It was an inauspicious entry to the Maidstone League for AFC Biddenden, apart from the fact that they won their first match 3-0 on a warm September afternoon. At this level of park football, us refs don't expect too much. A separate room to change in, maybe even a shower. But Biddenden had clearly been too busy to bother about such niceties.
The referee's changing room consisted of a chair in the toilets of the away team's changing room, toilets that were being used by the entire population of this pretty village in the weald of Kent because a funfare was being held next to the pitch. I scarpered pretty quickly to the touchline and changed next to the pitch, warning the manager his team would be hearing from the league.
The opening match of the season was a good one. Biddenden were a young team, small and fast while Cobdown Utd, who have changed their names three times in the past four seasons, had some players who were extremely tall and strong but lacking in pace. Youth conquered for Biddenden and the players were generally well behaved. The yellow card made its first appearance of the season for a cynical foul from behind but that was the worst of the sinning.
In some ways the funfare, consisting of a mini big wheel, dodgems cars and a couple of stalls, was more interesting. Frankie Goes to Hollywood blasted out Relax every five minutes from the Dodgems and about 30 or 40 people were watching the match, probably the biggest crowd I'll have all season.
2 comments:
As secretary of biddenden afc i had to write to express how dissapointed i am at your comments. We are a new side and my husband has worked very hard to set up the club and arrange the facilites. Unfortunatley on this occasion due to unforeseen circumstances we did not have the key to the officials changing room, i admit that this was not ideal but we did offer our apologies and do our best to make you feel welcome. As for the entire population of biddende using the changing rooms it was actually only a players little girl who desperately needed the toilet. I would have liked to have been able to offer my apologies after the match but you left before we could speak to you and offer you the food we always supply to away sides and officials. I am also sorry that you found the match boring and my husband says that as a qualified ref himself he is always pleased to have a nice "uninteresting" game with both sides just concentrating on their football, but i will ask my young players who were working their socks off to try harder to entertain you next time.
yours
Joanne Keeler
Secretary A.F.C Biddenden
Lee, admonishment accepted. Fatref can be a harsh critic at times and perhaps my poetic license ran away with me.
But I didn't say the match was boring. I said it was a good match.
And by getting the chairman of the league to issue a verbal telling off, I ensured it stopped there.
That said, I'm afraid it's a sign of the times that it's very worrying when I could be stark naked and a little kid walks in to the area where the ref is changing. That's why I was so concerned at that.
But you're quite right to have told me off. Biddenden is a beautiful village, the playing surface was excellent, the weather was good (as was the fairground music) and I suspect your team will do very well this season.
Good luck to all of you.
Fat Ref!
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