BAFRA Newsflash

http://www.bafra.org

Issue: 08/16

25th February 2016


BAFRA ANNUAL CONVENTION – SAT 2ND AND SUN 3RD APRIL 2016


2016 Rule Book


The 2016 BAFA Rule book is currently at the printers. You will be able to pick up your free copy at the registration desk on the Saturday morning at the Convention


Programme of Events


The Convention Programme is taking shape and should be completed next week. Again we have included a total of 8 Break-out sessions, covering a variety of topics, which everyone will be able to attend. There will also be plenty of game film and various presentations throughout the weekend.


70 and counting


The following 70 Members have booked their place at the Convention. If you are not listed, it may be because you have only recently confirmed your place in the last couple of days. An updated list will be issued next week.


Stuart Alger, Graham Baker, Jaeson Bennett, Jim Briggs, Jed Brooks-Lewis, Roger Brown, Derek Burridge, Darren Carr, Phil Clarke, Martin Cockerill, Graham Coleman, Alisha Darkins, Ian Davies, Roy Davis, Steve Egan, Tim Fisher, Jo Foxon, Barry Gent, Martin Gibson, Muz Gibson, Roger Goodgroves, John Griffin, Ben Griffiths, Krister Halvorsean, Graham Hedges, David Hewitt, Rob Hill, Daniel Holt, Heather Horner, Phil Hume, Mark Hurst, Chris Jarvis, David Knight, Albert Lambert, Bill LeMonnier, Tzvi Lindeman, Andrew Lovell, Frank McParlin, Jason Mead, James Meredith, Andrew Murrell, Russell Newton, Tim Ockendon, Ian Papworth, Toby Papworth, Davie Parsons, Tom Pennick, Euan Peterson, Vladimir Platonov, Michael Prentice, Henry Richardson, Mike Roberts, Conrad Russell, Clive Sandle, Ian Sneddon, Shawn Sombati, Kevin Stanton, Darran Sterling, Paul Sutton, Pete Thom, Steve Tonkinson, Sean Welsh, Keith Wickham, Colin Willox, Mark Wilson, Dean Wright, Jon Wyse, Brian Yates, Charles Young, Stuart Young.


Let’s Get Registered


If you are not taking advantage of the excellent accommodation rates available at Yarnfield Park Training & Conference Centre you still need to register to attend the Convention. To register please contact Sean Welsh at convention@bafra.org. Full details of the Convention and accommodation rates can be found at the following link: http://www.bafra.org/newsflash/2016/201605.htm.


Payment


Payment for Convention rooms are due by 20th March and payment can be made electronically or by cheque.


By cheques; with full payment included, should be made payable to BAFRA Ltd and sent to Charles Young at 18 Southgate, Whitworth, Rochdale, Lancashire, OL12 8UQ. Cheques may not be cashed till this date.


By electronic payment; please ensure your payment reference is your full name and BAFRA number e.g. “Roger Brown 469” and use the account number 10255350, sort code 16-16-11, BAFRA Ltd, RBS, Cheetham Hill, Manchester.


By electronic payment plan; It is appreciated that some people may wish to spread the cost and make multiple payments over the weeks leading up to 20th March. Please use the same instructions as above. If you wish to make multiple payments, then you must make the payments electronically and not by cheque.


Please let us know how you wish to pay by including this information in your email to Sean Welsh at convention@bafra.org when you register.


Game Fees


Unfortunately, payment for the Convention cannot be taken from Game Fees. The administration work involved is far too time consuming and does not fit well with our newly introduced process of paying games Fees by direct transfer to your bank account.


Davie Parsons

president@bafra.org


ELECTION OF DIRECTORS


As always, a proportion of the director posts are due for election at the meeting. This year these are: President, General Secretary, Director of Training and Director without Portfolio #1. All of the present incumbents have indicated they are intending to seek re-election except for the Director of Portfolio #1 who will be standing down after the AGM.


The directors encourage all qualified members to consider putting themselves forward for one of the above roles (whether or not the existing incumbent is standing). Should any member considering standing require more information about any of the roles prior to submitting their nomination they should contact me, or if they prefer, another director.


The following nominations have been received (correct to 5:00pm on Wednesday 24th February 2016):


President:

Davie Parsons (425), nominated by Steve Tonkinson (99), seconded by Les Connor (152)


General Secretary:

Paul Sutton (312), nominated by Stuart Young (33), seconded by Mike Cavanagh (465).


Director of Training:

No nominations yet received


Director without Portfolio #1:

David Knight (135), nominated by Roger Brown (469), seconded by Phil Hume (52)


I will keep this list updated via Newsflash until the closing date. Please note that nominations must be sent to me, electronically, to arrive no later than 5:00pm on 5th March.


Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org


THE BAFA SAPPHIRE SERIES (WOMEN'S TACKLE FOOTBALL) 12TH MARCH, 26TH MARCH, 16TH APRIL EVENTS!


The Sapphire Series commences this Saturday. Can I begin by thanking everyone who has already offered their services to work tournaments. However we do still require one more official at both Leeds and Edinburgh for the first series of games on 27th February. Other tournaments will be played on 12th March, 26th March and 16th April. We now need volunteers to come forward for all of these tournaments. Details are contained below. We have already had some Elite officials make themselves available and I hope all of them cover at least one of these events. In addition can I ask that newer officials try to cover a tournament as this will be valuable experience to take you into the Senior League season. The support of BAFRA officials will be a valuable contribution to the development of BAFA's women's football programme.


The Sapphire Series is the national championship for women’s contact football. The series, which runs from February to April sees teams compete across a number of tournaments in the standard 5 v 5 format and now for the first time, the new BAFA 7 v 7 format. The 7 v 7 format will be used for the five Division 1 teams playing for the Sapphire National Championship; The nine Division 2 teams will compete at 5 v 5 format for the Div 2 North and South conference titles. The series runs with tournament-style game days at which 4 -5 teams will be present. There will be 4 tournament dates with 3 regional based tournaments taking part on each of these, so a total of 12 tournament events. Teams play two games each per day and tournaments are expected to last around three to three and a half hours. Officials can expect to officiate 2-3 games, all lasting between 45-60 minutes. Most events will start first games at 13:00 and will be finished by 16:30 latest. All tournaments take place on a Saturday .


Dates, formats, times and venues for the tournaments are as follows:


12th March 2016



We will put all these events onto Arbiter but seek officials to contact us about their availability asap, especially for the first series of events on 27th February.


We are particularly seeking officials who are willing to be part of the introductory and development of the new 7 v 7 Format and ideally attend several of these events to help bed-in the rules and mechanics and provide feedback to the competition organisers and to other game officials. Please come-forward quickly to that we can provide copies of the game and competition rules for the new format ahead of game days.


Officials will be paid a game fee for all of these assignments directly through BAFA/BAFRA.


Richard Vernon

operations@bafra.org


BAFRA FEES FOR PLAY-OFF GAMES


Several Referees have asked for clarification regarding charges to teams for Play-Off games.


As stated in the Members Handbook. Teams pay for a 5-man crew for all BUCS play-off games and a 7-man crew for the bowl game and all finals as per the annex to our T&Cs.


Richard Vernon

operations@bafra.org


BAFRA CHARITY 2016


BAFRA will be holding its annual charity weekend again this year and, as in the past, the charity will be chosen by the members. Please send any nominations for this year’s charity to me to arrive by 5:00pm on 2nd March.


Members attending the Convention on the Saturday will be invited to select this year’s charity from those put forward. Each year we have succeeded in increasing the amount raised for our chosen charity. Let’s hope that this year again beats all previous records.


Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org


3 MAN CREWS LAST SUNDAYS


Can I thank all officials who worked one of the eight games played last Sunday where we had to field a 3 man crew. This was due to an unprecedented number of late withdrawals from crews.


We realise working a 3 man crew is a tough job so we are very grateful for your assistance in making sure that the final week of the regular season went ahead with so many games covered. Finally, a specific mention to Aminul Hassan, Stuart Young and Peter Roberts for completing a 3 man crew Double Header. In 5 years of assigning officials to games this is the first (hopefully last) time I have asked officials if they were willing to do this so many thanks for your assistance. I know the teams have also expressed their gratitude for your hard work.


Richard Vernon

operations@bafra.org


RESULTS


Hallam Warriors 14-20 Durham Saints

Stirling Clansmen 42-3 Loughborough Students

Birmingham Lions 27-10 Hertfordshire Hurricanes

Bath Killer Bees 49-8 Imperial Immortals

Lancaster Bombers 0-44 Glasgow Tigers

Sunderland Spartans 6-13 Newcastle Raiders

Hull Sharks 44-0 Huddersfield Hawks

Leeds Beckett Carnegie 22-33 UCLan Rams

Nottingham Outlaws 40-0 Worcester Royals

Warwick Wolves 32-6 Staffordshire Stallions

Tarannau Aberystwyth 0-22 Exeter Demons

Swansea Titans 19-0 Cardiff Cobras

KCL Regents 42-28 Solent Redhawks

Reading Knights 6-25 RHUL Bears

Kent Falcons 8-0 Brighton Tsunami

Cambridge Pythons 40-0 Sussex Saxons

Teesside Cougars 24-0 UWS Pyros

UWS Pyros 0-30 Teesside Cougars

Heriot-Watt 0-10 Edinburgh Napier Knights

Edge Hill Vikings 22-8 Liverpool Raptors

LJMU Fury 14-20 Bangor Muddogs

MMU Eagles 21-14 Leeds Celtics

York Centurions 0-26 Manchester Tyrants

DMU Falcons 0-28 Leicester Longhorns

Coventry Jets 3-6 Lincoln Colonials

Bournemouth Bobcats 7-27 Bristol Barracuda

BNU Buccaneers 14-13 Chichester Spitfires

Brunel Burners 29-6 Southampton Stags

City Sentinels 12-9 UEL Titans

Oxford Lancers 39-0 ARU Rhinos


DISCIPLINARY CASES


NAME

#

TEAM

CODE

Q

OFFENCE

SUSPENDED

New this week

Joshua Reynolds

48

Bournemouth Bobcats

TUF

1

After a play the player jumped to his feet and shoved an opponent – he was called for unsportsmanlike conduct. The player then swore at the official drawing a second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Unknown

Previous weeks – none











GAME MANAGEMENT REPORTS


HOME TEAM

REPORT

NEXT HOME GAME

New this week

Edge Hill Vikings

Yellow paint used for markings. NFL style hashes and no three yard marks.

Aminul Hassan #534

Unknown

Oxford Lancers

No coaching areas on the away team's sideline. No nine yard marks.

Mike LeFevre #341

Playoffs?

Nottingham Outlaws

No goal posts at either end.

Ian Wainwright #567

Playoffs?

Reading Knights

Field, while well-marked at the start of the game, became very muddy resulting in many of the hash marks disappearing. Changing rooms not lockable.

Pete Parsons #321

Unknown

KCL Regents

80 yard field marked in blue. Field surface quite deteriorated due to recent weather making some lines and hash marks virtually invisible. Game was stopped more than 5 times to repair the chains, down box rod also bent.

Phil Clarke #262

Unknown

Brunel Burners

The field is about a 10 minute walk from the facilities. It was painted with dark blue paint, and adjacent to the American football markings there were bright white markings for other sports, which were confusing (half a yard into the field from the goalline, there was a parallel white line). All the dressing rooms have the same code, so if you know one, you can enter any, thus we took our stuff out to the car. There was no separate room for ladies. The home team had no good balls to play with, so they asked the away team to provide adequate balls.

Viktor Janvari #63

Unknown

Coventry Jets

80 yard field marked in red. No team areas. Field extremely muddy with hashmarks barely visible after the 1st quarter.

Jed Brookes-Lewis #395

Playoffs?

Warwick Wolves

Game moved to 3G field marked using soccer sideline and tape. No posts and away sideline quite cramped due to perimeter fence.

Jed Brookes-Lewis #395

28/02/16 v Newcastle Raiders

Kent Falcons

80-yard field with 11-yard end zones. Field markings continued into the end zones. NFL hashmarks, cones placed at the correct width. Field marked in dark red, very difficult to see as the field cut up. Team areas marked out in cones.

Alan Dobson #308

Playoffs?

Bournemouth Bobcats

Agreed the day before to move the KO time back 30 minutes. The visiting turned up late so the KO time was moved back a further 15 minutes with the agreement of the officials. 3 man crew. Field was painted with the main lines blue and the hash marks white. There were other field marking (not football) that were also white and some red. Some hash marks disappeared during the game. No 9 yard marks. The chain crew was changed at half time - but both chain crews were excellent. Beside the one incident the game was played in a great spirit and both teams were a credit to their universities

David Knight #135

Unknown

Outstanding items from previous weeks

Kingston Cougars

Well marked 100-yard field. Numbers at incorrect depth and team areas marked out with cones. A section of one end line was missing due to some re-laid turf. Game management were able to re-mark this prior to kickoff but this and problems with the medical cover reaching the field lead to kickoff being delayed by 10 minutes. Field surface initially soft and deteriorated as game progressed but never became unplayable or dangerous.

Tim Ockendon #481

Playoffs?

Durham Saints

90 yard field with no posts, it snowed during most of the first half which made the hashmarks impossible to locate, fortunately the home team had positioned pylons at both ends of the field which were in the correct position and although due to the amount of snow that was falling they were difficult to spot at some points the umpire did a great job in spotting the ball. After the half time break there was a delay while the home team returned to the field from the slightly warmer changing rooms. 1 ball person was changed at half time.

Lee Taylor #183

28/02/16 v Kingston Cougars

Derby Braves

No team areas marked but cones used instead. Only one set of goal posts.

Richard Whitby #136

Playoffs?

Cardiff Cobras

Game played at UWE. Field marking as above.

Amir Brooks #593

28/02/16 v Sussex Saxons


END ZONE


PLAY OF THE WEEK:


New this week

Play: Team A have 4th and 14 at the 50-yard line, Team A punt. B1 clips while the ball is in the air on Team B's 40-yard line, and B2 muffs the kick on the 25-yard line. While the ball is loose and on the ground, an inadvertent whistle is sounded. Ruling?
Ruling?

Last week

Play: A's ball, 1st and 10, on B's 38. A37 advanced for a first down during the down just completed. Team A is in a hurry up offense. A56 snaps the ball just prior to the ready for play signal. QB A18 is sacked on B's 46. Ruling?


Ruling: A's ball, 1st and 10, on B's 43. The ball remained a dead ball when A56 snapped the ball (4-1-4). The penalty for any dead ball foul incurred after a series ends and before the next ready for play signal shall be enforced before the line to gain is established (5-2-7). Therefore team A will have a new 1st and 10 after the penalty enforcement.


MECHANICS:


New this week

Game Situation: At the end of the game the coach of the losing team approaches the wing official on his sideline and politely asks to discuss a controversial pass interference call earlier in the game. How should the wing official proceed in dealing with the coach?
Answer next issue...

Last week

Play: Name the 6 fouls that are 'conspicuous' – i.e. fouls that although are not serious and do not create a significant advantage, they are so obvious to anyone watching that officials would look foolish to not call them.
Answer: M-3-7. i) illegal substitution when a player leaves the field other than across his own sideline, ii) illegal substitution when a team has 12 or more men in the huddle for more than 3 seconds (but don't nit pick the 3 second limit), iii) intentional illegal touching of a forward pass, iv) false start by a tight end or wide receiver, v) offside by Team B at their restraining line on a free kick, vi) free kick out of bounds.


CALENDAR

Date

Event

Contact for details

2016

March 20th (Sun)

BUCS National Final


April 2nd and 3rd

BAFRA Annual Convention & AGM

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.


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