chain crew who had made some comments he disagreed with! The game was halted for some time whilst we dragged the coach off the down box operator and then moved the chains over to the home side of the pitch.

The final time I went was for a semi final between the Lions and Leicester Panthers. This was a really tight game with a crucial PI call (by me) in the Panthers end zone against the Panthers in the last minute with the score 20 - 24 to Leicester.

Glasgow scored soon after to win the game 27 -24 with the game finishing soon after that - at which point war broke out with players and coaches of Leicester literally having to be dragged away from us - one of the few times I have really felt in danger after a game (see below). After making it back to the changing room the Leicester players then belted our door as they came in and it appeared that one player smashed it with his helmet as he went past - all this with a six hour drive to look forward to!!

The second time is probably the best known. Glasgow were playing Nottingham Hoods. The date was 5 May 1991. The crew was Chris Bowker (ref), Dave Molloy (ump), Richard Whitby (lm), Me (lj). Alan Bond (sj) and Dominic Ray as (bj). Chris Bowker was a referee who had been one of the originals with Colin and Dave Norton (he was # 4) and was very intense - the pre-game would start in the car going and arriving three hours before a game was not unknown. Dave Molloy had started not long after Chris about the same time as Dominic who had been the team doctor for the Birmingham Bulls - Dominic was a doctor - a trained anaesthetist who spoke at a 100 miles an hour - knew the rule book backwards (he was in regular correspondence with the NCAA rules committee) and had the common sense of a goldfish.

Another fantastic game - the records (courtesy Britballnow.co.uk) show both quarterbacks rated in the top ten all time records for passing in 1991 - Darren Trainor for the Lions with 3165 yards and Mike Grossner for the Hoods with 2589 yards with receivers Jerome Erdman (Lions) Alan Brown(Hoods) and AJ Okime (Hoods) also featuring in the all time records for their receptions in 1991 - so as you can imagine there was little in the way of running - and I cannot remember any problems with the game itself until the last few seconds.

The score is 26 - 20 to Nottingham and fourth down on about their own 30. Glasgow have called their final timeout. There are four seconds on the clock. Nottingham decides not to punt - especially not with Erdman in to receive and taking a knee will not use four seconds. So --- Mike Grossner snaps the ball and runs about in the backfield before sliding to stop. The players on the pitch start shaking hands, me and Alan shake the Nottingham Head Coaches hand (Coach Baird I think - they definitely called him the Bear - and with some justification.) - When Dominic starts blowing his whistle. He runs over to Chris and after a heated discussion between them (during which kit is being packed away etc) - Chris announces that there is one third of a second left and that there is time for another play!!!!!

At this point unsurprisingly pandemonium breaks out - and things get quite unpleasant especially on our sideline (at one point I nearly joined in and Alan had to restrain me from knocking Dominic out!!). Eventually we get the chain crew out of the bar and the teams back on the field - its not a problem Glasgow only have one play and are unlikely to score --- wrong - one pass from Trainor to Erdman - touchdown 26 -26 - more pandemonium (I am really looking forward to going back to the Nottingham sideline). The teams set up for the extra point - which is missed - overtime.

Oh joy -the atmosphere at this point is not very nice to say the least - but anyway Nottingham might still win in overtime. Glasgow win the toss (of course) and elect to receive (of course). Nottingham eventually kick off - Glasgow return the kick-off to about the Nottingham 10 (of course) - one more play - Trainor to Erdman again - touchdown Glasgow - game over.

We are then besieged by some Nottingham players whilst the rest go off and build some gallows to hang Dominic. Luckily as mentioned early the Nottingham coach was called the Bear - he was a big strong outspoken man - but that day he controlled his team because some players had completely lost control and were very close to attacking Dominic (this did actually happen a few years later but that's another story).

We eventually got off the field, got paid and had a difficult drive home - talking about it afterwards most agreed that Chris should have ignored Dominic (he may even have put the ball in the air) whilst Dominic I am sure to this day is convinced that he was right. Chris called another couple of games but had been so affected by these events he packed in not long afterwards, Dominic moved to Scotland.

The records for 1991 show that the Bulls won the divisional championship that year with a record of 9-1 the same as the Hoods and the Lions - that third of second cost Nottingham a 100% record and the championship.

Richard Prattley #67

BLAST FROM THE PAST

As many of you know the British American Football baby was conceived in 1982, a year later teams started to emerge and form and started playing friendly games in 1984, listed below are some of the events that took part in this opening season.

JANUARY

Up-to 20 teams have been training throughout the winter, most still do not have kit.

FEBRUARY

A coaching seminar was held in Bedford, leading to discussions about forming a league.
A Second meeting was held in London aimed at forcing a merger; in fact it caused a split.
BAFF sign up 7 teams.

MARCH

Plans for opening game of season begin. Poole Sharks propose to play in April but still have no kit.
The President of BAFF resigns.

APRIL

Unaligned teams meet at RAF Chicksands and AFL is formed with 22 teams.
First British game at Poole Stadium between the Sharks and Northampton Stormbringers, more than 3,000 spectators turn up.
Gary Lee of Northampton scores opening touchdown.

MAY

London Ravens begin their second season with a win over Manchester Spartans.
More teams begin full scale tackle practice as equipment starts to arrive from America.

JUNE

A record crowd of 6,000 watch Milton Keynes Bucks win 20-18 against Northampton at the Bowl in Milton Keynes.
There are now 38 recognised teams.

JULY

Glasgow Lions lose 44-12 to Manchester in the first game in Scotland; this was also the first game on a synthetic pitch in Britain and first game in Scotland.
Poole win their first game in nine attempts and promptly folds because of rows in the team and debts of £5,000.
Ravens record biggest win of the year 87-0 over Walthamstow Warriors who were playing their debut match, this was also the first game officiated by an all British crew of officials.
There are now 46 recognised teams.

AUGUST

Two teams move from BAFF to the AFL, Southampton Seahawks and Ealing Eagles.
Birmingham Bulls become the first team to score against the Ravens but still lose 42-6.
Twenty players from the Poole Sharks form Dorset Broncos and win first game playing Croydon Coyotes 31-0.
There are now 64 recognised teams.

SEPTEMBER

BAFRA hold first training seminar in Luton and plan to field crews of fully trained officials in 1985.
London Ravens become first team to beat foreign opponents, the thrash Paris Spartacus 51-0.

OCTOBER

A conference in Birmingham sets up a working party which aims to form a single governing body for the sport and league.
Budweiser are rumoured to sponsor a League, it was eventually postponed, but become reality much later.

NOVEMBER

First meeting of working party is held including BAFF and AFL representatives, all sides agree progress was made.
Nottingham Hoods and Staffordshire Stampeders are formed.
BAFF lose two more teams, they are now left with three.

DECEMBER

BAFF and AFL (UK) continue talks with other groups on the possible merger and single governing body.
AFL produce first draft schedule for 1985.
BAFF sign first new club since late summer and talk of a further increase in numbers plus their own schedule.

WAR STORY #2

Last Friday night I was at a small school with a coach that has the reputation for being an arrogant butt. He was on me and the Back Judge from the first kick off. Midway through the first quarter a timeout was called and I noticed the BJ coming toward me with a huge smile, so I walked toward him. He asked if I could hear the old man yelling at the coach. I told him that the coach was so busy asking me about every play that I didn't hear much of anything.

Play resumed and I heard nothing for the rest of the first and about half the second quarters. The game at this point was getting ugly with the visiting team scoring at will. This is the point where I begin to hear the old man in the stands.

A sweep was coming to my side and the defense stopped it for a short loss. The coach is screaming that the end, which was not even in on the tackle, was offsides. The old man screamed to the coach, that "If you spent as much time coaching your players rather than begging for phantom calls from official's maybe you wouldn't be getting beat by 5 touchdowns.

Two plays later the home team gets a punt blocked to which the old man screams at me. "Why didn't you stop them from blocking the kick, surely they were cheating. It couldn't have been the coach's fault".

At the beginning of the third quarter the coach comes to me and says that he apologized for the loud mouth in the stands and it had been taken care of. Apparently the coach couldn't handle the critism and went to have the old man removed.

Come to find out later that the guy in the stands was the Line Judge from two weeks ago. Somewhere in the course of the game he asked the coach how would you like it if someone harassed you all game long about your decisions. The coach said "I could handle it a hell of a lot better than you can".

Keith Wickham

HUMOUR?

A man had 50 yard line tickets for the Super Bowl...

As he sits down, a man comes down and asks if anyone is sitting in the seat next to him. "No" he says, "The seat is empty".

"That is incredible", said the man." Who in their right mind would have a seat like this for a Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event in the world, and not use it".

He says, "Well, actually, the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she passed away. This is the first Super Bowl we haven't been together since we got married in 1987".

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible! But couldn't you find someone else, a friend or relative, or even a neighbour to take the seat?"

The man shakes his head. "No, they're all at the funeral."

Doug Brown

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