New Start at Drezden

I took full advantage of my new position as Referee Secretary and scheduled me in for 3 games at Drezden Colts, doing the U9, U14 and U15 sides. I slightly miscalculated the lengths of the U9 and U14 games as when receiving the calls to arrange the games, I lined them up so they were one after the other with 5 minutes in between. However, my miscalculation meant that the U15 had to wait 10 minutes for me to finish with the U9 and I risked missing out on this.

I put myself down for 3 games each weekend as I wanted to do as many games as I could in my first promotion year. I enjoyed being out there, felt fit enough to referee for the majority of the day and also wanted to bring in that always helpful extra income, but that wasn't the main reason. I know with every game I take I will benefit and learn something new so the more the merrier. But I don't want this to come at the expense of any sides. I didn't want to be too tired to do the latter games and have a poor game, or upset teams by making them wait for my arrival etc.

I started today by doing the U14's side against Beaufort United, in a close game that swung both ways before the away side came out 4-2 winners. The U9's then beat Welbeck Welfare 4-0 before I took over from Pete Dean, who had started my U15's game as they risked losing the main pitch if they didn't kick off on time. Drezden won 2-1 in a closely fought game with rivals Glapwell Gladiators.

I had enjoyed my first outing of the season and had no issues whatsoever, no cards, no upsets, a good start. Long may it continue!

Summer Developments

Following the 2009-10 season where I felt I achieved everything I wanted to in terms of getting plenty of games under my belt (80+), gaining the experience I hoped I would and improving to a level I was happy with, I applied for promotion to Level 6 or above, which I will be undertaking during the course of 2010-11.

I also enjoyed being a part of the Youth League, helping wherever I could and so I applied to join the committee to help further improve the league in any way that I could. I had intended for this to be help with some IT integration, improving the documentation, the website and communication systems but at my first meeting I was offered the position of REferee Secretary.

At this stage I hadn't known what was involved with my promotion, I just figured I would be doing more games in the Youth League and so no extra time or effort would be required and so I accepted the position, knowing it was a tough one but feeling confident that I could succeed in it.

So this year, I will be working towards at least Level 6, undertaking games in the Central Midlands League, whilst continuing officiating in the Youth League and Notts Combination (Sundays) and also taking on the task of Referees Secretary for the Youth League.