Fixtures in the East Divisions

[Referee]

Hi to all and a very Merry Xmas to all of you who choose to agree and disagree on this Forum.

Bad weather and the requirements of higher Leagues often keeps me on my toes and this means that your empty Saturdays are, more than likely, going to be filled with matches. Although we are only required to give 5 days notice, we will always do our best to give as much notice as possible.

There are no "free" Saturdays between now and the end of April. I am now arranging the reschedule of some fixtures to the beginning of May.

Each round of the Junior Cup and the Eveley Cup and the Percy Stephens Cup requires that future fixtures may be affected, especially when these matches are postponed with the bad weather. County Cup fixtures are, quite simply, drawn at FA HQ and those fixtures are then immediately placed into the Full Time system. We then have to rearrange those fixtures that may have been rostered for that day. This often affects Reserves Teams and those that share pitches and facilities.

County FA are making the Referee appointments tonight for January 2024 so please be nice to all your Referees as they are becoming a rare breed and we had several games without Referees last Saturday. The FA have published the new dates and venues for Level 7 Referee Courses on their website so please make yourself known if you would like to take up the whistle and help keep our local football going.

I probably won't post again for a while so Happy New Year to you to.

Davey Green, Fixtures Secretary.