9.8 seconds left in the 3rd Quarter, Blue Team with a throw-in in the backcourt, left sideline. I bounce the ball to the thrower who inbounds to a teammate with pressure from the White Team. There is another pass which the White Team intercepts as I am moving up court. I look at the clock which is still at 9.8 seconds and the scorer is sleeping. Another 1-2 seconds expire when I again stop officiating and look at the clock. Amazingly it is still at 9.8 seconds. I blow my whistle stopping play.

I confer with my partners and they agree that White Team had the ball when I blew the action dead. I inform the coach that since we have no definite knowledge of how much time was consumed, we would have a White Team throw-in and the clock would stay at 9.8 seconds. Of course the Blue Team coach wants the ball back for another throw-in since no time has been run off the clock. I refuse his request. Comments?

H.S. game was you counting in the back court? I beleive i would have taken an educated guess. 3,4 or 5 sec off the clock. at least you might have got lucky on the time. By not taking any time off, it for sure was not correct time. I know what you are saying about the rule on knowledge of time.

Count the 10 seconds for backcourt anyway. Good mechanics never hurt. Plus with the 1 second cushion. Doesn't that allow for + as well as -. Giving the timer from 10.8 to 8.8 on starting/stopping the clock?

I agree, you should have had your ten count going for the backcourt, that would've given you some idea. But in any case I beleive that you should have taken time off the clock.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Geneva">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by b_silliman on 02-10-2000 10:18 PM
I inform the coach that since we have no definite knowledge of how much time was consumed, we would have a White Team throw-in and the clock would stay at 9.8 seconds. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

While you didn't know the maximum amount of time that ran off, you did have definite knowledge of a MINIMUM amount of time--from your initial 10-second count and from knowing that "another 1-2 seconds expire" before you blew your whistle. That's likely at least 3 seconds you could have taken off with justification. I wouldn't leave it exactly the same, since everyone there knows at least some time elapsed. Err on the side of conservatism, but take SOMETHING off.

My assignor always told me that we could never take time off the clock--even if we think we have definet knowledge. But we can put time back onthe clock if we have definite knowledge. Comments? and with 9.8 seconds on the clock why would you need to count the ten-seconds?

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Any time an official has definite knowledge that the clock is incorrect, whether it requires adding time back or taking time off, we have the right to do so. All we are required is to have definite knowledge of the timing error.

There is something in the NF rule book that states we must give the timer 1 second cushion. I we think the clock should have stopped at 9.8 and the clock shows 8.9, the rule book would have us leave that alone.

hey sip, thats funny no 10sec count with 9.8 sec left. dah http://www.ereferee.com/ubb/smile.gifI guess i was a little slow on this one.

We instruct officials in our area to have a count, similar to the free throw count ya know a flip of the finger, in tight games with less than 20 seconds left on the clock. Not a mechanic but certainly would have helped in this case.

srunner, good point and I agree wholeheartedly. MAke sure to count no matter what. You can't use the 10 second violation based on the time on the clock. I believe there is an example in the case book where team A takes the ball out with 11 seconds on the clock and the horn goes off without the ref blowing for 10 second violation, game is over. You don't hit team A with the violation and put 1 second back on the clock.