It was one of the rare occasions in my league where a game secretary is supplied by the home team. Someone who is dedicated to keep scores and do admin issue like yellow cards and time penalties.
She must be at least 70 years if not older, but always present in this particular indoor location. Pushing the buttons at the start of the game, keep track of time penalties and do the occasional verbal correction to either of the teams who bothers her. What a great lady! I really appreciate her help. But not being used to this support I just continued doing my own things while running up and down the line.
An important call for the secretary is to give the ref ‘the last minute’. Meaning after each half of 25 minutes, the clock is stopped at the last 60 secs to offer the ref his own moment to blow the whistle in stead of the horn doing the job for him (at a potentially awkward moment).
The lady indicated my last minute for 1st half with only a small gesture of her hand. And as I was running the lines on her side, I was probably too close to notice it. Only when a coach asked how long they should keep playing, I looked at my watch and realized we were 3 minutes in over-time already. I apologized and decided, in future, to run the opposite side when getting closer to the last minute. It won’t happen to me again, with or without a secretary.
Rodric Leerling - Sales Power Provider 