BAFRA Newsflash

http://www.bafra.org

Issue: 29/11

4^th August 2011

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

This is an early notification that the membership renewal notices will be going out towards the end of this month. The Directors have held membership fees unchanged for 2012 and they will therefore be £40 for Qualified and Associate Members and £10 for Affiliate Members. As always, there will be a £5 reduction for fees paid by 31^st October.

To this must be added the BAFA fee, except for Affiliate Members and those who are members of BAFA through another organisation. At the time of writing, the amount of the BAFA fee for 2012 is not known but it is hoped a decision on this will be notified over the next few days.

Please note that, if fees are not paid by 31^st October, membership will cease and those wishing to continue BAFRA membership will need to rejoin at the higher rate. If anyone thinks they will have difficulty in paying their fees, they should speak, in confidence, with Andrew Lovell, the Director of Finance to arrange a payment plan or to have the fees taken from any money owed. Provided this agreement is made before 31^st October, the payment period may be extended beyond that date at the reduced rate.

Please do not leave it to the last minute to sort out your renewal.

Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org

BAFA COMMUNITY LEAGUE 5 ON 5 KITTED TOURNAMENTS

As some you will be aware the BAFA Community League have again sanctioned a series of Junior Kitted 5 on 5 tournaments. The games will be played at various venues throughout the UK during the coming months and always on a Saturday. See schedule below.

BAFRA is very keen to support football at the grass roots level, be it at junior kitted or junior flag competitions. As these events are usually quite limited in terms of funding, the BAFRA Board has agreed that in order to support these competitions we will again reduce the BAFRA admin fee for these events to £5.00. We would also like to ask for volunteers to officiate at the tournaments. There would be no BAFRA game fee, it would be purely voluntary. You would expect to have food and refreshments provided and the organisers would pay reasonable travel expenses.

The process for assigning to these games will be as per any other event. Richard Vernon, Director of Operations will assign officials to the tournaments and will advise the tournaments directly if they have officials or not. He will then confirm assignments to the crews. On game day officials would need to claim their expenses directly with the tournament organisers. The head ref on the day will need to complete a green form to account for the BAFRA admin fee and to ensure the crew are covered off for insurance purposes.

If anybody is interested in volunteering to officiate one or more of these events please advise Richard by email on operations@bafra.org as soon as possible. This might also be a useful opportunity to give some of our newest members a taster of the game before they take the field for youth or senior kitted football.

The tournament dates and hosts are as follows:

Dates:	Host:
6^th August	Balby Car Mustangs
6^th August	Glasgow Tigers
14^th August	Colchester Gladiators
20^th August	Woodham Warriors
20^th August	London Warriors
20^th August	Highland Wildcats

Davie Parsons

president@bafra.org

PLAUDITS

Congratulations to Lancashire Wolverines Colts and Senior teams on their excellent game management and hope they enjoyed their special day (Colts 15 year anniversary celebrations). I have never had two consecutive games on a single day without a single major penalty!! Thanks to the two Wolverines teams and the Manchester Titans Youth / Chester Romans seniors for making the day such a success.

Mike Cavanagh

#465

RESULTS

BAFA Premiership

London Warriors 31 - 0 Farnham Knights

Tamworth Phoenix 0 - 50 London Blitz

BAFA Division 1

Cambridgeshire Cats 16 - 8 Oxford Saints

Ipswich Cardinals 13 - 10 Sussex Thunder

London Olympians 39 - 8 Hampshire Thrashers

Nottingham Caesars 3 - 28 Birmingham Bulls

Yorkshire Rams 26 - 36 Doncaster Mustangs

BAFA CL Division 2

Edinburgh Wolves 27 - 53 West Coast Trojans

Carlisle Border Reivers 12 - 34 Highland Wildcats

Shropshire Revolution 49 - 6 Staffordshire Surge

Lincolnshire Bombers 14 - 36 Sheffield Predators

Lancashire Wolverines 17 - 6 Chester Romans

Glasgow Tigers 30 - 6 Clyde Valley Blackhawks

Maidstone Pumas 10 - 75 Essex Spartans

Kent Exiles 40 - 0 Bedfordshire Blue Raiders

BAFA Junior

Nottingham Ceasars 14 - 16 Coventry Jets

Lancashire Wolverines 86 - 8 Manchester Titans

London Warriors 14 - 8 Farnham Knights

Kent Exiles 0 - 6 East Kent Mavericks

South London Renegades 0 - 24 Cambridgeshire Cats

DISCIPLINARY CASES

NAME	#	TEAM	CODE	Q		OFFENCE	SUSPENDED
New this week
Malcolm Fell	75	Kent Exiles	FGT	1	Player was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct then threw a punch at an opponent. The player then used offensive language towards the calling official.		07/08/11 v Watford Cheetahs
Previous weeks
Christopher Jones	3	Bristol Apache	FGT	2		Player threw a punch at an opponent.	Under appeal – Mr Jones is not suspended at this time.
Note: it is the responsibility of the individual teams to ensure that their suspended players serve their suspensions in the proper game (according to the BAFA Disciplinary Code), and any dates mentioned here are intended only as a guide.

GAME MANAGEMENT REPORTS

HOME TEAM	REPORT	NEXT HOME GAME
New this week
Kent Exiles Junior	Grass too long and hashmarks faint and too short. One member of the chain crew changed during the game. Teams played the game in a very good spirit and should be applauded for making this game enjoyable to officiate Dave Knight #135	Unknown
Lancashire Wolverines	With the agreement of both coaches, half time was taken early due to an extended injury break. Mike Cavanah #465	Playoffs
London Olympians	The Field was marked out in meters rather than yards. There were no inbound lines or hash marks. The endzone was not the minimum depth of 7.5 yards and so the 5 meter line was used as the goal line. This reduced the field to 80 meters in length. Keith Wickham #423	Playoffs
Kent Exiles	We were originally offered members of the chain crew and ball boys that were under 14 - this was refused. However the team stated that these people had done this all year without an issue. The team stated that they believed that they were allowed to be under 14 but they would just lose points for it. It was explained that this was incorrect and the team immediately replaced them for people over the age of 14. Grass was very long and the hashmarks were very faint and too short - No 9 yard markings - One member of the chain crew changed during the game. It should be noted that game management made every effort to correct any issues and they should be applauded for all of their efforts Dave Knight #135	Playoffs
South London Renegades	With 2 minutes remaining in the game, a Cambridge player sustained a serious injury. Both teams agreed to end the game at that point Richard Vernon #103	07/08/11 v Colchester Gladiators
Carlisle Border Reivers	Line marking was very faint, hash marks were too wide apart, both vertically and length wise. Mark Snow #430	Unknown
Maidstone Pumas	Crew prevented from parking in normal car park which resulted in a 3/4 mile walk from the alternate car park to the field and made the changing rooms unusable as they were not lockable. Field had not been re-marked since the last game so markings were very faint making taking and giving spots very difficult. Two areas of the pitch required repair prior to kickoff. Tim Ockendon #481	Unknown
London Warriors	Match kicked off 41 minutes late due to late arrival of the ambulance. The hashmarks were marked as NFL hashmarks. There were no 9-yard marks or numbers. The team areas were marked to the 30 yard lines with diagonal sides and with the coaches restraining line at 3ft and no players restraining line. Changing rooms were not lockable. Pete Parsons #321	Unknown
Outstanding items from previous weeks
Chester Romans	All but one of the chain crew and both ball boys changed at half time, forcing the crew to delay the start of the second half to complete briefing Mike Cavanagh #465	07/08/11 v Lincolnshire Bombers
Coventry Jets	Not all 5 yard lines were 5 yards apart, not all short yardage extension lines were one yard apart. There were some Rugby Union markings crossing the field which were in the same colour as the Football markings. Officials Assistants were only provided shortly before kick-off. The Kick Off was delayed by five minutes while the assistants were briefed. Ben Griffiths #228	06/08/11 v London Warriors
London Blitz	Game kicked off 10 minutes late due to very slow card check. Warriors required the Blitz players to produce ID at the check. Game temporarily suspended in the 1st quarter due to lightning in the area. Alan Dobson #308	Playoffs
Bristol Aztecs	Plaudits to the Aztecs' groundsman for a superbly-marked pitch. Dean Wright #553	07/08/11 v London Blitz
Bournemouth Bobcats	Kickoff was delayed by a few minutes due to a serious injury in team warm-ups and fly-past by the Red Arrows. Home-team wanted to make changes to chain-crew after half-time which delayed the 2nd half kickoff and DOG was enforced against home-team management. Simon Ryan #408	06/08/11 v South Wales Warriors
Sheffield Predators	Game Balls and Game assistants not available until 5 minutes before KO Time, 1 Ball assistant changed due to injury in the wet conditions. Chris Jarvis #10	07/08/11 v Lancashire Wolverines
Highland Wildcats	No limit line lines, no three yard mark for PATs, No numbers on field. Henry Richardson #25	14/08/11 v Dundee Hurricanes
Berkshire Renegades	Crew waited the mandatory 30 minutes after the game and were told that the woman with the cheque book was not there. Crew not paid Graham Hedges #219	07/08/11 v Bristol Apache
Bristol Aztecs Junior	Farnham Knights reported there were some differences with the dates shown on the documentation of players details and those shown on the roster. They reported that 52 Leon Holland had no photo ID but a birth certificate was produced. 4 other players had different dates of birth on the BAFACL roster than on the documents produced. #8 James Cunningham was shown as 23/8/92 on the roster but 26/8/92 on the ID. #44 Matthew Teall was shown 7/8/93 on roster but 8/7/93 on ID. #2 Jamiel Tinto was shown as 1/3/92 on roster but 15/3/92 on ID and #3 Daniel Vickery was shown as 12/04/94 on Roster but 27/4/94 on ID. Keith Wickham #423	07/08/11 v Hampshire Thrashers Junior
Gateshead Senators	Many white non football lines on Astro Pitch however the team cannot do anything about them. There is still confusion over the KO time for Gateshead home games, Gateshead want it at 14.00 and the visiting team thinks it is 14.30. Medical facilities were met by rule without an ambulance being present. Changing Rooms are not big enough even for 2 officials. Game management arranged for the team changing room to be cleared of players to allow the officials to change and carry out their pre-game. Officials then moved their kit into the small changing room an locked it. Chris Jarvis #10	Unknown

END ZONE

PLAY OF THE WEEK:

New this week

Play: A's ball, 4th and 8, on A's 32. A4's punt is rolling downfield on B's 30. B48 alerts his teammates to stay away from the ball with a waving "get away" signal at his waist. Seeing that Team A players are holding up following this action, B48 scoops up the ball on B's 26 and advances to B's 44 where he is downed.
Ruling?

Last week

Play: A's ball, 4^th and 12, on B's 46. B23 gives a fair catch signal on B's 10, but lets the kick hit the ground, hoping the ball will roll into the end zone. The ball hits the ground on B's 8, bounces and strikes B23 in the lower leg. B23 then blocks A80 above the waist on B's 12. The ball rolls into the end zone and out of bounds.

Ruling: B's ball, 1st and 10, on B's 20. B23 may block A80 since B23 touched the ball after giving a fair catch signal. The ball becomes dead when it rolls out of bounds in B's end zone. The impetus was the punt.

MECHANICS:

New this week

Game Situation: In the event that an official throws a flag for a foul, and that flag falls in the wrong location, how should the official act to ensure the flag is moved to the right place?
Answer next issue...

Last week

Game Situation: Which official is responsible for informing coaches of the exact time when the two minute warning is called?
Answer: M-20-2. The Referee must ensure that the captain and Head Coach of each team have been informed of exactly how much time remains in the half, not just that it is the two-minute warning.

CALENDAR

Date	Event	Contact for details
2011
October 23^rd (Sun)	Tampa Bay Buccaneers v Chicago Bears @ Wembley
November 6^th (Sun)	BUAFL 2011/12 Season Starts
November 19^th (Sat)	BAFRA Board Meeting	secretary@bafra.org

BAFRA Directors
President	David Parsons	president@bafra.org	General Secretary	Paul Sutton	secretary@bafra.org
Finance	Andrew Lovell	finance@bafra.org	Operations	Richard Vernon	operations@bafra.org
Recruitment	James Meredith	recruitment@bafra.org	Training	Charlie Dean Young	training@bafra.org
Director without Portfolio #1	Martin Cockerill	dwp1@bafra.org	Director without Portfolio #2	Steve Tonkinson	dwp2@bafra.org

The opinions expressed in this Newsflash are those of the contributors, and not necessarily of BAFRA or its Directors.

All Incident Reports to be submitted via www.bafra.org.

Deadline for articles submitted by email (newsflash@bafra.org) is midnight Tuesday.

Editor: Dean Wright - Email: newsflash@bafra.org