Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

North-east referees celebrating promotions for next season

Six officials from the Aberdeen and District Association have received elevations.

Duncan Nicolson is one of the referees that has been promoted for next season.
Duncan Nicolson is one of the referees that has been promoted for next season.

Sandy Roy believes hard work and commitment is paying off after referees from the Aberdeen and District Association received a number of promotions for next season.

Duncan Nicolson, a familiar face in the Breedon Highland League, has been elevated from category one development to category one performance, which means he’ll be set for more SPFL appointments next term.

Joel Kennedy has been promoted from category two to category one development and Alex Ross been promoted to category three which will see him start refereeing in the Highland League next season.

Mark Bolton, Olivia Crawford and Vladyslav Melnyk will all be category three development officials next season.

Former category one whistler Roy is the referees’ manager for the Aberdeen and District Association and is pleased with the promotions.

With Nicolson and Kennedy joining Dan McFarlane on the category one list Roy believes the north-east is well represented in the upper echelons of refereeing.

He said: “We’re delighted, it’s a reward for their efforts and it also shows the strength of our association.

“We’ve had development programmes and we feel they are starting to bear fruit.

“It’s a long way to go to get to the very top, but we have got people getting further and further up the ladder which is good.

“It would be at least nine or 10 years since we had three referees at category one level when we had Graham Beaton, Ryan Milne and Mat Northcroft.

“So it’s good to get back up towards those numbers.”

More people needed

Despite referees doing well Roy says there is still a shortage of officials and is keen for more people to pick up a whistle.

He added: “We can never have enough referees, it sometimes feels like we’ve been running to stand still.

“In the last year we’ve had something like 30 new referees and they’ve gone into juvenile football, but we’ve lost a similar number to those that are still continuing with it.

“I hope more people will come forward and join us and juveniles is the start and then you progress through the ranks to amateurs, juniors and then Highland League.

“A lot of people do it so they can put something back into the game which is a good thing.

“I’d like to see more former players come and give it a go and I’d like to think people who have enjoyed the game at various levels of football would come in and help.

“Every weekend that a juvenile game goes off because there isn’t a referee, that’s 30 players who have been denied a game which clearly isn’t a good thing.”

How to get involved

Anyone in the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire area interested in becoming a referee is asked to email secretary Ian Bailey at secretarysfarefereeaberdeen@outlook.com to find out more.

In the Moray and Banff Association there has been little change, Highland League regular Harry Bruce remains at category two, while Douglas Ross is still one of the leading assistant referees in the country.

Meanwhile, Moray and Banff member Kevin Buchanan was one of the assistant referees for yesterday’s Scottish Junior Cup final between Darvel and Arthurlie.

Moray and Banff’s Harry Bruce remains on the category two list.

Anyone in the Moray and Banff area keen on taking up refereeing is asked to contact secretary Ally Bruce at secretary.moraybanffreferee@gmail.com or mbrefereecourse@gmail.com

There has also been little movement within the North of Scotland Association, but Colin Whyte remains a category one official with the likes of Gordon Seago, Gordon Morrison, David Alexander and Stuart Randall remaining at category three level.

NOSRASecretary@gmail.com and NOSRAInstructors@gmail.com are contact details for those interested in becoming a referee in the North of Scotland region.