Another line out shot

A packed day with tight deadlines which meant some compromises needed to be made. The first event was the annual KESR signalman's meeting at Tenterden Town Station where we heard all about the achievements of last year and the changes that are being implemented this year. The most significant of which is an entirely new Rule Book which is so different from the previous edition which has been amended and added to since 1988 and is a plethora of styles, fonts and layouts with added sections and updates.

The meeting proceeded very well until a contentious question was asked about level crossing gates. Like any gathering, there will always be a spectrum of views, so with 50 signalmen there must have been over 100 different opinions on what appeared to me to be a simple matter. But there you are.

I took advantage of a late coffee break to hot foot it over to Sevenoaks for a Referee Advisors' "Cohesion Conference" where the 16 or so referee advisors all watch the same match then confer afterwards to agree on what they'd seen. This doesn't mean that the referee has 16 people feeding back to him. There is only one thank goodness. For the first time I had a comms set and was able to listen in to the referee as he communicated to the players. Very instructive too.

I missed the first part of the Cohesion Conference being enroute from Tenterden. They were redesigning the report form. And again, 16 advisors had more than 16 points of view on what was the best way to do certain things! I did get there in time for the pre match lunch, refreshment and speeches though, which was far more important than all that talk.

It was a very enjoyable afternoon in the early spring sunshine with a very suprising result. Sevenoaks and Medway are second and third in the league, both going for promotion so a 10-44 win for Medway, away from home, was not the result anyone was expecting.

Medway, in the red and yellow hoops dominated the game, especially in the second half. This shot taken into the sun shows the tremendous height to which the jumpers are projected nowadays. Their supporters do have a duty to bring them down safely though.