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

secretary@bafra.org

 

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

finance@bafra.org

 

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

secretary@bafra.org

 

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

 

NAME

#

TEAM

CODE

Q

OFFENCE

SUSPENDED

New this week – none

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previous weeks – none

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GAME MANAGEMENT REPORTS

 

HOME TEAM

REPORT

NEXT HOME GAME

New this week

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

Outstanding items from previous weeks – none

 

 

 

 

END ZONE (will return next week)

 

PLAY OF THE WEEK:

 

New this week

Play:

Ruling? 

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?

 
Ruling: 

 

MECHANICS:

 

New this week

Game Situation: 

Answer next issue...

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?

Answer: 

 

CALENDAR

Date

Event

Contact for details

2015

October 31st (Sat)

BUCS season begins

 

November 1st (Sun)

Lions v Chiefs @ Wembley

 

November 7th (Sat)

Opal Series Round 2

 

November 14th (Sat)

BAFRA Board Meeting

secretary@bafra.org

November 21st (Sat)

Opal Series Round 3

 

December 5th (Sat)

Opal Series Final

 

February 16th (Sat)

BAFRA Board Meeting

secretary@bafra.org

April 2nd and 3rd

BAFRA Annual Convention

president@bafra.org

May 7th (Sat)

BAFRA Board Meeting

secretary@bafra.org

July 23rd (Sat)

BAFRA Board Meeting

secretary@bafra.org

19th November (Sat)

BAFRA Board Meeting

secretary@bafra.org

 

BAFRA Directors

President

David Parsons

president@bafra.org

General Secretary

Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org

Finance

Chalies Dean Young

finance@bafra.org

Operations

Richard Vernon

operations@bafra.org

Recruitment

Kevin Stanton

recruitment@bafra.org

Training

Pete Thom

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.