Early bath for everyone as referee walks off

The match between Burgess Hill Albion 3rds and Lindfield 4ths at Janes Lane Rec was called a halt at what has been officially recorded as four minutes into the second half.

One of the home players, Martin Faulconbridge said: “I heard him say that he’d had enough and was going home for a cup of tea.

“As far as I know there was not one card shown and essentially the game was being played in a good spirit. A couple of my team-mates said he’d already threatened a couple of times to do that if the players continued questioning his decisions but they thought he was joking.

“You’ll always get some players taking exception to decisions but there didn’t seem to be any abuse directed to the referee.

“I’d have thought the first option would have been to call the two captains over and tell them to warn their players.”

It was only a second Division 9 game this season for Albion, who were leading 2-1 at the time, and the first of those was also abandoned when one of their players was badly injured.

They will be hoping for third time lucky this Saturday when they entertain league leaders Stone Bright.

League secretary Mike Brown confirmed the game had been abandoned and the league are currently looking into the circumstances. However, as they had their latest meeting only on Monday of this week, there would be no chance of a decision until the next scheduled meeting on November 4.

The referee said he could not comment while the matter was still under investigation and asked that his name be removed from the article.