Minutes of meeting held on 5^th March 20

At NHS Sports Club with 17 members attending.

The Vice chair welcomed all to the meeting in the absence of the chairman.

Apols  were received (7) from Mssrs; Kaye; Bayley; Coote; Ballantyne; Thornton; Cottingham; McEvoy.

A Moments Silence was observed by ex RA-York FA member Alan Blenkinsopp. Alan set up the assessing scheme in York many years before CFA took his idea (Funeral on 12 March at York Crem 2.20pm)

Details were given of the Lol Cussons evening (6 March) and the dinner on 22 May (flyers handed out).

Report writing, the vice chair brought up the standard of report writing (or lack of it). When writing reports use correct grammar and check through before sending off. If spectator misconduct, a copy to the league as well.

Safeguarding, Barry Casterton gave a quick report mentioning that all under 18s will be on WGS this will do away with some players not having correct details listed or signed on with more than one club.  All refs will require safeguarding and DBS certificates, as under 18 can play open age football.

Supply League, still awaiting decision on the outcome, a meeting forthcoming.

The evenings guest, Ex FL/Prem Ref now match observer with PGMOL / FA Core, amongst other posts gave a presentation. Starting with a rundown of his path from reffing to the present, highlighting various competitions/countries/UEFA / FA Core group he is involved in.

He gave an insight into the workings of the FA Core group of which a couple of our members are involved in. 450 ref ranging from level 7-2b over 8 regions. Sessions can be very intense.

He finished showing 4 clips of incidents at National League level which were discussed in depth.

All thanked him for a very absorbing evening.

There being on AoB  the meeting closed at a late 10.15.

Minutes held on 6^th Feb 2020

at York NHS Club

With 15 members present.

 The chairman welcomed all, mentioning the poor turnout and that there is a distinct absence of new members now a days. He is hoping to set something up to rectify this.

Apologies; were received from Mssrs; Ham; J & P Hartley; Blakey; Casterton; Unwin; Milburn; Cottingham; Bayley; Hodgkinson.

Apols if I missed anyone.

Lol Cussons evening, 6^th March, please give names to John Ledgeway.

Dinner; 22^nd May, Andy Madley is the evening’s guest. Menu and programme will be put on line.

Dallas Cup; congratulations were given to Conor Ledgeway for being invited, especially after his illness last year.

FA Cup Final Tickets; anyone interested put their name in writing to secretary.

Welfare; the chairman gave a report; mentioning any abuse against any refs young/older to report it. If we see/hear it, REPORT it.

Problem corner;  it was brought up at a recent meeting (not ours) regarding the execution of an uncontested drop ball, all but one in the group gave the wrong answer.  Seemingly all must be 4 metres away when ball is dropped.

The evenings guest Mark Haywood, was introduced by the Chairman, mentioning he is head of refereeing at WRCFA. He gave an interactive presentation “Raising the Standards” involving National League matches. Covering Identifying challenges; DOGSO;  managing the game. This gave plenty of discussion with matches that were relevant to all in attendance.

A.o.B, there was none apart from older members will remember ex member and Football League official Matt Messias is back in the area .

Meeting closed on a very enjoyable evening at 9.30

Minutes of meeting held on 9^th Jan 2020 at

NHS Club, with 17 members attending

The chairman welcomed all and wished all New Years Greetings.

Apols  were received from Mssrs; McEvoy; Casterton; Black; Thornton; Cottingham; Unwin; G &P Hartley.

Minutes of Last meeting were on line, no matters arising.

Lol Cussons Award and Annual Dinner. On 6^th March and 22^nd May respectively. Names required for both.

Correspondence;  details regarding a young ref in Stockport having problems (Committee will be discussing).

A.o.B. New Stadium safety certificate, events in hand but lack of info from top level.  Changes to Supply League Status, only one between York, West  Riding and Humber to remain.  CFA trialing a system where young refs go out with PGMOL observers on matchdays.

Andy Madley  , congratulations were given on his elevation to FIFA ranks. He then gave a presentation entitled My Week; Match Day Routine.   Starting with Monday 4pm; appointments—Travel arrangements—Match evaluation reports—Meal plan—Travel—The match—Game recovery—Review.   All were discussed and interacted on.  There was a discussion on the marking system with over 400 decisions to query.   Other points discussed were; use computer for info on teams/ venues etc as all helps the smooth running; Player management; FIFA outlook for the future.

Conor Ledgeway gave a VoT for a very interesting and informative talk.

Was a pity that newer refs were not in attendance.

Meeting closed at 9.30

Minutes of meeting held on 5^th Dec 19 at

NHS Sports & Social Club with 26 members and guests in attendance.

Apols were received from Mssrs; McEvoy; Unwin; Drummond; Coote.

The Chairman thanked all for attending, asking if any new faces in attendance. Wishing everyone all the best wishes for the festive season.

Dinner/Lol Cussons Evening;  Fri 6 March 2020 at St Clements WMC and explanation as to the Lol Cussons evening.

Safeguarding; Barry Casterton said various cases in the pipeline awaiting the FA. A case arisen over the weekend. He reiterated the need of RA membership as if the needs arise. You can be represented by the RA, also other benefits on the RA website.

Ban Thaler; RL Official then took the floor and gave a highly entertaining presentation covering his career from starting reffing at the age of 12 to where he is now. Highlighting high/low spots; characters from on/off the pitch; man management skills needed.  He highlighted the need to show respect to players/officials etc  on the way up and also on the way down as you never know when you could fall from grace and require some advice. This was Ben’s third visit to us and still had us all enthralled.    Dave Milburn gave a vote of thanks.

There then followed our Xmas quiz hosted by Jonny Ham, this took the usual rowdy format, this was followed by a buffet and answers.

Thanks were given to all who helped out and participated.

Meeting closed at 9.45

York RA September Monthly Meeting- held at York Hospital Social Club on 7^th November 2019

No. of attendees: 26

Apologies received (7) from: Ian Hotchkies, Brian Smith, John Ledgeway, Jake Drummond, Mark Burke, Dave Milburn, Graham Bradbury

• The meeting commenced at 19:34 with Chairman Alan Kaye asking for a minute’s silence for Remembrance Day as this was the closest meeting to the date. Practical advice was also offered for match day.
• Alan proceeded to welcome new member Harry Gibson and his grandad as first time after completing the recent referee’s course at Poppleton.
• Alan spoke about the different leagues in York and concluded by congratulating Matt Cottingham on his new role as York Minster Engineering league referee’s appointment officer.
• Alan spoke about benefits of the RA- not just the obvious things i.e. home appliances
• County FA letter read out requesting clips, photos, or anything to do with officiating in the past 12 months for their Christmas montage.
• Barry Casterton- no aggravated breaches in the past month- good news. Highly likely that from 2021 open age clubs will need to have someone safeguarded at games if they have U18s playing. Barry also talked through the two yellow card situation with a manager and how to report that.
• Also discussed U18s armband and their significance.
• Finally, a group discussion commenced on VAR after Andy Halliday’s presentation last month

Guest Speaker- Garreth Rhodes

• 2a referee (National League Premier Referee) and 4^th official on the football league.
• Gave a bit on his background.
• Gareth talked about his early career, refereeing on the York league- first game at Barmby Moor, local derby with the infamous Jackson brothers. 3 reds, 6 yellows. Welcome to refereeing.
• 129 games in one season! Went from 7-4 that season.
• Achieved promotion to level 3 out of the York League.
• 3 seasons at level 3
• First football league game- Grimsby v Stevenage, 4^th man
• 2 seasons at 2b
• Gareth proceeded to cover identifying careless, reckless and serious foul play challenges as his main topic.
• We looked through a number of clips, from both the professional and amateur game.
• A key focus was to get the correct angle on challenges so that you have a greater chance of getting the decisions correct.
• Secondly, be switched on from the beginning as SFP challenges can happen at any time.
• Overall, the presentation engaged members to create discussion within the group. James Unwin gave the vote of thanks, thanking Gareth for his time, especially at short notice for his presentation and interaction with members during the evening

The meeting concluded at 21:36

York RA October Monthly Meeting

held at York Hospital Social Club on 3rd October 2019

The chairman welcomed all to the meeting then asked members to stand and observe a moments silence for ex member Keith Hatfield who had passed away recently. He welcomed new member James Black

Apols (10 no) were received from Messrs; Ham; Burke; Rhodes; Milburn; G Hartley; Cottingham; Bayley; Sheirs; A Kaye; Greenwood

Dinner;

22 May, Marriott, menu agreed, price to be set, but will probably same as last year.

Reading RA; driving a charity fundraising weekend in memory of a member, who had passed away . We agreed to donate £25.00

Membership stood at 25. Details of insurance and benefits are on website

Weather conditions, with winter approaching, always take heed of weather conditions

Sinbins; B Smith described incidents during an U18 schools match he was involved in. Overall responses are good with managers accepting more than players

Arm Bands

for U18s. RA to get some from CFA to issue to all our members in York area and make uniform, as each CFA have different methods of identifying the junior refs.

Our guest Andy Halliday MBE split his evening into two sessions;

First he gave a resume on his career – “From Nowhere to Somewhere”. He started reffing when realised he was not very good on the playing side. Learned to ref through PT in the Army in 1994, moved to Wales in 1997 (learned Welsh swear words) then Harrogate 1998 ( W Yorks League) back to Scotland 2000, to start at the bottom again. Worked his way back up the latter again. Return to England 2003 then to conference and Prem League (13 seasons) with FA cup final (2015), UEFA appointments and EFL Final (2019).

He then told of some incidents and person he had encountered throughout. He stressed that when you get knocked back try again, harder

He then went on to discuss the VAR system. This was with the aid of clips and actual commentary between VAR HQ and ref insitu. This was very interesting. As stated it is still developing and improving all the time

James Unwin gave a VoT

There being no more business meeting closed at a late 9.55