Demoted to Ref

Last term, Charlie and I took part in three football matches with the students, as mentioned in an earlier post. In a word, I was rubbish. But it was fairly fun, other than coughing up coal dust for hours after. This term, I was hoping that with Charlie gone, they would maybe not require my services anymore. I was wrong.

One of the students came to my classroom last week, letting me know there would be a game on the coming Friday. Was I free they asked? Unfortunately I was. Great, you can be referee then! Referee? Me? Are you sure?

Armed with red card, yellow card and whistle, I was given the task of refereeing a fairly important match between a Senior 1 and a Senior 2 class. I opted for the fluidity route - i.e. don't really do much and hope they don't spot that I really am not that clued up with the rules. I'm sure they were often offside, but not once did I blow the whistle for that. Thankfully, Chris refereed the second half and took the attention away from myself. Mainly because he gave a dubious penalty (according to the team conceding), that was duly missed and the Senior 2 team scored a last minute winner. As of yet, our services have not been requested for another game!