Another great event!! Still finding mud on my kit though and it's all been washed at least once...
That said, and ok, I doubt this is going to be news to anyone, but do feel the new reffing situation deserves comment. First off, I do agree completely with the changes and the increased focus of the refs. There was a definite feeling of increased professionalism from them that I really liked.
That said, I played field three in the morning and spent the afternoon filming on field four and the disparity between the two was amazing... I don't mean so much the timing issues just the differing levels of reffing. Field 3 was run all day with what can only be described as ruthless efficiency while 4 was more a case of benign neglect.
To explain, I get why, but I think everyone I spoke to got the feeling the refs were being a little over zealous. We got 1-4-1ed once or twice for silly things that lost us games. Swings and roundabouts I guess as I know for a fact that at least one of the other teams we played had a similar experience during their game with us, but my guys are not known for cheating and so maybe just a little more leeway would be appreciated. I mean if a player whose been shot and doesn’t realise it plays on and gets a major penalty for a game altering move why isn’t there anything in place for recourse if the refs make a dodgy call at a vital moment. I’m not really complaining about this just putting in a plea that if you’re going to 1-4-1 someone for playing on, maybe wait ‘till they actually do rather than taking them out as soon as they’re hit. That said, I sat on Field three and watched one of my players literally screaming for a paint check that never came on three separate occasions. She was really upset about it afterwards and her only crime (given that all three of those hits were bounces) was wanting to make sure she was playing honestly. Having spoken to the refs on that field they were all nice enough but if I didn’t know better I’d have said she was being intentionally ignored…
I get that these guys are only human I was just wondering if we could try to reach a happy medium here. On the whole though, the entire experience was a massive improvement on the last season.
Other than that all I had to say was that I thought the fields held up very well. They were certainly in a better state than Round 3 last year which was the only other event it’s seriously rained on so all credit for that. As to the start gates, which were a little unpleasant to stand at (but nothing like as bad as EB2008 made them out to be), maybe some drainage ditches (with all the health and safety fun that entails…).
Think of this as praise by exception since aside from my gat breaking a few time and some initial issues with paint I enjoyed every minute of it. I really don’t know how you guys manage to keep improving the events like this
That said, and ok, I doubt this is going to be news to anyone, but do feel the new reffing situation deserves comment. First off, I do agree completely with the changes and the increased focus of the refs. There was a definite feeling of increased professionalism from them that I really liked.
That said, I played field three in the morning and spent the afternoon filming on field four and the disparity between the two was amazing... I don't mean so much the timing issues just the differing levels of reffing. Field 3 was run all day with what can only be described as ruthless efficiency while 4 was more a case of benign neglect.
To explain, I get why, but I think everyone I spoke to got the feeling the refs were being a little over zealous. We got 1-4-1ed once or twice for silly things that lost us games. Swings and roundabouts I guess as I know for a fact that at least one of the other teams we played had a similar experience during their game with us, but my guys are not known for cheating and so maybe just a little more leeway would be appreciated. I mean if a player whose been shot and doesn’t realise it plays on and gets a major penalty for a game altering move why isn’t there anything in place for recourse if the refs make a dodgy call at a vital moment. I’m not really complaining about this just putting in a plea that if you’re going to 1-4-1 someone for playing on, maybe wait ‘till they actually do rather than taking them out as soon as they’re hit. That said, I sat on Field three and watched one of my players literally screaming for a paint check that never came on three separate occasions. She was really upset about it afterwards and her only crime (given that all three of those hits were bounces) was wanting to make sure she was playing honestly. Having spoken to the refs on that field they were all nice enough but if I didn’t know better I’d have said she was being intentionally ignored…
I get that these guys are only human I was just wondering if we could try to reach a happy medium here. On the whole though, the entire experience was a massive improvement on the last season.
Other than that all I had to say was that I thought the fields held up very well. They were certainly in a better state than Round 3 last year which was the only other event it’s seriously rained on so all credit for that. As to the start gates, which were a little unpleasant to stand at (but nothing like as bad as EB2008 made them out to be), maybe some drainage ditches (with all the health and safety fun that entails…).
Think of this as praise by exception since aside from my gat breaking a few time and some initial issues with paint I enjoyed every minute of it. I really don’t know how you guys manage to keep improving the events like this