A local Reading referee made the headlines in the Bristol Evening News
recently. All because of a decision he made at the Keynsham Town v Melksham
Town fixture in the Screwfix Direct Premier Division.
It wasn't a decision he made during the game, which is the usual reason referees get their name in the
papers. In fact the game never took place and it was the reason the referee called
it off that made the news.
Carrying out his pre-match inspection he discovered that the cross bar at one
end of the field was five inches under the required height. The spectators had
their money back, the away team returned to Melksham, while the referee as the
newspaper pointed out in some detail, still collected his match fee, before
heading back along the M4.
This highlights of course part of the unseen duties of a referee, pre-match
inspection. Most referees arrive at the ground long before any players. In the
Football League for instance, officials are required to report at least two hours
before the game. In local games referees are recommended to get to a ground a minimum of forty five minutes before kick-off. The reason for an early arrival,
is simply that if there is anything wrong, it gives the club time to put it right.
What referees are looking firstly is that there is nothing that may be dangerous
to players. With the winter coming up for instance, this could be frozen pitches
if they are rutted. There are many other things found on football pitches,
particularly public parks, that could cause injury. Broken bottles, cans, dog mess
for example. The referee is also looking to ensure that the field of play is
marked out correctly. It is surprising what mistakes groundsmen can make.
Last season I had two games where the penalty marks were the wrong distance from the goal line. Imagine the arguments that could have caused if I hadn't
discovered it until I awarded a penalty.
The other consideration for a referee is that the
appurtenances of the game are in order. These are the goalposts, nets and comer flags. The comer flags for
instance have a prescribed height, not less than 1.5 metres or five foot. The Laws
of the Game are now written in metric, but unlike Sunderland greengrocers, you
don't get fined (yet) if you still use imperial measurements. The goals for instance are 7.32 metres wide and 2.44 metres high. I find it much easier to
remember that they should be eight yards wide and eight foot high.
Which brings us back to the goalposts at Keynsham Town. The club claimed
that it wasn't the goalposts that were wrong, but the camber of the ground. It was
higher in the the middle of the goal than on the outside. They contended that both
teams agreed to go ahead with the game but only the referee refused to play ball.
Sounds reasonable but if anything goes wrong it is the referee who gets the
blame. Apparently they have now packed the post-holes to raise the bar to the
correct height. I'm not sure this solves the problem but perhaps if they had done
that at the time, the game could have gone ahead.
I remember having a similar problem some years ago when sent to referee a
game in the Newbury area. Both goals sloped. One went down to seven foot six
whereas at the other end it rose to eight foot six. I told the teams that we couldn't
play like that. The home club made a lot of noise saying there was no
groundsman available. Nevertheless they got their players to take the goalposts
down, adjusted the post-holes to get the uprights the right height and put the goalposts back up.
Of course they blamed me when they lost. They said I had worn
their players out before the game had even begun.
Dick Sawdon Smith