Straight Red Cards

Uh-oh, Tinky Winky was naaaaaughty.

The first straight red card I remember giving was at the first East Midlands Cup. A fresher had just substituted on as a beater (with the only instruction being to 'get that bludger!') and promptly performed the most outrageous tackle I had ever seen. Two arms, around the neck, from behind, and with a flying leap. Right in front of me. Obviously I blew my whistle to stop play straight away, and called my assistant referees to me - Jesus, Cory, and Dave (before he became the superstar referee he is now). That day I was undergoing my IRDP field test, so this was a fairly important thing to get correct as a call. My team could tell me nothing new, so I was left with the decision: give him a yellow card and a strong warning, or a straight red?

There were several points of contention in my mind. I'd read the rulebook a bunch of times, so I knew the remits for giving a red card. But did this person deserve it? Really? There hadn't been any malice in his actions, he was just a little overenthusiastic. But he had been reckless and endangered the person he had tackled. So on those grounds I reached for my cards and handed out my first straight red. It was the correct call - and evidently I scraped through my field test by the end of that day - but it still wasn't a very pleasant feeling.

That was probably the most obvious red card I've ever given, in hindsight. I've threatened many a back-chatting player with a send off, to great effect, but rarely are straight red cards given in quidditch. I think this is partly because everyone is friends, at the end of the day; no-one wants to tell a friend to get off the pitch, get out of the player area, and stand on their own as they watch their team spend two minutes a player down. And mostly I don't think that referees are too lenient on their red card calls - a lot of them in the rulebook are for behaviour violations and they are thankfully vanishingly uncommon in the UK. With the changes (and clarifications) to the ruling on helpless receivers too, it brings down the number of reds given in active play.

Excessive force is probably the one most differently-refereed rules in the game, but my thoughts on that can probably wait for another day...

When going into a game of quidditch, you won't be expecting to give out a straight red card. I hope that won't change. But if it has to happen, well, so be it. Be confident in your decision, decisive in your action, and remember that at the end of the day, you probably won't be given any grief over it after the event. And if anyone does, tell me and I'll hit the perpetrator with a big stick.