York RA Member Meeting Minutes- 02/10/25 @ York Hospital Social Club
Apologies: Alan kaye, Sam Bayley, Mark Benton, Colin Coote, Andy McEvoy
- October’s meeting saw us back at the usual venue but in Alan’s absence, Vice-Chair Myles chaired the meeting. Myles began reflecting on last months meeting asking for feedback. It was felt a positive meeting but timing wise it could be been a bit shortened
- Safeguarding update from Barry – 1 serious incident in an U16s match which is at discipline
- RDO update from Conor – Roadshow in York next week and advertisement of Bishop Auckland’s 120 anniversary meeting in October with PL ref Peter Banks
- Problem corner – good discussion held around unusual incidents i.e. Corner flag being kicked and broken / manager kicking the ball in the stand / coach behaviour on a sideline
- Membership update – John gave an update on the prices £25 adults £12 U18s and free for new referees. Currently on 20 members
- Guest Speaker – Garreth Rhodes – EFL Referee
Garreth gave a presentation all about his career from starting as a player and watching his dad who was a professional player for Bradford City. Garreth spoke about the journey from playing in the youth system at Leeds, York, Doncaster and York RI and progressing to Semi-Pro adult football with Tadcaster Albion & Selby Town. As time progressed Garreth found himself at local level and ended up refereeing a game as there was no ref assigned. The game went well and as they say the rest is history…
The telling moment came when Garreth had a serious injury that meant he could not play anymore therefore he decided to pick up the whistle and give it a go. His first game at Barmby Moor v Melbourne had 6 yellow, 6 reds, 3 mass confrontations! From there he managed to get on the promotion scheme from L7 – 4 and ended up on the York Premier League which saw further promotion and opportunities at the Iber Cup refereeing the U19s final. Garreth continued to progress both on the line and in the middle and talked us through his experiences on the conference north and into the football league. The key takeaways was all about working hard and being determined to succeed
Ian Smellie gave Garreth the vote of thanks
AOB: none with meeting finishing at 22:00
