And the laughs just keep on coming ...

The guest speaker pulled out at the eleventh hour leaving a packed audience receiving an ad hoc presentation by 3 of our newest level 4 referees. So I never had the chance to pick his brains on working my way back to fitness.

To say the lads had been thrown in at the last minute, they conducted themselves well. They conveyed a good sense of the higher level of expectation at their new level of football. This is something I have experienced with a change of Supply League and a determination to get my correspondence sharper.

One of the things I've had to do after my injury is send out a blanket e-mail to advise that I am unavailable. Not something I liked to do and the follow up phone calls (even though they both went to voicemail) were even less enjoyable.

I must admit that the gentle telling off from colleagues for doing too many games, which has obviously contributed to my injury, was quite funny. Less funny was hearing about one of my friend's recent health scare which has led to him closing dates all the way through to Christmas. Get well soon Stephen!

Supply League Assistant

I asked to change Supply Leagues when re-registering for the 2009-10 season for a couple of reasons, the major one being that I'd done all I was likely to do in my existing league in the 5 seasons in which I had refereed/assisted, felt I was getting stale and I needed a change of scenery.

I hadn't received a notification letter, despite many others getting theirs. I was a little concerned that maybe I'd been dropped as an assistant. I phoned Mr C at the County office and he confirmed that I had been moved to the Northern Counties - East League and my letter had been sent out. On hearing that it hadn't arrived, he agreed to send me another.

I then have to accept my appointment and then the appointments will start coming in for August 8 onwards. I'll need to be careful with closing my dates this year to ensure I don't create a bad impression in my first season. I almost feel like the new boy at the grammar school!

Speaking of closing dates I need to send an e-mail to The FA to close my dates through to the end of November. I have been nominated by my County for consideration to The FA's competitions, FA Vase, FA Cup and FA Trophy. An appointment in any of these competitions or the Youth or Women's Cups are always a real boost and a great honour. I've ready a list of dates from pre-season tournaments, prior engagements and work on which I can't take games.

I hope I get an appointment like Fat Lad, who was on ITV.com for the highlights of the preliminary round of the FA Cup last season!

Postie

My "chat" at the County FA has been scheduled and will be completed on March 9, which is good news.

The postman also brought an appointment as Assistant to Sarge for a game between Huddersfield Town U18 and Derby County U18 a week on Saturday. There's some disagreement over the kick off time which I need to sort out. If it is the earlier time, then I'll comfortably make it to my afternoon Supply League Assistant's appointment. If it's the later time, then I may need to beg a favour from the referee!

Fortunate e-mail

I got an e-mail from one of the County FDO's this morning which was obviously a mailshot, suggesting that I take part in the FA's survey on grassroots football.

I replied to say that I'd clicked a link on the FA's Full Time website and completed the survey yesterday but, to be polite, thanked him for the reminder. Within half an hour he'd offered me an appointment in two weeks in the Floodlit U21 league in which I looked after the opening three fixtures in November last year.

I gratefully accepted - much better doing a game than training!