PATRON PRESIDENT Pam Wells : 01483 833394 Peter Guest : 01483 771649 Chairman Life Vice Presidents Vince Penfold David Cooper Cedge Gregory, Chris Jones, Ken Chivers , Neil Collins Vice—Chairman Secretary Rick Green Roy Butler :07747 800687 Treasurer and Membership Secretary Editor : The Warbler Bryan Jackson 01483 423808 Mac McBirnie, 01483 835717 / 07770 643229 1 Woodstock Grove, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 2AX 16 Robins Dale, Knaphill, Surrey GU21 2LQ [email protected] Training Officer Supplies Officer Corin Readett Tony Price 01483 836388 / 07766 973304 R.A Delegates Committee Brian Reader 01483 480651 Derek Stovold Gareth Heighes Roy Butler 07747 800687 Colin Barnett Martin Read Patric Bakhuizen Dave Lawton Friends of Woking Referees Society Roy Lomax ; Saundra Evans ; Pam Wells ; Tom Jackson ; Elaine Riches INSIDE THIS MONTH’S WARBLER Page 1: Agenda Page 2 : From the Chair Page 3 : Accounts /Membership /RA Delegates Report Page 4 : Mac’s Musings Page 5 : Murphy’s Meandeings Page 6/7 : If I was a professional footballer ….. — Cyril West Page 8/9 : What makes a person become a referee? Page 10 : Play advantage Ref Page 11: He’s having a Mare! —The Mole Page 12/13 : The further adventures of Willy “the whistler” Woodwork Page 14 : SCRA report—Brian Reader Page 15 : In the Press Page 17 : Ian Holloway sees Red Page 19 : Plum Tree. Page 21 ; Dates for your Diary Page 22 : This month’s speaker—a profile Page 26/27: What would you do Answers / What would you do? The Warbler The Magazine of the Woking Referees‘ Society Meadow Sports Football Club Loop Rd Playing Fields, Loop Rd, Kingfield, Woking Surrey GU22 9BQ 7.30pm for a prompt 8.00pm start AGENDA 7.15pm Woking Referees Academy 8pm Chairman’s Welcome Our Guest Speaker Barry Rowland Break Society Business 10pm Close Next month’s meeting Thursday 24th November 2011 The Deadline for the late November Warbler is Wednesday 16th November 2011 1 The Warbler The Magazine of the Woking Referees‘ Society Welcome to the November Warbler. Thank you to Lee Collins our October guest for an extremely entertaining evening and for sharing some fantastic experiences with us. Lee epitomizes what can be achieved if you are prepared to work hard and are committed. Congratulations Lee on an outstanding career so far. We are very fortunate to have 2 guest speakers in November. Barry Rowland is visiting us on the 7th. Barry is a highly respected tutor and a very experienced referee from Wimbledon, Surrey. Barry will be giving us a pres- entation on Advantage and as you know its a subject that is close to my heart so I am very much looking forward to the 7th We also welcome David Elleray on Thursday 24th November. David needs no introduction and this is a must not miss evening. David will be giving a presenta- tion on serious foul challenges after which he will talk about his current position within the FA. There will be a buffet on the 24th and we are expecting a large turn out so please let Roy Butler know if you are intending to come along. I was fortunate enough to go along to the Surrey County Referees presentation evening on 13th October, where we were privileged to listen to Mike Mularkey and Darren Cann share their world cup experiences. A superb evening, well done to Surrey for a very successful evening. It was interesting during the Rugby World Cup semi final how the pundits de- cided to air their opinion of the referee, something that we are not used to seeing in Rugby. Whether we agree or disagree with the sending off I am sure most of us were very surprised to hear such derision from the so called experts. However what was also interesting to note was that the players on the field, 100% ac- cepted the decision, they didn't surround the referee and the certainly did not at- tempt in any way to try and get the referee to change his mind. Football is still a long behind rugby in this aspect, I wonder if we will ever enjoy this level of re- spect, I doubt it. I am now about to fly out for a one week holiday so missing 2 weekends worth of football. What‘s strange about refereeing I can feel the way I do in the above sentence but undoubtedly will miss my football over the next few weeks, its a funny old game ! I look forward to seeing as many of you at the Novem- ber meetings as possible, remember there is no Decem- ber meeting Vince 2 The Warbler The Magazine of the Woking Referees‘ Society Christmas Raffle We will be running our Christmas Raffle at the David Elleray meeting on 24th November ( there is no December meeting) . If you have any gifts, bottles ( preferably full ) or any suitable items you‘d like to donate to the raffle, they would be gratefully received. With the additional numbers expected at the meeting, this could be a big help to the Societies funds. Mac From the Treasurer Membership Secretary 2011 Current Status 2011/12 Membership General £1,643.27 Supplies £367.04 76 Full Members Belgium £0.00 5 Friends Youth Fund £113.50 Total £2,123.81 2Affiliate Member Woking Referees Academy Young/New Referee Meeting Just a reminder that there will be a pre meeting at 7.15. This is for any young or recently qualified referee to come and have a chat about incidents in their games or anything that you have seen on TV. It is also for people who may be a bit shy, or who feel that their question is silly. My name is Eamonn Smith and I started on the parks in 86 and eventually got to be a national list assistant, before illness led to my retirement and now I am back on the local parks, so I can help and advise on most things. There has been a poor response in the past, but we had three people at the September meeting and it went well. I am happy to continue these pre meet- ings, so long as people want it. I look forward to seeing you then. Eamonn 3 The Warbler The Magazine of the Woking Referees‘ Society Years ago, when car ownership was not as prolific as today and the M25 was a mere glint in a mad engineers eye, the M4 stopped at Reading, and the M3 was a dotted line on a map, there was a breed of motorist disparagingly called ―Sunday Drivers‖. They usually drove a Morris Minor. If you were in the country side ie Wiltshire, they drove a ‖traveller‖ which was an estate version, resplendent with added woodwork not dissimilar to a half timbered house. They invariable drove at 28mph, regardless of the speed limit, and were accompanied by the good lady, vainly struggling with an ordinance survey map. They were often spotted parked by the roadside, sitting on a tartan rug on the grass verge with the ―picnic‖ of egg and cress sandwiches and the inevitable flask of tea, as wheezing Bedford Duple charabancs heading for Bognor Regis, covered them in diesel fumes. I was reminded of this phenomenon the other Sunday when I was heading off for a game at a place called Overton Park which it transpires is somewhere between Cheam and Chipstead and to which I‘d not been before, when I came up behind a beautifully preserved aforementioned Morris Minor. It‘s paintwork glistened, the chrome sparkled and the varnish on the woodwork positively gleamed and yes it was toodling along at 28mph in a 60mph limit. Now like most of you I‘m sure, I hate getting to a match late, which for Sunday parks football is usually less than half an hour before KO. I try and aim for 45mins, any earlier and the chances are you stand around alone except for the ubiquitous old boy and his dog defecating on the pitch ( the dog that is not the old boy) until eventually a couple of players and a harassed manager appear and start to put up the nets. So here I am muttering curses at said ―Sunday driver‖ and trying to anticipate a stretch to overtake, with a Beamer sitting 2 inches off my back bumper, and won- dering where all the Sunday drivers went. I have a feeling they may have turned into horse box drivers. Lets face it, coming up behind either a C reg rust bucket of a truck carrying horses (how do they ever pass the MOT– do horses have to pass an MOT?) or a trailer with dobbin‘s tail hanging out back is a recipe for a coronary. Going to a new ground can be a rather fraught, although the advent of the sat nav has certainly made life a lot easier. Not that I rely on Tom completely. I always like to look at a map (or streetmap on the pc) to see where abouts I‘m going, as I‘m convinced he can‘t possibly know every road—can he? I seem to have transgressed. I was going to write about managers/coaches, call them what you will, at Park or Youth level and their total lack of knowledge of the laws of the game. Not all I admit but probably the majority. Now County occa- sionally run Assistant Referees workshops, but what about running ―laws of the game‖ workshops for people who do not wish to be referees but need to have greater understanding of the laws than can be gained by just reading the loaf that was.