Ron Thompson Festival/Tournament, also known as All Winners Tournament, is always played during a Saturday or entire weekend in June (always the weekend between City Boys and Girls tournament). All teams participate and I try that all the referees who make themselves available participate. All age groups from U12 and under are considered participating in Festival, all age groups U13/U14 and older are considered participating in Tournament. Briefly: you just ref, don’t’ record as we keep no scores whatsoever no matter what the age group. For full details see below:
- Each ref who provides availability receives one, two, or more games, depending on the qualifications, experience, time frame available, number of refs available etc.
- These are short games, straight short game, not two halves.
- All games are straight 30 minutes, no halves, straight 30 minutes for all games for all divisions.
- You will also indicate the time of the day that you are available. A.M. only, or P.M. only, or all day, which allows the head ref to know as to when during the day to assign you the games.
- You will receive the info about your games from the Head Ref and you will have to confirm your assignments with him.
When asked by the Head Ref, the referees will submit on line their availability for the day of the event.
Once you are at the Park (either Eastgate or Beavermead or Fleming College Fields), there are steps you need to follow to make sure that things are running smoothly:
- First thing you are going to do is to be at your park 15 minutes prior to the Kickoff time which is the time that the game starts, or it is supposed to start.
- Then, you need to approach the convenors. At Beavermead Park the convenors stay at the pavilion (the shed by the lake). At Eastgate Park the convenors stay either at the front entrance or between the two buildings. At Fleming College the convenors stay in front of the clubhouse (main building in front of the fields).
- You must let the convenors know that you are there and they will tell you if there are any last moment changes. If not, once they are notified, you will go to your field and get ready to start your game.
- Please try to start your game on time and then stay on time. If necessary, even trim a little bit the playing time, as long as you make sure that you stay on time. I always assign you on the same field (with rare exceptions) for consecutive games; therefore you are able to control your pace. Sticking to the schedule is very important, especially knowing that it is a long day, both days on Saturday and Sunday, so always remember that.
- During the game, you are just refereeing. You don’t need to record anything, except for yellow and red cards which we hope won’t be necessary. You don’t record the score, the names, the MVP or anything. This is All Winners Tournament and therefore everyone is a winner.
- If you have issued a yellow or red card you will need to follow the steps that you follow during the season for reporting it. First, you need to notify immediately the convenors on the spot, and when you go home you write the card up and email it as usual to Winston from our club and ECOSA’s discipline chairperson.
- Remember that trading players and call up players are allowed just as they are during the regular season. If you are not sure or can’t remember the trading player or call up player rule you need to revisit again the Rules and Regulations on our website.
- Once your games are over (all of them), then you go back to the convenors and just inform them as to who you are and that your games are over. You don’t need to report any game report at all to the conveners or to the statistician: no scores, no names, no MVPs (except for yellow cards, red cards or a special incident if there is any).
- If you are assigned as a substitute referee you will receive the same fee as the regular fee, however you are “on call”. You will have to report to the convenors and stay nearby all the time, so in case that a referee fails to show up, or shows up late, or gets injured during the game, you are right there on the spot, ready to go and replace that ref and ensuring that the day doesn’t get any longer and that we stick to the schedule and its time frame.
These are pretty clear rules that try to cover everything, however if you have any question do not hesitate to ask. Let’s enjoy this great event and have fun.