70 years of
awards for worst job in local football
This year 2003 marks the anniversary of an initiative by Reading Referees'
Society, with which I am pleased to have a small later connection. Back in 1933
the Society presented their first Club Linesman's Awards. Today of course they
are called 'club assistant referees' but it's the same thankless task. I've always
thought that it is probably the worst job in local football. They go along hoping
to see their team win but they have to try and adopt a neutral approach. In fact it
is worse than that. They often have to rule against their own players who
sometimes will turn on them.
I was sad to read in the obituary column of the
Evening Post recently of the death of Fred Chapman, who was the club linesman of
Simonds Athletic when I was its secretary many years ago. Fred was a real stalwart but the players complained to me at one training session, that he was
'too honest'. Not a sentiment that I could subscribe to of course, but they meant in
comparison with some linesmen from other clubs. It has to be admitted that not all club assistant referees are that honest or
diligent. They can cause problems for referees or be of little use. There are
some who are simply biased and the referee has to try and be aware of this and
act accordingly.
Apart from the biased assistant the person referees fear the
most is the one who announces 'no need to worry about me ref, I'm a qualified
official', and then proceeds to show that they know nothing about the game at
all. Only this season a young lady said that to me at a women's match that I
refereed and she was the worst assistant I've had for years.
Local competition rules say that clubs must provide an assistant referee or be
fined. This often means someone being press-ganged into running the line. About
all you get in these cases is the ball out of play for throw-ins. If you look to
them for offsides, you find them standing near the half way line probably talking
to their mates. Today more and more, one of the substitutes is delegated to take
the job. They are probably annoyed that they are not in the starting line-up and
so you start with a somewhat disgruntled assistant. To be fair I have found some
carry out their duties extremely well, especially when you consider they would
rather be playing.
The Club Linesman's Awards were inaugurated back in 1933 in an attempt to
encourage club officials to take the line, and to show that those who did it
well were appreciated by referees. My own involvement came much later in 1966,
when I devised the Fair Play Award for clubs in the Reading Saturday and
Sunday Leagues, which is still running to day. Members of the Reading
Referees' Association are issued with forms on which they mark the clubs out of
ten for fair play and sporting conduct.
Until that time, the linesman's awards had
been based on nominations sent in by referees. Unfortunately not many referees
bothered to take pen to paper so only a relatively small number of nominations were received. My solution was to add a separate section to the Fair Play form
where referees could also give marks to their club linesmen. This has resulted in
a much higher number of club officials being considered for the top three in the
town. The markings every year are remarkably high which shows that there are
plenty of honest people out there who do a terrific job, not just for their own
team but for football in the town.
I'm sure it was the
same back in 1933 and I'm
glad we are still showing our appreciation.
Dick Sawdon Smith
©
R Sawdon Smith 2003
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