Thursday, September 16, 2004

GET OFF THE PITCH

As a soccer referee I often have to postpone or cancell games because of the threat of lightning. The OSA guidlines on adverse weather conditions require the field to be evacuated if lighting is sighted, and games cannot be resumed until 30 minutes has elapsed without lighting being sighted or thunder heard.

Occasionally, players and coaches find these rules excessive. They are axious to play, the game is important, and they have travelled long distances to play it. It is not unusaul to feel an intense amount of pressure from about 100 players, coaches, and spectators to get on with the game. "Come on, it was one flash of lighting five miles away. This is a cup game that we drove three hours to play, lets get it going," they complain to me.

Every time, I try to explain to the teams that tragic stories like this happen more often than they think.

Posted by Matthew @ 11:09 a.m.