Putting time back on the clock

[crosscountry55]

You can start the clock by rule if the official fails to signal. But you cannot stop it by rule until he/she does. If you see it bounce a couple of times, how are you sure the first bounce wasn’t barely inbounds and the official is simply correctly waiting for the ball to actually hit something OOB? Good example is an airball. Might look to you to be OOB and maybe no players are going after the ball trying to save it, but it could hang in the air a whole second or two before you actually get a whistle.

When I was a timer years ago, I would avoid the temptation to start the clock when I saw the throw in legally end. I would wait for the official’s signal, figuring that in the 0.24s it took for me to see that and start the clock, it would ultimately balance out the 0.24s it took me to hear a whistle and push the button to stop the clock. I felt the game was very accurately timed that way.

For the OP, I want you to be completely honest. You said Team A ended up losing in a tough way. Were they the home team and were you timing for the home school? If so, there’s a small bias that we can’t ignore in this discussion.


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