Hello Everyone,

It was not the best weekend for Bloemendaal with two draws. The first was against Rotterdam and we were two nil down after in the first half and just got the draw in the last few minutes. Rotterdam had a good game plan and stuck to it for the 70 minutes. Both teams had good chances, ours mainly coming from corners and Rotterdam’s from deflections.

The game on Sunday was even more frustrating with a 3-1 lead with 10 minutes remaining. Everything was looking good until Kampong came back strong with two quick goals to get a draw. Both games were not of high quality.

Another thing which has been on my mind and was a big talking point after Sunday’s game was the umpiring. I have also just finished  watching the replay of Rotterdam vs Amsterdam and I’m confused on some umpiring decisions. The game is getting faster, the sticks are getting better, players and teams are fitter and faster so its obviously harder to umpire these days than what it was 10 years ago. I sometimes ask myself if they are keeping up with the game. Maybe we need more than two umpires, maybe three or four would be better. An idea I would also like to see is that umpires go to the training’s and umpire teams at training whether that is in Australia, Holland, Spain or where ever. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming umpires, I just think they need to change with the game, especially now the new rules have come in and the game is going to be faster than ever. They also need to be fit and fast like the players I think so its easier for them to keep up.

My Australian team the QLD blades are in good form and won 5-1 against South Australia and we are looking to make our 8th final in a row, i hope. Go the Blades.

Until next time.

Cheers Jamie

Check out the photo’s of the game here:

- http://www.frankgerardrozendaal.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=6121&