santa sangria
RefChat Addict
Friday night AR duty - got a nice surprise when my ref wheeled out the mic set. Only my second time so took a little to get used to but totally love it. So great to hear the ref's instructions to players.
Highlights - first AR of the season so had a brilliant cross-flagging moment at the start of the 2nd half - totally lost which team was which
After a straightforward goal instructed my ref that the defending centre back required a YC for asking me if I was effing blind. We handled it well. As well as with the mic, he came to me for a quick F2F to make sure there was no misunderstanding, then he went and gave the YC with a very clear hand-mouth gesture so everyone knew why. Crowd of under 100. They all got it. Smooth.
Great when you get confident with the mic e.g. ref tells when he is going to go wider and a quick reminder you have the foul responsibility in front of you; ball in/out of course; couple of times I warn in advance about a blind side player in an offside position; and mic very useful when the defender stops for shoelace on the goal line and the play is 80m away. One GK/corner call I should have used the mic to overrule my ref rather than go with him and embarrass him but you know, we learn.
Best thing about the mics is teamwork. Reinforcing each others' decisions, and you just feel so much more of a team.
Saturday - back-to-back ladies matches as AR. Temperature drops towards zero, freezing rain starts. I spend a large slice of over 3 hours in -4 (windchill) and horizontal blinding blizzard. In the 2nd half of the 2nd match the snow settled. The match after was called off - lucky bar stewards! I can only now feel my fingertips. The players' safety wasn't in question by the way in the snow game - good technical quality ladies with very little going to ground, fairly slow moving. I also found myself saying some of the mic things from yesterday out loud - like "good call" type of stuff. Generally the mics created a positive halo that helped my get through today's brass monkeys!
Highlights - first AR of the season so had a brilliant cross-flagging moment at the start of the 2nd half - totally lost which team was which
After a straightforward goal instructed my ref that the defending centre back required a YC for asking me if I was effing blind. We handled it well. As well as with the mic, he came to me for a quick F2F to make sure there was no misunderstanding, then he went and gave the YC with a very clear hand-mouth gesture so everyone knew why. Crowd of under 100. They all got it. Smooth. Great when you get confident with the mic e.g. ref tells when he is going to go wider and a quick reminder you have the foul responsibility in front of you; ball in/out of course; couple of times I warn in advance about a blind side player in an offside position; and mic very useful when the defender stops for shoelace on the goal line and the play is 80m away. One GK/corner call I should have used the mic to overrule my ref rather than go with him and embarrass him but you know, we learn.
Best thing about the mics is teamwork. Reinforcing each others' decisions, and you just feel so much more of a team.
Saturday - back-to-back ladies matches as AR. Temperature drops towards zero, freezing rain starts. I spend a large slice of over 3 hours in -4 (windchill) and horizontal blinding blizzard. In the 2nd half of the 2nd match the snow settled. The match after was called off - lucky bar stewards! I can only now feel my fingertips. The players' safety wasn't in question by the way in the snow game - good technical quality ladies with very little going to ground, fairly slow moving. I also found myself saying some of the mic things from yesterday out loud - like "good call" type of stuff. Generally the mics created a positive halo that helped my get through today's brass monkeys!
