Harrow RA’s November 2019 Meeting
We were pleased to announce that Graeme Thorley, our immediate past President had secured the services of Kevin Howick, English Football League National List Assistant Referee as our guest speaker at our meeting on Monday 11th November. Kevin is also Curriculum Manager for Media
& Games, Performance & Production at Abingdon and Witney College.
As usual our meeting was in the spacious boardroom at Tithe Farm Sports and Social Club, Rayners Lane FC, 151 Rayners Lane, HARROW, HA2 0XH AT 8 p.m. Attendees met in the members’ Bar on the ground floor beforehand for a drink and a chat with colleagues before proceeding to the Boardroom on the first floor for the meeting.
Kevin started refereeing in 1999, at the age 15, refereeing on the Hayes and District Sunday Youth Football League, and then upon turning 16 also on the Hayes and District Sunday League, whilst assisting on the Suburban Football League. Originally from Hayes, Kevin came through the county promotion system in Middlesex, progressing to Level 4 in 2004. Kevin was among the original referees selected for the Middlesex Referees’ Academy. In 2005 Kevin moved to Oxfordshire to undertake a PGCE at Oxford Brookes University as a Media Lecturer. He has remained in Oxfordshire ever since, living in Abingdon for most of the last decade, within Berks & Bucks County FA’s catchment area.
In 2010 Kevin was promoted from the Hellenic League to Level 3, where he refereed on the Contributory Leagues and assisted on the Conference Premier (now National League). Kevin was demoted from Level 3 in 2012 back to Level 4, and therefore also lost his place as an assistant on the Conference. He did however again regain promotion the very next season back to Level 3 in 2013, when he also assisted on the National League North and South. Kevin was promoted as an Assistant Referee back to the National League Premier Division in 2015 and a year later achieved the highlight of his refereeing career so far by gaining promotion to the National List of Assistant Referees (the English Football League) in 2016, becoming a designated Assistant Referee, where he has remained ever since.
Unfortunately, the wifi had failed throughout Tithe Farm Sports and Social Club causing an initial major delay as Kevin’s match incidents needed access to his MOAS account on the web. An act of God? However, being an experienced lecturer Kevin was able keep the attention and interest of the gathered audience for some while without the expected video clips. Eventually, Kevin worked out how to create a wifi hotspot on his mobile phone and tethered his laptop to that enabling a fair amount of his video clips to be accessed on his laptop and the large TV on the wall.
Well done, Kevin for carrying your brief as Guest Speaker under very difficult circumstances!