Recident Referees

[DeanH]

During yesterday's final, I heard the commentators discussing the referee (apologies I do not know his name) from Belgium and the strange circumstances who he became a referee.
Apparently in Belgium, every club must have a resident referee.
Sounds a good idea to me, but does anyone have any details on how this is enforced, encouraged, administered, any plans or previous attempts for this in the UK?

[Souwester]

I have no idea about the set up in Belgium. I'd be rather surprised if it was the case that all clubs must have a resident referee, as, to my knowledge, there are relatively few referees in Belgium.

In the UK, it would be impossible to enforce and police, largely because there is no regulation over operation of table operators. Nobody knows for sure how many snooker venues there are let alone the number of tables (it amazes me that nobody, at least in England, has a comprehensive database of clubs). Apart from the Rileys chain, there are scores of independent commercial clubs, and God knows how many sports and social clubs (CIU, Labour, Conservative, Working Men's and general sports clubs) which have tables. Where would you start?

A couple of years back there were upwards of 300 certifcated referees in England, but many were inactive (and growing numbers taking up Emeritus staus). I suspect that there are rather more venues with tables than there are active referees.

[tomw]

It IS the case: a club with no referee has to pay more (= a fine) to the federation for the inscriptions for a season.

In my club, we have 2 referees, one of which is another Belgian top referee you can sometimes see on tv, Jan Scheers.
Nico De Vos, the ref you saw on tv yesterday, is also from my hometown (Leuven) but plays in a club a few streets down the road.
It doesn't have to be an international ref though, a ref grade 4 (lowest grade) will do, so (almost) every club in Belgium has a referee.

Greetings
Tom

[DeanH]

Hi Souwester, thanks fro the resposne.
I was just wondering if anyone knew about the Belgium setup; it would be interesting of a TSF memebr from there could shead some light on the subject.

Well in the UK, as you say it would probably be impossible to enforce, especially if the club had to "pay" dues to anyone
A quick Google search hit many such directories, whether they are comprehensive or even up to date who knows
Just a quick look at them and none have any of the seven local places that I know that have at least one table - so definitely not comprehensive

http://www.easb.co.uk/snooker-directory
www.thesnookerdirectory.com
http://johnvirgo.com/john-virgos-club-directory/
http://www.snookerclubs.com/snooker-clubs.htm
http://www.snookergames.co.uk/clubs.html

cheers

[DeanH]

It IS the case: a club with no referee has to pay more (= a fine) to the federation for the inscriptions for a season.

In my club, we have 2 referees, one of which is another Belgian top referee you can sometimes see on tv, Jan Scheers.
Nico De Vos, the ref you saw on tv yesterday, is also from my hometown (Leuven) but plays in a club a few streets down the road.
It doesn't have to be an international ref though, a ref grade 4 (lowest grade) will do, so (almost) every club in Belgium has a referee.

Greetings
Tom

Hi Tomw, thanks for the reply, we must have posted at the same time
thanks for the information and the refs name.
cheers

[Souwester]

Hi Souwester, thanks fro the resposne.
I was just wondering if anyone knew about the Belgium setup; it would be interesting of a TSF memebr from there could shead some light on the subject.

Well in the UK, as you say it would probably be impossible to enforce, especially if the club had to "pay" dues to anyone
A quick Google search hit many such directories, whether they are comprehensive or even up to date who knows
Just a quick look at them and none have any of the seven local places that I know that have at least one table - so definitely not comprehensive

http://www.easb.co.uk/snooker-directory
www.thesnookerdirectory.com
http://johnvirgo.com/john-virgos-club-directory/
http://www.snookerclubs.com/snooker-clubs.htm
http://www.snookergames.co.uk/clubs.html

cheers

I would point out that the easb.co.uk domain is NOT connected with EASB the National Governing Body (whose site is, of course, www.englishsnooker.com)

[DeanH]

yes, it did look strange compared to the "real" EASB site.


hm... englishsnooker.com (or co.uk) returns "No site configured at this address", ?

I tried my saved favourite as well as google search and directly typing it in

[Souwester]

Hi Souwester, thanks fro the resposne.
I was just wondering if anyone knew about the Belgium setup; it would be interesting of a TSF memebr from there could shead some light on the subject.

Well in the UK, as you say it would probably be impossible to enforce, especially if the club had to "pay" dues to anyone
A quick Google search hit many such directories, whether they are comprehensive or even up to date who knows
Just a quick look at them and none have any of the seven local places that I know that have at least one table - so definitely not comprehensive

http://www.easb.co.uk/snooker-directory
www.thesnookerdirectory.com
http://johnvirgo.com/john-virgos-club-directory/
http://www.snookerclubs.com/snooker-clubs.htm
http://www.snookergames.co.uk/clubs.html

cheers

Having taken a quick look at the sites listed, it seems that most have virtuially non-existent data! The best has always been the johnvirgo.com site, but that's hopelessly out of date now.