SOCCER: Call me naive if you like, but why should there be a whole Sunday shut-down of local football just because of one match at Portman Road?League games in the Ipswich area were put on hold because of the Nationwide League First Division derby between Ipswich Town and Norwich City.

By Elvin King

SOCCER

CALL me naive if you like, but why should there be a whole Sunday shut-down of local football just because of one match at Portman Road?

League games in the Ipswich area were put on hold because of the Nationwide League First Division derby between Ipswich Town and Norwich City.

The noon kick-off obviously did not help, but Sunday League and Licensed Trades League games could have kicked-off an hour earlier and been finished well before 11am.

And is every side that turns out on a park or village pitch in our area on Sunday mornings crammed full of avid Ipswich Town supporters?

There must have been hundreds who would rather have played. Or was the main problem a shortage of referees?

THE initiative to have a stand at the 2002 Suffolk Show has paid dividends for the Suffolk Football Association.

A number of recruits were found for the current referees' training course currently being run by training officers George Whight and David Cook.

"Over 800 people entered a competition we ran on the stand for an England shirt," said Suffolk FA public relations officer Barry Felgate.

"And we picked up a lot of people interested in becoming referees. It was a worthwhile public relations exercise and one that we hope to repeat next year."

SUFFOLK Schools FA is organising its first-ever festival for under-14 and under-16 schoolgirls in half-term week – starting on October 22.

County teams from Middlesex, Inner London, Hertfordshire and Norfolk have been booked to join the Suffolk girls at Copleston High School Sports College, Ipswich.

Play will start at 10.30am each day and all the college's facilities will be made available. Spectators are welcome and light refreshments will be on sale.

THE Ipswich area has just one team in the FA Sunday Cup this season – Capel Plough. They

travel to Baldock Town to play Brache Green Man in the first round on October 6.

In the FA County Youth Cup, Suffolk have received a bye in the first round and meet Bedfordshire at Woodbridge Town in the second round on Saturday, October 26.