MEMBERSHIP
RENEWAL
We are now nearly at the end pf the renewal period and thank you to all
who have returned their forms. Just a reminder that membership renewals should
be made as soon as possible with those being made before 1st November
being at a lower rate. Accompanying the renewal notice, the Directors are again
conducting a survey of the membership. It is requested that you return your
survey with your renewal.
I have now processed the automatic renewals and they are included in
the list below. I have to date (midday on 28th October) received 133
renewals/new memberships for 2016 as follows:
Stuart Alger; Dave Allan; Mark Allen; Graham Baker; Robert Banks;
Jaeson Bennett; Andrew Binns; Bill Bowsher; Christopher Brice; Mark Bridgham;
Jim Briggs; Jed Brookes-Lewis; Amir Brooks; Matthew Brown; Roger Brown; John
Burns; Derek Burridge; Mark Burrows; Darren Carr; Mike Cavanagh; Alan
Christopher; Phil Clarke; David Cochrane; Martin Cockerill; Graham Coleman; Ian
Coleman; Toby Coleman; Les Connor; Ian Davies; Mark Edwards; Stephen Egan; Mike
Fenton; Joe Foxon; Ed Franklin; Benjamin Gadsby; Ken Gambrill; Edan Gardner;
Barry Gent; Cam Gibson; Martin Gibson; Muz Gibson; Roger Goodgroves; Ray Grace;
John Graveling; John Griffin; Ben Griffiths; Gerry Grunska; Paul Haddad; David
Hewitt; Rob Hill; Mark Hirst; Jon Ikins; Barbara Jacquin; Anton Jarbol; Chris
Jarvis; Lee Johnson; Damian Jurzyk; Fletcher Kinnie; David Knight; Sandy
Kyriacou; Bruce Leatherman; Mike LeFevre; Bill LeMonnier; Steve Leonard; Tzvi
Lindeman; Simon Love; Andrew Lovell; Richard Madge; Liam MacDonald; Richard
McEwen; Frank McParlin; Jason Mead; Clyde Messenger; Adrian Miller; Lee Mills;
Tim Morris; Darryl Morton; Richard Murphy; Andrew Murrell; CK Nam; Russell
Newton; Mark Niven; Dave Norton; Tim Ockendon; Peter Ogden; Francis Oldfield;
Jeremy Parker; David Parsons; Peter Parsons; Euan Paterson; Thomas
Parvia-Pennick; Ana Pérez Prados; Austin Pickles; Richard Prattley; Michael
Prentice; Stephen Quick; Larry Rigby; Tony Rivers; John Roberts; Mike Roberts;
Andy Robson; Rob Rooksby; Conrad Russell; Richard Samples; Clive Sandle; Ian
Sneddon; Shawn Sombati; Kevin Stanton; Hamish Stewart; Paul Sutton; Stuart
Tabberer; Anthony Tagg; Lee Taylor; Susannah Taylor; Pete Thom; Frank Thomson;
Paul Todd; Steve Tonkinson; Chris Treacy; Malcolm Turnbull; Richard Vernon;
Harald von Sydow; Ian Wainwright; Peregrine Wayman; Sean Welsh; Richard Whitby;
Simon Williams; Mark Wilson; Lee Wood; Liam Wooton; Dean Wright; Brian Yates;
Charles Young.
If you have sent in your membership renewal and think I should have
received it by the date above, and it does not appear above, please contact me.
This is the final week in which the above list will be published. I
shall continue to acknowledge renewals as they are received. If I have not
received your renewal by early November, I shall have no alternative but to
remove you from membership. If you have made arrangements with the Director of
Finance to make payment you should return your form stating that fact (not wait
for the payment to be made). Please note that some people have made such
arrangements and not returned the form. This runs the risk of your renewal not
being recorded and you being removed from membership. As always, if you are in
any doubt, please contact me sooner rather than later!
Finally, in the unlikely event that you are not planning to renew your
membership, it would be helpful if you would let me know (if possible with your
reason(s) for not renewing).
Paul Sutton
PREPAID
TEAMS
The following teams have prepaid:
Birmingham, Cambridge, Chichester, City, Kingston, Leeds Beckett,
Lincoln, Nottingham Trent, Sheffield, Southampton, Solent, UCLAN, UEA.
Any other team which claims to have prepaid should not be challenged
but a claim filled out as normal. A lot of teams have received invoices and
payment will probably come in over the next two weeks as usual.
Please note, electronic payments will be made by Friday each week, any
cheques will be issued over the following weekend. Please consider using electronic banking as
your default. It costs BAFRA nothing to pay electronically, it cost at least
£0.70 for each paper payment as well as the extra time involved.
I will update all new prepaid teams each week.
Charlie Dean Young
ELECTRONIC
“PAPERWORK”
From the beginning of the BUCS season we will be moving to all game day
data being submitted through the website and no paper returns being made.
The Webmaster will arrange for the appropriate link to be made
available in the “Game Day Paperwork” area of the BAFRA website a few days
before that weekend and the existing electronic links will be withdrawn. Referees will still need the game day report
form to obtain the signature of the game day manager and both coaches as at
present but it will not be necessary to submit this. However, the referee should retain it for
about a month after the game in case of any queries.
This links in with electronic payments to official and submission of
these forms electronically will allow payments of game fees and travel to be
made more quickly. The only time paper
returns should be made are if there should ever be a problem accessing the
BAFRA website. However, if only the
referee is having such problems, another member of the crew may make the
submission.
Having accessed the form it will guide you through what is
required. Drop-down menus are available
where appropriate and each form needing completing will be offered in turn
(including the form for the John Slavin award).
The only thing you will need to submit is a cheque for the
administration fee if this is what the team gives you. These should be sent to the Director of
Finance at:
BAFRA
18 Souhgate
Whitworth
Rochdale
OL12 8UQ
If you have any queries about the workings of the new system, these
need to be directed to the webmaster, Colin Willox at webmaster@bafra.org.
Paul Sutton
GAME
MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN BUCS GAMES
With the start of the BUCS season, there is inevitably going to be some
issues regarding game management. It is is important that BAFA and BAFRA
officials apply a consistent approach, hence this guidance, which has
been agreed by the BAFA Rules Committee and the BAFA Director of Competitions.
We anticipate problems in two broad areas...
Field markings
There are a number of "game may not proceed" rules on field
markings. They are there because there are a very small number of teams (or
perhaps more accurately their ground staff) who believe that American football
can be played on a rugby pitch, or the equivalent of playing soccer on a pitch
without a penalty box. Whatever barriers to resolution a team claims, we
believe there is a reasonable solution, perhaps involving temporary markings. To facilitate teams getting things sorted
out, this season we will implement the following policy.
For a team's FIRST HOME GAME only, referees are granted discretion to
allow a game to proceed if they believe the field is safe, beyond immediate
further improvement, and the (lack of) field markings does not prevent a fair
contest. In the circumstances, the Referee MUST complete a full game report with
all the details, including that the game only proceeded on this basis.
For a team's SECOND HOME GAME onwards, Referees will be expected to
apply the rules strictly - that is if BAFRA chooses to allocate officials to a
team's subsequent games.
Jerseys
We are aware that a number of teams have been quite creative in the
design of their jerseys. It is not our intention to penalise teams whose
uniforms "work". For a uniform to work, there are two main criteria:
1)
The
officials can tell the teams apart. This may still be possible even if they are
both playing in the same primary colour; for example, light blue and dark blue
are examples of colours that are usually easy to distinguish. Patterns of
different colours do not usually make this harder.
2)
The
officials can identify players by their number. If the numbers are too small on
the front and back of the jersey for this to be possible, then the uniform is
illegal.
For each of these, a timeout at the start of each quarter is the
appropriate penalty. If a team is already out of timeouts, penalise for delay
of game (5 yards).
Referees must report all cases where a team is penalised. Equally they
must report borderline cases where they believe the uniform is acceptable so
that future crews know and can be consistent.
If anyone has any questions about this, please ask.
Jim Briggs
rules@britishamericanfootball.org
BUCS
LEAGUE REGULATIONS
The new BUCS league season kicks off this weekend.
As far as we know, the regulations haven't changed so we are still
playing 12-minute quarters and there WILL be extra periods if the game is tied.
The list of other regulations is at http://rules.bafra.org/rules/docs/leagueregs.htm.
I hope everyone has a good season.
Jim Briggs
rules@britishamericanfootball.org
DISCIPLINARY
UPDATE
A BAFA Disciplinary Committee has issued a formal warning to Leeds Bobcats'
Head Coach Paul Goodward. This relates to comments he made on social media in
June. He pleaded guilty to a charge of bringing the game into disrepute.
Also - attached is a list of disciplinary cases that carry forward into
the forthcoming BUCS season. Please let me know of any corrections.
Jim Briggs
discipline@britishamericanfootball.org
DISCIPLINARY
CASES
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NAME |
# |
TEAM |
CODE |
Q |
OFFENCE |
SUSPENDED |
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New
this week – none |
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Previous
weeks – none |
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GAME MANAGEMENT REPORTS
|
HOME
TEAM |
REPORT |
NEXT
HOME GAME |
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New this week |
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Leeds Celtics |
Coaches/Team areas marked with cones, No 9 yard marks. The pitch was sloped significantly in
places, as well as being very bumpy, especially at the 'top of the hill'. Liam Wooton #478 |
08/11/15 v MMU Eagles |
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Outstanding
items from previous weeks – none |
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PLAY OF THE WEEK: |
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New this week |
Play: |
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Last week |
Play: 4th and 4 on the Team B 10 yard line, Team
A attempt a field goal. During the attempt, which is good, B90 charges
forwards and roughs holder A5. What are team A's penalty enforcement options? |
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MECHANICS: |
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New this week |
Game Situation: |
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Last week |
Play: On
punt play covered by a 5 man crew, which official(s) must know if the ball
has crossed the line of scrimmage by knowing what the ball first touched
beyond the neutral zone? |
|
Date |
Event |
Contact for details |
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2015 |
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October 31st (Sat) |
BUCS season begins |
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November 1st (Sun) |
Lions v Chiefs @ Wembley |
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November 7th (Sat) |
Opal Series Round 2 |
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November 14th (Sat) |
BAFRA Board Meeting |
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November 21st (Sat) |
Opal Series Round 3 |
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December 5th (Sat) |
Opal Series Final |
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February 16th (Sat) |
BAFRA Board Meeting |
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April 2nd and 3rd |
BAFRA Annual Convention |
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May 7th (Sat) |
BAFRA Board Meeting |
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July 23rd (Sat) |
BAFRA Board Meeting |
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19th November (Sat) |
BAFRA Board Meeting |
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BAFRA Directors |
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President |
David Parsons |
General Secretary |
Paul Sutton |
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Finance |
Chalies Dean Young |
Operations |
Richard Vernon |
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Recruitment |
Kevin Stanton |
Training |
Pete Thom |
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Director
without Portfolio #1 |
Martin Cockerill |
Director
without Portfolio #2 |
Steve Tonkinson |
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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. |