Campbell happy with role of underdog on their home mat
IRELAND bowls supremo Colin Campbell believes there is no better time to end a trophy drought than in front of home supporters.
His young team approach today’s British Isles Under-25 Home International Series with more hope than expectation, but with a real desire to scribble their name on the Joyce Brimble Trophy for the first time.
The big plus for Campbell is that there is only one change to the team that performed in Newport last season — Andrew Johnston (right) is recalled to the side. So, with the boys a bit older and wiser, the boss reckons they are equipped to make an impact over the two days at Parkgate.
“The lads have worked really hard in the build-up to the Championship,” he said. “It’s a very young group. We benefited from not having to reshape the side in terms of losing players because of the age barrier.”
Home advantage comes around only once every four years and Campbell insists it’s important his team cashes in on the backing of local supporters.
“We’ll approach the tournament as big underdogs, but that suits us,” he added. “Obviously, we must take advantage of playing on our home carpets and having the backing of the crowd. That will be something we are not used to.”
Another boost for Ireland is that the Kirkwood brothers, Stephen and Robert, Ryan Cavan and Jamie Watson are all due to make their senior international debut in Scotland next month.
“Although we are a young side, we still have a bit of experience running through the team,” added Campbell. “Hopefully, all their hard will be rewarded. We’ve never won the indoor title . . . it would be a great time to start.”
Ireland: A Coleman, C Marshall, A McKeown, S Kirkwood. S Barkley, S Martin, R Bell, R Cavan. D Mills, S Coleman, S Beggs, J Watson. A Johnston, D Bodles, M Albert, S Kirkwood.
Reserves: A Booth, R McElroy, J Millar. Programme: Today: 9.30am: Ireland v Scotland; Wales v England. 2.30pm: Ireland v England, Wales v Scotland. Tomorrow, 9am: Ireland v Wales; Scotland v England.
EVERYONE who followed Irish League football in the rollercoaster 1980s and ‘90s has an Alan Snoddy memory or story, not all of them complimentary. That goes with the territory of being the top Northern Ireland referee of his generation, the standard bearer who inspired scores more to take up the whistle, knowing they would never win popularity contests.
Old timers lament the Irish League could be doing with his like now, such were his levels of excellence.
A measure of his scrupulous consistency of performance is that he annoyed everyone at some point — managers, players, club officials and supporters. He showed neither fear nor favour.
They also knew when they saw A. Snoddy (Carryduff ) on their matchday cards that liberties were not to be taken.
It also speaks volumes for the grudging respect in which he was universally held that he cannot recall a single disputed decision souring a relationship.
Now 62 and sharing his expertise worldwide, schooling fledgling referees for Fifa and Uefa, he is pleased to relate: “I cannot recall any ill will from a disputed decision ever carrying over from the final whistle. Everyone said their piece and we moved on.
“To this day, I can count many players and managers, past and present, who would have had issues over decisions as personal friends. We socialise together and visit one another’s homes.
“It is a great credit to Irish League football and its people that, whatever our differences on a given day, we are at one in our love of the game.”
Whether the decision went for your team or against, when Alan Snoddy was in the middle, we didn’t need to wait for
❝ I was told when he was out of sight, he leapt off the stretcher and ran to watch the end of the half
TV replays to accept that he invariably got it right.
Except, he later admits, on two notable occasions and even then, those on the receiving end of those costly misjudgments can laugh about them with him now.
My own favourite Alan Snoddy story concerns a particularly feisty Linfield-Glentoran match that might have boiled over, on and off the pitch, had he not been in charge. Snoddy kept the lid on in his usual firm but unobtrusive style and for that, in my match report, I awarded him 9 out of 10 in the ratings.
The following week I bumped into him in Belfast city centre where he then worked as a Northern Bank official.
“About that mark you gave me on Saturday...” he began.
“Don’t mention it,” I stopped him. “You fully deserved it.”
“No, no,” he countered. “I just want to know where I lost the other mark?”
Half joking, half serious. I got the point, even if Alan had lost out on his.
Here was a guy who strived for perfection and yet never lost the run of himself. Always approachable, never aloof, many of today’s Irish League officials might find a tough job made easier by taking a leaf from his book.
Which brings us to that very public first mistake and my second favourite Snoddy story.
Another Big Two match at The Oval, Linfield leading by a goal and the clock ticking down when a ball played into the Blues penalty area strikes captain Lindsay McKeown on the foot and spins upwards and in that split second, ref Snoddy points to the spot. Glens equalise and Blue fury erupts.
Later, viewing the TV re-run, Snoddy sees that the upward ball did not strike McKeown on the arm, as he believed.
He holds up his hands but McKeown is not going to let him forget it.
The following week, they meet again in the centre circle at Newry and, as the cap- tains and ref go to engage in their pre-match handshakes, McKeown offers Snoddy his foot.
The Blue hordes, clearing their throats to howl their collective derision at the previous week’s penalty award, collapse in laughter. Situation defused.
Laughter is always the best medicine as the wronged player and errant ref recognised. Again, underlining his point that love of the game runs deeper than club and individual rivalries, Snoddy and McKeown are today the best of pals, serving together on the Player of the Year committee of the Castlereagh Glentoran Supporters’ Club.
But behind that humour, there had to be a steely determination to succeed in a vocation he chose on leaving school because: “I was never going to reach the top level as a player but I still wanted to be involved in the game.”
You do not go from a 16-yearold pitched in among the flying fists and boots of the hardest Belfast junior football bearpits to the pinnacle of the World Cup finals without an unshakeable belief in what you intend to achieve and the application to improve in pursuit of that objective. At one time he was the youngest ref on the Fifa list, aged 25.
Snoddy is one of only three Northern Ireland referees to have officiated at World Cups, the others being Jack Adair in England’s 1966 winning year and Malcolm Moffett at Spain ‘82.
Only Snoddy has been selected for two — Mexico ‘86 and Italia ‘90, where he came to worldwide attention in a still talked about incident that regularly features in those What Happened Next clips on sports quiz shows.
It was the day the unknown whistler from Carryduff faced down Colombian superstar Carlos Valderrama, he of the big hair and even bigger ego.
And it ended with Snoddy’s reputation enhanced as a no-nonsense, unyielding ref prepared to make a judgment call he believed to be right and stick to it, regardless of the stage or influences.
Alan takes up the story: “I was taking charge of Germany v Colombia when just before halftime, Valderrama got involved in a tussle with an opponent and went down, signalling he was injured. I was certain he wasn’t hurt, just time wasting, and played on.
“He stayed down, wanting play stopped but I ignored him so he just lay there with 70,000 people in the stadium, whistling and booing. But it wasn’t aimed