An Important Message From Jack Blakemore
06/01/12 22:17
Wirral RA President Jack Blakemore has asked for the following to be sent to all officials and to the Wirral based leagues.
Please can you all read it and act upon it. Read our section on Pitch Inspections for further guidance.
Hello Fellow Referee
Message from Jack Blakemore, President of Wirral Referees’ Association:
Whatever views you might hold about the general all-round standard of the Council-owned football pitches these days, it is still our duty as referees to exhibit a degree of common-sense when deciding whether a pitch is really fit for play on the day.
Wirral Council’s Neil Irons is the man responsible for the final say towards the end of a week if it is considered that a forecast of the week-end weather conditions is likely to make the playing of a game a source of further damage to a pitch.
I have spoken today (Thursday 5th January)with Neil and he is very keen to see games go ahead this week-end, AS LONG AS REFEREES SHOW THE COMMON-SENSE APPROACH EXPECTED OF THEM towards preserving the state of a pitch by accepting it is unplayable rather than ruining it by playing a game.
Neil is in a most difficult position this particular week-end but wishes to co-operate as much as possible with all the leagues that utilise his pitches. The problem is, some pitches at Plymyard and some at Arrowe Park specifically, are indeed fit for play but others at these two venues are certainly not as things stand at the moment. The difficult pitches at Plymyard are those on the same side as the dressing rooms.
Neil commendably says it would be uncharitably wrong of him to say all games on Council pitches are off this week-end and so he is prepared to give the go-ahead as long as we referees adhere to the request not to play on certain-numbered pitches.
A small minority of referees has given the vast majority of us a bad name in the recent past for totally ruining a pitch by playing a game when a more caring, streetwise match official would not have done so. The immediate thought amongst those more protective referees, is that the others play the game merely to collect their fee. I will lay my own personal head on the line and say this is certainly a true statement.
We all love refereeing (otherwise we should not be doing it) so please lads, show some respect this week-end (and, indeed at all other times) by only giving your game the go-ahead if the playing surface dictates.
The Council, like some of us I’m sure, is cash-strapped and the days are long gone whereby money could be thrown at re-levelling and sanding a pitch that has been cut to ribbons by a selfish referee.
We owe it to one another to be sensible in this respect. For those of you who would like more guidance in the area of pitch inspections, dive into the Wirral Referees’ website (just put ‘Wirral Referees’ into your Search Engine) and click on the link to the left entitled ‘pitch inspections’.
Best Wishes
Jack Blakemore
Please can you all read it and act upon it. Read our section on Pitch Inspections for further guidance.
Hello Fellow Referee
Message from Jack Blakemore, President of Wirral Referees’ Association:
Whatever views you might hold about the general all-round standard of the Council-owned football pitches these days, it is still our duty as referees to exhibit a degree of common-sense when deciding whether a pitch is really fit for play on the day.
Wirral Council’s Neil Irons is the man responsible for the final say towards the end of a week if it is considered that a forecast of the week-end weather conditions is likely to make the playing of a game a source of further damage to a pitch.
I have spoken today (Thursday 5th January)with Neil and he is very keen to see games go ahead this week-end, AS LONG AS REFEREES SHOW THE COMMON-SENSE APPROACH EXPECTED OF THEM towards preserving the state of a pitch by accepting it is unplayable rather than ruining it by playing a game.
Neil is in a most difficult position this particular week-end but wishes to co-operate as much as possible with all the leagues that utilise his pitches. The problem is, some pitches at Plymyard and some at Arrowe Park specifically, are indeed fit for play but others at these two venues are certainly not as things stand at the moment. The difficult pitches at Plymyard are those on the same side as the dressing rooms.
Neil commendably says it would be uncharitably wrong of him to say all games on Council pitches are off this week-end and so he is prepared to give the go-ahead as long as we referees adhere to the request not to play on certain-numbered pitches.
A small minority of referees has given the vast majority of us a bad name in the recent past for totally ruining a pitch by playing a game when a more caring, streetwise match official would not have done so. The immediate thought amongst those more protective referees, is that the others play the game merely to collect their fee. I will lay my own personal head on the line and say this is certainly a true statement.
We all love refereeing (otherwise we should not be doing it) so please lads, show some respect this week-end (and, indeed at all other times) by only giving your game the go-ahead if the playing surface dictates.
The Council, like some of us I’m sure, is cash-strapped and the days are long gone whereby money could be thrown at re-levelling and sanding a pitch that has been cut to ribbons by a selfish referee.
We owe it to one another to be sensible in this respect. For those of you who would like more guidance in the area of pitch inspections, dive into the Wirral Referees’ website (just put ‘Wirral Referees’ into your Search Engine) and click on the link to the left entitled ‘pitch inspections’.
Best Wishes
Jack Blakemore
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