By Webmaster/Rheolwr y Wefan
October 22 2002

Druid's Programme Editor, Andrew Edwards protests against the poor standard of refereeing seen at Plaskynaston Lane this season. Just how big a problem do we have with the standard of officials?

Druids have come against many obstacles this season. Also, seemingly these “obstacles” have come in many forms.

Yes, you know what I’m talking about. The abysmal standard of officiating in the League Of Wales. First of all, we had Nigel Richards of Llanelli in the away match at Welshpool. As we know from past experience, Mr Richards is a dire official and we found this out for the first time on February 16^th this year against Cwmbran Town at Plaskynaston. Although then one of our two sendings-off were correct, an elbow off the ball is a direct red. Aled’s red, a few minutes after a booking, I believe could have been resolved by a word in the ear. As I remember the situation, Aled was ushering Cwmbran’s right sided player out onto the touchline and he, some may say, foolishly slid in and missed the ball. The referee interpreted that Aled was last man. Truly a dire official. At the Welshpool match he repeatedly allowed L.Davies, the Welshpool number two, to man-handle Joe Desormeaux and several other dangerous tackles from the player without even booking him. Sure, Joe isn’t the biggest man in the world but he was wrestled to the ground in a fashion that Bret Hart would be proud of!

Then we encountered Mr Parry, not Stephen of course, but the referee from Llanfair PG for the home match against Afan Lido. This ref thought that attempting to break Druids players was all par for the course.

Danny Watkin and especially Craig Wilkinson were victims of the referee’s incompetence, as they were cynically ”mowed” to the ground on several occasions during the first half. But my biggest complaint against the referee was allowing the Lido goal to stand. This was after debutant Paul Dowridge had his shirt pulled in Druids’ box. Last time I looked this was a foul. But oh no, not in Mr Parry’s mind. He allowed the goal to stand and Druids were robbed (again!) of at least a point.

Then came the little man from Llangaffo. Although he told my brother in-law a bizarre rule he wanted to know before the match and seemed generally a nice man, his officiating was a joke at Druids expense. Mr K.O.Jones awarded a penalty to Barry when Danny Desormeaux was the one that had been fouled! To quote Steve O’ Shaughnessy “what a muppet!”. Later on , even though we were 3-0 down by this point, Craig Wilkinson was kicked in the head in the penalty area. I know the Barry player’s intention was to play the ball but he missed it completely. What did the referee do about this, you ask? Allow play to continue. Sums it all up I suppose.

  Up until the Newtown game on September 28^th we had no more trouble with the officials decision making. In fact quite the opposite. Mr Bodenham who took charge of the Quay game was a very good official.

Sadly in the second half of the Newtown , which I was present at, the liner on my side nearest to the dug-outs made a total and utter and howler of a decision. Newtown was awarded a penalty for a “handball” against Aled Rowlands that clearly never was. In my opinion and I’m sure many of the 268 there know he controlled the ball with his shoulder. It seemed that the liner had been influenced by a Newtown supporter who shouted “handball”.

One quip I would like to make is that I’ve shouted for a Druids penalty with the liner not too far away on dozens of occasions and we’ve never been awarded anything. Perhaps this liner was just very weak and scared.

Very tenuous I know but sometimes I do wonder where the L.O.W. get their officials from.

Andrew Edwards