A little bit different spin on this topic...I drove about 2 hours to a small town last night to watch my HS son play. When I get there, I am the only parent/fan from our school who made the drive - long drive, raining like crazy, etc., etc. So our scorekeeper didn't show up. Coach asks me if I will do the book for him and I agree and move over to the table. The 3 officials walk in and I know two of them from camps where I have been a clinician.
In the second quarter, we have a correctable error - my sons' team should have shot bonus on 7th foul, both the home book and I signaled one-and-one with our hands and then started yelling at them - they put the ball in play, and then have to hit whistles because the horn is blowing and we are yelling...anyway, they get together and talk for a bit, and then walk over to the table and ask me what they are supposed to do!
I first tell them they shouldn't be asking me, but they say they really don't know what to do and need my help...so I tell them it's not too late to correct and they should line them up and shoot the bonus and play on from there. So they start to do that and home coach gets really agitated and wants to know why they are listening to some scorekeeper...
All ends up fine, but sometimes it pays to have an extra official around.