DISCIPLINARY CASES

GAME MANAGEMENT REPORTS

NEWSFLASH PUBLISH DAY

In order to allow contributors more time to prepare articles, the day of issue of Newsflash has been put back to Wednesday. This means that any contribution received by the end of Tuesday will be included (subject to space) in that week's issue.

COLLEGE TEAMS PAYMENTS RECEIVED

Charlie has informed me that Royal Holloway and the West of England Universities have paid their officials' fees up front. he will advise further as more are received.

AMENDED FIELD AUDIT FORM

A reminder that we are carrying on with the Field Audit throughout the college league season and will be making a John Slavin award to the team with the best field markings at the end of it.

We have issued a slightly modified Field Audit Form, and it can be downloaded from the same place on the web (http://www.bafra.org/members/paperwork/index.htm). The new form incorporates a new category (field width) and slightly changed wordings in one or two other categories. You can use up any printed stock you have of the old form UNLESS the field is of a non-standard width. Please use the new one for any forms you need to print out in future.

Jim Briggs
rules@bafra.org

FIGHT AT MIAMI V FLORIDA

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JWeE9KqZjQ&NR - any comments? I think the best bit is the word "FLAG" that appears on the score-bar on the telecast - talk about understatement!

UNIVERSITY RULES TALK

Steve Tonkinson was recently requested to visit Essex University to give a talk to the players and coaches on the rules of the game.

He reports back that this was very well received. He had prepared about 45 minutes talk, and with questions received and "going off on tangents" the talk lasted a couple of hours.

On the back of this we have been invited to attend their training sessions with our rookie refs to "blood" them before the start of the season.

I am sure, if asked, Steve would be happy to share his notes if any other official if they are similarly invited along to a team to give a briefing.

BAFRA NEEDS YOU - VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED

1. Training Events

   As reported in last weeks Newsflash, the dates for the 2007 Convention and a Training day for Rookies and Newer Officials have been set. (See calendar below). If you want to help out at any of the above events please give me a call or drop me an email. There’s always plenty to do on the day and during the build up.
   For the Convention we need people to help with welcoming members on the day, handing out Convention Packs, New Rule Books, 2007 Examination, Game Day Paperwork and Referee Packs. There’s also signing up attendees for Break-out Sessions and helping to keep the programme on schedule.

2. Pass on your knowledge or experience

   The speakers at this year’s Convention were mainly approached by me asking them if they would be happy to give some form of presentation. For next years Convention and the Rookie/Newer Official Training day I will probably have to do the same, however, if you would like to give a presentation on a certain topic, or discuss the possibility, please give me a call. You don’t have to address the full convention; it could be something for a break-out session. Any contribution would be welcome.

3. Request

   I have been trying to locate an electronic copy of the BAFRA Grading Programme. If anyone has a copy can you email it to me at training@bafra.org

4. Assessments

   During the BAFL season 43 Assessments were carried out which generated lots of comment and some concerns from those assessed. All the feedback I received has made it very clear that we now need to carry out a full review of all aspects of assessment.
   As such, I am looking for members who would like to sit on an Assessment Review Committee. The following point’s give some indication as to the tasks that lie ahead.
   • Review current Assessment guidelines and report documents
   • Develop Assessment guidelines for crews of 6 or 7
   • Develop additional training material for Assessors
   • Set Benchmarks for Assessment Reports
   • Consider possibly qualification criteria for Assessors
   • Look at how other countries assess (Europe and USA)

It’s worth noting that, Jim expects to be in a position to issue the next edition of the Mechanics Manual in 2007. We should also consider whether or not Assessment guidelines or procedures should be included.

Interested? Then give me a call or drop me an email. It’s very important that we get this review going as soon as possible as Assessments are becoming quite an emotive subject.

Davie Parsons
training@bafra.org

QUESTION FOR UMPIRES

Play ends close to a first down, the umpire looks out to the wings and one wing has a spot which is a first down and the other does not. Do you take the spot from the official on whose side of the field the ball ended up or the official who blew the ball dead (assuming they are different)?

Opinions...

2006 RENEWAL

I have so far received renewals from the following members:

Stewart Abel, Keith Alldritt, Graham Baker, Magnus Bjermo, Dan Bridgland, Jim Briggs, Graham Coleman, Phil Cottier, Norman Cox, Charles Dean Young, John Doneghan, Cameron Gibson, Martin Gibson, Murray Gibson, Raymond Grace, Chris Jarvis, Ralph Lenoir, Tzvi Lindeman, Andrew Lovell, Julian Mallia, Collins Mckay, Russell Newton, David Parsons, Peter Parsons, Ian Sneddon, Roger Stangroom, Paul Sutton, Pete Thom, Steve Tonkinson, Richard Vernon, Tim Vickers, Ian Wainwright, Alan Ward, Mark Wilson, Dean Wright, and Brian Yates.

If your name does not appear on this list you have just over a week to get your membership renewed at the reduced rate, so extract your blessed digits and overcome your proverbial inertia...

ARKANSAS TRICK PLAY

The trick play (weblink http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcUAzVb6GpI&NR with video) in the newsflash of last week was very interesting.

I would like to start a short discussion on how we should/could handle these plays. Any reaction to all would be appreciated because my opinion does not have to be the way forward. The end result of this discussion should be 1 one way of handling these situations within the BAFRA community. I did the same with the AFBN officials and we are now having a good discussion via e-mail on what happend and how to react.

Again it is my opinion so it can differ from anybody else. I see two things happening here:

1. Illegal shift by the offense - not all players are stationary for at least 1 second.
2. Delay of Game by the defense based on rule 3-4-2 and then the AR

Let's disregard the first for this discussion although I will come back to it when talking about mechanics. This play is after a time-out. That is the sole reason I would think that Delay of Game (DOF) against the Defense would be the right call. Normally this is legal. Offense does not have to wait for the defense (there are exceptions).

Mechanics-wise I have some questions as well. If you decide to let this play develop then you had better be ready for it. HL, LJ, UMP and REF are out of position at the ready for play. You can argue about the UMP and that would be my starting point. The umpire should guard the ball until both teams are ready to play. If any team is not ready in time then that would be the (DOF). Therefore I would say that the UMP is out of position. The HL should get the Defense in the field of play. In our case the REF will verbally tell that the ready is imminent and the HL and LJ should talk to the teams to get them back. HL is trying and as the defense is late, he is late in position as well. When blowing the ready for Play the REF should be at his desired position and be stationary. In this case he still has to move back a lot and does so when the snap happens .

All this being out of position is I think the reason they missed the Illegal Shift. This would be more reason to call DOF. Especially if you take our mechanics and level of play into account.

Like I said this is my opinion and any other ideas are more than appreciated to come to a way forward on how to handle these situations.

Ralph Lenoir #523

ARKANSAS TRICK PLAY - ANOTHER VIEW

I have also heard from Jim Briggs, and his comment was that "the defense were asleep". I think that if the defense were asleep the officials were virtually catatonic.

I tend to agree with Ralph that a Delay of Game against the Defense is the right action - this would also mean that the illegal shift never happened as the DOF is a dead-ball foul. You could argue that this would advantage the Offense, but I think they should get some credit for the fact that their opponents were not fully awake.

CHOP BLOCK

Play: Left tackle, A1, contacts the knees of linebacker B1 while center A2 pushes B1 in the chest. The blocks occur (a) simultaneously or (b) are separated by a delay with A1’s block occurring first.

Ruling: Both are block by non-adjacent linemen. Team A is guilty of a chop block in both (a) and (b) regardless of whether A1’s contact occurred beyond, in or behind the neutral zone (2-3-3).

Reprinted with written permission from Referee magazine.
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