Lots of lacrosse this week so you are spared some of my rambling. Additionally my nearest and dearest (Christine, Anna and James) have gently pointed out that most people are not interested in the boring, rantings of an old man. So much less in the future!

Might touch on immigration as the only reduction in immigration that seems to have been achieved under Theresa May’s watch has been shutting down the Lacrosse LDO programme. I would also make the observation that “controlling immigration” does not mean and almost certainly won’t mean reducing numbers. The economic ramifications of reducing the number of immigrants would be profound, certainly in places like Manchester

Keep informed
When you are retired every day is a weekend and one thing you can do is read. I personally keep the newspaper industry in business buying every day the Guardian (obviously) , on Sunday The Observer, The Sunday Times, every two weeks “The New European”, every week “The Week”, “Private Eye”.
I also buy the Daily Telegraph, the temple of post truth and alternative facts. It does have very comprehensive sports coverage and is basically written in decent English. It lets you gauge how the enemy is thinking. The letters page is particularly interesting. There are rarely letters from anywhere north of Birmingham (except places like Harrogate and Wilmslow) or from central London. It is at least a source of very dark humour.
If you want to know what I would have written you know where to find the information.

Refereeing
I follow most sports and there seems to be growing publicity centred on the referee.
Premiership soccer seems to be regularly inflicted by controversy. The officials are well paid so sympathy is limited but their every move is scrutinised by huge numbers of TV cameras. Technology it would seem is very reluctantly embraced by soccer although we do now have goal line cameras. So we have a situation where refs who have a split second to make a decision end up having that decision minutely scrutinised by endless pundits and millions of fans (even in the ground they can get blow by blow accounts via your iphone).
I am first a Man U fan but secondly a Manchester soccer fan whose idea of a great season would be for Utd to beat City in the Final of the Champions League. So I was annoyed to see City robbed of two points by an incredible decision whereby Andre Mariner and his assistant were alone in thinking that City should not have had a penalty for a push by Kyle Walker on Raheem Sterling and that Walker should have been red carded. I fail to see why the fourth official could not have whispered in Mariner's ear that it was a clear penalty.
Premiership soccer is clearly big business as well as entertainment. Mistakes like Saturday’s cost perhaps millions of pounds.
The idea that you do not have technology because it is not available for the teams that play on Hough End is ludicrous. The refs on Hough End have different and, from recent publicity in the local media, arguably more serious problems.
Rugby Union is another sport with reffing issues in my opinion. If anyone tells you that they understand the rules and the referee’s interpretation of them they are lying. The reason that there are so little disputing decisions in the game is that the players do not have much idea about what is going on. A fundamental reason why rugby has this reputation for respect for refs is that it is difficult to argue about a decision about which no-one has a clue.
Unfortunately, in Rugby the scoring system means that the effect of reffing has a significant impact on the result. Minimum suggestion would be one point for a penalty and less yellow cards.
Also watched limited overs cricket. Technology has limited the numbers of umpiring errors but the limited overs game is loaded in favour of the batsman. The bowlers are cannon fodder. I have particular problems with the definition of a wide, particularly down the leg side. It would seem to be that the ball is deemed a wide if the batsman cannot hit it for six!
Lacrosse always used to be promoted as a game of simplicity with few rules. It is supposed to be” the fastest game on two feet”. That is certainly not the position today. Luckily for lacrosse it is a game of many goals, often around 20 in a typical game. The implication of this is that a single official’s decision is unlikely to affect a games result. However, the lacrosse rule book seems to get longer and longer. Our officials do not generally suffer from trial by TV but they are regularly assessed and if they want to be involved at the highest level one presumes that that they are required to know the rules and implement them resulting in a lot of decisions and interruptions to the flow of the game. As in all sports game management is paramount and the less decisions a ref makes the better, in my opinion, he is and the better the game. The late great Graham Lester was an advocate of preventative officiating which broadly meant you talked to players and warned them about indiscretions rather than interrupt the game blowing for petty fouls.
One of the purposes of a sport’s rules is to keep the participants safe. In lacrosse the safer the sport becomes with the high standard of modern equipment the more rules we would seem to have been introduced to dubious purpose. In the olden days players had wooden sticks which left a mark if you received a check. Helmets were non-existent with some players even playing in spectacles (softies like me wore padded cloth caps which I though looked cool!) there were no arm pads, shoulder pads, or back pads. Gloves of varying quality were worn.
Today we have extremely effective equipment and particularly good helmets. One of the easiest calls for a ref to make is “head check” but with modern helmets 90% of calls should be dismissed as a brush.
An extremely unscientific survey I have done would seem to suggest that there are significantly less fouls called in a game of lacrosse in the US than there in the UK. That could be because the game over here is rougher and tougher or it could be because American refs blow their whistles less. I am told anecdotally that, particularly in college games, officials are told that if a game is close, certainly in the final period they should keep their whistles in their pockets and let the players get on with it.
The fewer the breaks in play the better it would seem to me.

Men’s Competitive Survey
There is a lot of good stuff in this and I would encourage people to complete the survey.
I think that one of my main comments would be that Manchester and the North West is still fundamentally different from the rest of the country, certainly for men’s lacrosse. Manchester is the only area which has a credible junior lacrosse structure therefore it is unlikely that its requirements will be the same as other places.
It should probably be North West Lacrosse which addresses the competitive issues for the region. There are certainly a few.
From my personal perspective the problems at U12 level need addressing and the solution is not to introduce kindergarten lacrosse. My Grandson and his contempories are in their 4th year of “proper lacrosse” and still have another year in the age group. In Owen’s case another 2. They want and need to play proper lacrosse. Size of pitch is an issue but there is a balance between size of pitch and providing enough room, particularly behind goal, for proper lacrosse.
One of the attractions of men’s lacrosse is that it is cool and the gear is great. We do not want baby lax on baby pitches. We want a game which respects the great ability that young people have to assimilate and learn what is a very difficult sport to play. A desire for a simple game is perhaps more a reflection of the abilities of the coaches and teachers rather than the requirements of the young people.
There are also serious problems in the lower senior leagues with large number of games being cancelled/conceded. As far as I can see the Timperley A v Cheadle Hulme was a unique game in League 2H-it was the only one played! How viable are clubs like Hull, Stoke, Newcastle and Lincoln?
Timperley are arguably the foremost club programme in English Lacrosse (even European Lacrosse) and although we have some problems they are less than most clubs. It is, however, essential that we formulate a view on the way forward for English Lacrosse.

TSC Development Plan
Timperley for various reasons will become fairly wealthy in the next few years.
If you get into a helicopter (or these days use Google maps) and fly over TSC, College of Arts, BTH, the golf course, some playing fields, some farm land and some allotments you will realise that Trafford MBC controls a lot of recreational land .
The potential of working with Trafford to improve the sporting facilities at TSC would seem to be enormous. Working with a Local Authority can be frustrating and challenging but is often ultimately rewarding. They generally know a good deal when they see one.

Rochdale Lacrosse Club
Got round to thinking about how other clubs operate and how good they are.
Last Saturday our U12A travelled to Rochdale for an Onondaga Cup match. Given that our B team had recently given them a run for their money we anticipated a good victory. The victory was achieved but the game was much more competitive than we thought it would be with Rochdale possessing some very good players who normally play up on the U14.
Rochdale are a thriving club, certainly by lacrosse standards, and they run 3 men’s senior teams (and are contemplating a 4th) and 3 competitive junior sides. They have in the past run a girl’s and women’s programme and judging by the group of young girls practising on the cricket outfield attempts are being made to re-establish the section.
Until the mid 1990s Rochdale played at Dane Street right in the centre of town as a part of Rochdale Cricket Lacrosse and Squash Club. In 1994 they were made an offer they could not refuse from ASDA and relocated to Bridgefold Rd and built a palatial pavilion (should have been a smaller pavilion and an ATP but never mind) a cricket field and two excellent grass lacrosse pitches.
For something like the last ten years Rochdale have hosted the Men’s Flags Final Weekend and done an excellent job of it despite the groans from the South M/cr elite about “Why do we have to come all this way?” They have made the Flags Final the highlight of the domestic season.
For those familiar with the Bernard Cornwell books and in particular “The Last Kingdom “ would be familiar with the idea that the Saxons built villages which prospered and they hoped would not be found be the Vikings who would then rape and pillage them.
To me Rochdale has some of the attributes of a Saxon village hoping to avoid the attentions of the Vikings from South Manchester. Despite some successful raids they continue to battle.
In 1967 the first England team to play in a World Championship contained Norman Thewlis and David Trainor from Rochdale. A short time later they were Norman Thewlis and David Trainor from Urmston. (yes there used to be a very successful lacrosse club in Urmston which is now no more). A few years later Jack Simpson, a superb all round sportsman was attracted to the team of all the talents at Heaton Mersey along with Dave Elwood of Boardman and Eccles (since returned) and the Bain brothers from Ashton. More recently Nicky Watson and Glenn Humphries have helped bring honours to Cheadle.
But still Rochdale still battle on and last Saturday gave Timperley a run for their money in the Premiership only going down 7-8.

U14 Boys
The U14 have struggled for numbers this year. We have some top class players in the age group but it only needs a couple of players to be unavailable for there to be not enough for a team never mind a full squad.
Nick Ginger has done a sterling job as manager and we now have an excellent coach for the team in Dan Walker.
Numbers for Wednesday coaching are usually just about enough to run a good session but Saturdays have been a real challenge.
This Saturday we face a tough Centurion Cup match with Mellor so we need a good turn out to ensure we give a good account of ourselves.
The way things are looking we could experience similar problems next season. It would be a real blow if we were unable to field a team without resorting to a combination with another club.
We need to recruit at least 6 new players.
Sources?
• Promote some U12 players who are good enough for some games.
• Get TLC players from siblings, friends, enemies or schoolmates.
• Advertise on school and community notice boardsor similar.
Any other suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.