21st Feb: Experience is Everything.

A little late but I wanted to write about it nonetheless.

I was asked to help referee at a closed door event over the weekend. 2 of our league's newer refs, Emma and Jacqui drove me there and attended with me to observe and learn, as per their ongoing 'snow tiger' training.

Upon arrival to the venue I observed an "incident" in the car park which warranted a call to the police, but we headed promptly into the Sports Centre to put it behind us and prepare for the task at hand, finishing off a few discussions from our Roller-Derby-Test-O-Matic (EPIC FUN SITE CLICK HERE) testing on the entire car journey, and preparing for Referee duties.

Slowly players started arriving with a few referee's I've not had the pleasure of reffing with yet. 2 from Coventry, 2 from Surrey, Northampton and myself (Skating 1 Ref Short on the outside). I was down for Front IPR for the day and was looking forward to having the opportunity to further practice with the new rules. It was the first change for some of the refs to experience bout situations too so it could have gone either way.

The game got underway and played through reasonably well between both teams who are, to my knowledge, two relatively newer teams. There were a few mix ups in the penalty box from a newer NSO set up but nevertheless the game flowed reasonably well. The general feel from the get go, which was always explained was a casual set up to give both trams a chance to experience bout situation.

Around 10 Minutes in, the Centre manager needed to let me know the Police wanted to talk to me, so after the jam I went to see the Mr Policeman who needed to take a statement regarding the incident I saw and reported earlier. Luckily he was able to come and visit me post bout so after a few minutes, I rushed back in to re-assume my role as front IPR. Usually things like this can fluster me and throw my focus, but I felt I upped my game and remained composed and focused to get on with the rest of the 1st period. I hope that's the strangest thing I have to deal with mid bout, but then again, this is Derby so I can't rest easy.

After the break for fluids and feedback between refs, we got back on with the second period. Nothing too taxing in terms of gameplay, almost an expulsion for a player fouling out, and plenty of power jams to both teams, resulted in the game finishing with, I think, a 30 point difference.

All in all, it was a great chance to try new things as it was stated from this closed door's inception. The day allowed for a few Refs to loose their external game V-Cards in a casual environment, a chance for NSO's to try new things and practice and of course, for skaters from two teams to practice and play derby. Thanks for organising Rach!

What I've learned/realised over the weekend:

- I'm better at dealing with interruptions when I have to and making quick decent decisions
- Be observant throughout bout prep, ready to plug any gaps or issues as early as possible.
- Lucky and thankful to be a part of a league with a strong NSO Crew.
- Lucky to have been able to learn from and work with some great people from various leagues so early on.*

*(Notable thanks to Xavier Bacon (ongoing help and opportunities), Scream Winchester teaching me how to kit-check and saw T and I through my first closed door at Kent), Fu Man-Drew (Calmest man inside track), Stubble Entendre (Enthusiasm and ongoing support), Noise Tank (Flair, and support through closed doors), Scoot'er (Examples and opportunity for reffing my first open door), my own league and **refs** (T for being an awesome head of refs) and for the ridiculously lengthy discussions and all on UK Refs.

Thanks to all I've chatted with, wrestled rules with and who have lent ANY advice over the past year. It's greatly appreciated, I love Derby and I want to be a good referee first and foremost, and you're all helping me to do that, thank you.

Next bout I'll be at should be the Seaside Sirens vs Romsey Town Rollerbillies on the 9th of March, Titled ever so Essex-ly, Pie and Bash. There's going to be a STRONG ref crew and I'm sure the game's going to be a good'n.

25/1/2013 - LOW BLOCK!

Lets Kick things off shall we! (Did you see what I did there with the title? *toots whistle*)

I had to post something on this new blog as frankly, it looks ghastly to have nothing on it while I'm playing around with the layout and a plan of action.

Hello everyone and welcome all to my blog. I hope it will become a useful tool to aid me in documenting my derby experiences, to house my otherwise unshared or forgotten thoughts and to see what the world and interwebz thinks about it all. I aim to share things that I've found useful in the hope they'll be the same for you.

I am in no way intending this blog to be a source of sharing of, or flinging any Derby bickering. It's not in my nature and frankly, I want to stay out of as much of the 'politics' as possible, focusing simply on the my informal mantra of 'BE A GOOD REF'.

I will get a 'real' post up over the next few weeks and I honestly hope this blog serves you well in terms of another site to spend time reading through, comment upon, and help you in Derby in whichever way it may.

In a very brief review, 2012 was an overall challenging and changing year personally, but one in which Derby and Refereeing had become a real interest and perhaps obsession in some respects.... Daily clicking down the UK Refs discussion pages, imagining scenarios, flicking between rule areas, impulsive signals while watching derby games on the internet and coming up with all sorts of weird ways to try to improve in my weaker areas of refereeing.

In 2012 I re-learnt to skate, shadowed, read, struggled, overheated, travelled, made mistakes, made improvements, made great friends. Now, I'm lucky to have a 'solid-as-can-be' local ref crew with me as we try our best to help each other, striving to be the best we can, helping those we practice with to learn as much as we do every time we adorn the foot-wheels and Fox 40's.

The WFTDA finally released the new ruleset which brought mixed reactions from many including myself, but after wrestling with it and testing, I now feel I've got a reasonably healthy grasp of where the game is and how it looks and plays. I have my first few closed and open bouts of the year - under the new rules - coming up in February and March and look forward to refereeing with new and old faces from across the country.

Here's to hoping for a great year of Derby and many happy ref breakthroughs as the sport grows.

All players reading, I will be showing my gratitude for you all being a lovely bunch by shouting at you, having a referee "you're-dead-to-me" face, blowing whistles so loud they could deafen, and waving my arms around at you accordingly.