CONVENTION COUNTDOWN

2008 EFAF DVD

I recently received the 2008 EFAF Officiating Review DVD. I have arranged for copies to be made and everyone who attends the Convention will receive one. The notes which accompany the DVD will be printed and issued with the Convention Packs.

Guest Speakers

We have Jeff Flanagan coming over from the USA as our main speaker. David Pegg from Sports Officials UK will give a presentation on the Saturday. Ken Walters, BAFA’s Whole Sports Plan (WSP) Manager will be attending on the Sunday. Ken will provide an update on the WSP and his recent meeting with the Minister for Sport, Gerry Sutcliffe MP.

Registration

The following 40 members have booked their places at the Convention. If you are not listed it may be because you have only recently confirmed your place. An updated list will be issued next week.

J Flanagan, P Sutton, W Marriage, R Grace, P Thom, D Bridgland, K Alldritt, C Dean-Young, S Tonkinson, G Coleman, T Lindeman, D Parsons, L Connor, H Richardson, C Rodgers, B Griffiths, S Silver, A Newsham, C Oates, P Clarke, A Briggs, G McJannett, C Urin, A Price, A Binns, M Wilson, J Eldridge., C Jarvis, J Briggs, N Scott, C Gibson, P Cottier, P Johnson, R Samples, P Parsons, R Prattley, Mt Gibson, R Vernon, B Beynon and I Sneddon

If your name is not on the list please contact Charles Dean-young. Even if you are not staying at the hotel you still need to register. Cheques to pay for the hotel rooms should be made payable to BAFRA and sent to Charles at 89 Smithfield Road, Uttoxeter, ST14 7LD. Payment should be made by 13th March

The programme of events is almost ready and will be issued with next week’s newsflash. Full details of the Convention and accommodation rates can be found here.

Davie Parsons

training@bafra.org

DISCIPLINARY CASE

The disciplinary case involving a Cardiff Cobras player has been resolved with BUAFL turning down Cardiff's appeal against the ejection.

Although the player involved did contact an official (who incidentally was not hurt) and the disqualification was the appropriate call to make in the situation, everyone involved is sure that the contact was not made maliciously. We are not therefore proposing to take any additional action against the player concerned, who is nevertheless suspended for one game.

Thanks once again to everyone who responded quickly to requests for information. The league needed to sort this out quickly because playoff qualification rested on the outcome of the appeal, happily

we were able to help.

Jim Briggs

president@bafra.org

NEW POLICIES, PROCEDURES AND REGULATIONS

At its meeting on 23rd February, the BAFRA board approved the new election procedures that will be used for the first time at the AGM. These procedures have also been incorporated into the regulations. The board also approved new policies on honorary members and retired numbers, and on the licensing of BAFRA's intellectual property.

Full details of all of these can be found on the BAFRA website in the members handbook section.

Thanks to all those who contributed to the development of these documents.

Jim Briggs

president@bafra.org

NEW MEMBER

I am pleased to welcome yet another new member:

Gary Moody – based in Hampshire

I hope that he has a long and successful career as a football official.

Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org

ELECTION OF DIRECTORS

We are now approaching the end of the three-week period allowed for the nomination of directors. To date (Tuesday evening) the following nominations have been received:

President:

Jim Briggs (31); nominated by David Parsons (425); seconded by Charles Dean-young (258)

Phil Cottier (141); nominated by Martin Gibson (197); seconded by Brian Yates (29).

General Secretary:

Paul Sutton (312); nominated by Bill Anderson (337); seconded by Robert Friel (119).

Director of Operations:

Phil Clarke (372); nominated by Alan Dobson (308); seconded by Bob Fitzsimmonds (375)

Pete Johnson (166); nominated by Steve Tonkinson (99); seconded by William Marriage (293).

Director of Training

David Parsons (425); nominated by Les Connor (152); seconded by Henry Richardson (358)

Director of Recruitment

Alun Price (377); nominated by Ian Wainwright (567); seconded by Keith Alldritt (323)

Director without Portfolio (2 posts)

Daniel Bridgland (506); nominated by Pete Johnson (166); seconded by Charles Dean-Young (258)

Nominations close at 5:00pm on 8th March 2008.

Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org

OLD REFEREEING EQUIPMENT

I have been contacted by a former member, John Dalley, who says that he has some “old refereeing equipment” for which he has no further use. He lives in the Ipswich area. If anyone wishes to contact him about what is on offer, please get in touch with me and I will pass on his contact details.

Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org

PRE-PAY BUAFL TEAMS

Prepayment teams are Teeside, Loughborough, Greenwich, Surrey, Kent, Bristol, UWE, Birmingham, ARU, Royal Holloway, Hertfordshire and Essex.

Warrick, Staffordshire and Paisley have made arrangements to pay BAFRA by invoice before the game, they should be treated as prepaid. For all prepaid teams please send in a request for payment by Thursday lunchtime, but only once your crew has been confirmed.

Charlie Dean Young
finance@bafra.org

BAFA ON 'BINGOLOTTO' - UPDATE

If you watched the inaugural BingoLotto show on Friday, you will have seen Antonio Fargas win £10,000 for BAFA.

BAFA Chairman, Gary Marshall said: "I would like to thank Antonio for all the work he has done promoting the BAFA this past week and winning £10,000 is the icing on the cake! The money will be put to good use by the sport as we strive to start some of our grass roots projects".

Antonio arrived in the UK last Monday and was busy all week at a number of promotional events, including a photo-call at Trafalgar Square with current National Champions, London Blitz, on the run up to the show that went out live on Virgin 1 and Challenge TV.

Jim Briggs

president@bafra.org

LEEDS CELTICS V SHEFFIELD SABRES

The crew on this game would like to congratulate both teams for one of the best games of football we have been involved with for some time. Both teams should be proud of how well they played and how well organised their management was, it was shame that one side had lose. If a game film exists it should be shown to the BUAFL board members to demonstrate what can be achieved by their teams. I often think we don't talk enough about the positives in the game, and these two teams definitely gave an example of how to play on Sunday.

Ian Wainwright

#567

RESULTS

Sunday 2^nd March – BUAFL playoffs

Northern Conference:

Loughborough Aces 15 @ Newcastle Raiders 34

UT Cougars 6 @ Staffordshire Stallions 57

Nottingham Outlaws 12 @ Stirling Clansmen 0

Sheffield Sabres 12 @ Leeds Celtics 19

Southern Conference:

Greenwich Mariners 0 @ Southampton Stags 43

Reading Knights 7 @ 51 Hertfordshire Hurricanes 51

UWE Bullets 6 @ Birmingham Lions 14

Royal Holloway Vikings 0 @ Bath Killer Bees 39

DISCIPLINARY CASES

GAME MANAGEMENT REPORTS

END ZONE

CALENDAR