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The phone rings at work around 10:30 on a Tuesday - classic County appointment time.

I was right and was being asked to referee a Leeds United Ladies Reserve game on February 17. I explained that as it was my son's 3rd birthday, I had closed the date, giving backword on a District appointment and couldn't accept the appointment. I was pretty pleased with the way the nice man at County took this news. I even took the opportunity to clear up the confusion over the kick off time for the Representative side game being played on February 3.

The County website says it's a 1:00 pm kick off but the correspondence says it's a 2:00 p.m. kick off. Some quick checking at the County office confirmed it was definitely a 2:00 p.m. kick off.

The phone rings again in the afternoon with an enquiry about my availability for a Minor FA game between Leeds FA and Bradford FA being played on February 9. I already had a game but it wasn't published on the Supply League website as the away team depended on the result of a game which was due to be played on February 2.

I took the Minor FA appointment (a game with Assistants!) and made my apologies to the Supply League Appointments Secretary. if I haven't already blown my chances of being involved in a League Cup/Trophy final, then surely today was the day I killed them off!