A&H

pre season games

DanRicketts

DanRicketts

Well-Known Member
Level 7 Referee
Having recently started and done u11 for this season I ha been trying to get some friendlies to try out the older age groups and open age but all our local games that come from our local RA secretary are gone 10 minutes after being advertised! !!! Anyone else have this problem? Don't see how new refs are supposed to be introduced to the game if it's such a closed club!
 
The Referee Store
Cut out the middle man and contact the clubs directly! Clubs rarely approach referees they aren't aware of and have no relationship with.
 
Not quite that bad but close.
Try contacting your local league secretaries. Your RDO should be able to help with that. That's the standard route. After that try contacting your local clubs and see what they have planned.
Last try, have you joined your local RA? Explain your problem to your local secretary or chairman and ask if they can help.
 
DanRicketts said:
Having recently started and done u11 for this season I ha been trying to get some friendlies to try out the older age groups and open age but all our local games that come from our local RA secretary are gone 10 minutes after being advertised! !!! Anyone else have this problem? Don't see how new refs are supposed to be introduced to the game if it's such a closed club!
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Contact local clubs and offer to ref their matches for free, your phone will not stop ringing from my experience and it gets you back into refing. I have done this this season. I sent the texts out last week and since then I have already done 2 matches :)
 
It helps if you know people, My best mates dad, has just started managing a team that is going into an u19s development league and I offered to do their pre season friendlies a bit cheaper and I have some good games coming up :)
 
I would say a good place is your local RA. Especially if you speak to your chairman and say I'm looking for some experience, I'm sure then they will give you a few games that come up without offering them to others in order to give you that experience. Also, getting in contact with your CFA as has been said, and also any league(s) that you're planning on reffing in, your Referees Secretary is a good person to talk too. Your referees secretary will probably get asked for some tournaments too, and they are a good place to get some experience under your belt.
 
Thanks for ideas, ghe challenge is that email comes from our local RA secretary and goes to all local fefs and obviously those who sit at a desk with email on all day in their office get I first and I mean within minutes of games being offered. The local league ref secretary said "teams just organise themselves" so it's almost impossible for a new referee to get in.:(
 
Have you got last seasons county handbook or league handbook. You could try picking out your half dozen nearest club and calling them. Obviously you'll need to aim for your lower leagues for the time being.
Talk to your RDO and explain your frustration with your local RA and ask if he could have a lean on the appointments guy. I'd like to see you RA doing a lot more to help out here. Perhaps a move to Worcestershire is needed.
 
But that is what I was saying - email your RA Chairman and say could I have a game or two because I need the experience and he may then not email them out to all refs if you ask him for a game or too, and just give you that game.
 
I've known refs hand out "business cards" with name and contact number on so teams can contact them during pre-season. Not a good idea if you've had a fiesty match though. Personally, I know a fair few of the coaches so always offer my services over pre-season
 
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