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 2^nd March 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:

Pete Thom (200), nominated by Brian Yates (29), seconded by Ian Papworth (366)

Director without Portfolio #1:

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

Peter Parsons (321), nominated by Graham Hedges (219). Seconded by Keith Wickham (423)

I will publish the final list in next week’s Newsflash. Please note that nominations must be sent to me, electronically, to arrive no later than 5:00pm on 5^th March.

Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org

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

The Sapphire Series commenced last Saturday, at Edinburgh, Leeds and Wembley. Can I begin by thanking everyone who worked one of these tournaments. In this connection I received the following message earlier this week.

“Dear Richard,

Please pass on the thanks of everyone in the Sapphire Series for the excellent response from BAFRA officials to cover Round 1. We are all very pleased to have had so many officials attending. In particular, thanks to Dan Holt and his crew for covering the first usage of the new 7 v 7 rules. The games were great and everyone really enjoyed the new format.

Jim Messenger-Head of Women's Football Development”

Other tournaments will be played on 12^th March, 26^th March and 16^th April. We now need more 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:

12^th March 2016

• AJ Bell Stadium Salford (7 v 7) 6 officials required

• Hamilton Stadium East Kilbride) (5 v 5 ) 4 officials required

• Portsmouth (5 v 5) 4 officials required

26^th March - Hatfield (7 v 7), Teeside and South London (5 v 5)

Richard Vernon

operations@bafra.org

BAFRA CHARITY 2016

Thank you to those members who have nominated an organisation to be considered as the BAFRA Charity 2016. The nominated charities are:

• Age UK. http://www.ageuk.org.uk/

• British Heart Foundation. https://www.bhf.org.uk/

• Cancer Research UK. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/

• Headway – The Brain Injury Association. https://www.headway.org.uk/

• The National Autistic Society. http://www.autism.org.uk/

All members attending the Saturday of the Convention will have the opportunity to vote for the charity of their choice. Please read the websites of the five nominations so that you are able to make an informed decision when the time comes.

As in previous years, a weekend of the BAFANL season will be selected as the BAFRA Charity weekend. Details about this will be announced nearer the time.

Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org

2016 UNIVERSITY (BUCS) BOWL GAME

The BAFRA Selection Committee is pleased to announce the following crew for the 2016 BUCS Bowl Game:

• Referee: #321 - Peter Parsons

• Umpire: #425 - David Parsons

• Head Linesman #177 - Graham Coleman

• Linejudge: #324 - Russell Newton

• Backjudge: #481 - Tim Ockendon

• Fieldjudge: #25 - Henry Richardson

• Sidejudge: #371 - Dan Holt

This Final will be played at John Charles Stadium, South Leeds on Sunday 20^th March 2015 at 4.00pm. Please join with the BAFRA Selection Committee in congratulating these officials on their appointments. This game will be preceded by the Tier 1 Final at 11.45am. Although this is a National Final it is not a Bowl Game and officials will be assigned shortly via Arbiter.

Richard Vernon

operations@bafra.org

APPLICATIONS FOR BAFRA SELECTION COMMITTEE

Applications are invited from qualified BAFRA members who would like to work on this important committee. It’s role include the selection of officials for all UK Bowl Games, NFL Chain Crews, Officials Of The Year Awards as well as IFAF and Elite Panel. Terms of reference and full details of the roles and responsibilities are on the website in the Members Handbook – 6.Scheduling and Selection.

In accordance with the rules of this committee two places are vacated every year and as a result two places will shortly be available. Please submit an Expression of Interest to me by no later than 10pm on Friday 18^th March 2016.

If anyone is considering applying who has not served previously on a BAFRA Committee, you are welcome to contact me for an informal discussion about the role and requirements.

Richard Vernon

operations@bafra.org

MINUTES OF THE FEBRUARY BOARD MEETING

The notes from the February Board Meeting are available in the member’s area of the website here:

http://www.bafra.org/members/minutes/eb20160213.pdf.

Paul Sutton

secretary@bafra.org

DISCIPLINARY UPDATE

A BAFA Appeal Committee has turned down an appeal against the disqualification of Michael Saric, #14 of City Sentinels on 14^th February. He was disqualified for targeting and the video evidence was not conclusive that this was an incorrect call. Mr Saric is suspended for his next game (which may well be with another team as he is graduating from City), his disqualification fine is now due and his appeal fee has been retained.

Jim Briggs

discipline@britishamericanfootball.org

RESULTS

Gloucestershire Gladiators 27-31 Bristol Barracuda

Stirling Clansmen 59-21 Bath Killer Bees

Hertfordshire Hurricanes 14-0 Derby Braves – game abandoned in the 1^st half due to injury

Birmingham Lions 42-22 Loughborough Students

Durham Saints 32-12 Kingston Cougars

Glasgow Tigers 6-0 Sheffield Sabres

Warwick Wolves 7-18 Newcastle Raiders

UCLan Rams 22-25 Nottingham Outlaws

NTU Renegades 27-20 Leeds Beckett Carnegie

Swansea Titans 24-6 UWE Bullets

Cardiff Cobras 26-6 Sussex Saxons

Surrey Stingers 27-0 Kent Falcons

Brighton Tsunami 7-13 RHUL Bears

DISCIPLINARY CASES

GAME MANAGEMENT REPORTS

END ZONE

CALENDAR