Writing Match Reports

I do not want to put people off writing reports so please do not take this as criticism but here are a few guidelines for writing match reports..

1 To get a report in the newspapers the format should be

Match Result (home team first) followed by match status eg

Chelmsford 0   Harlow III  62

Essex Merit Table Div VI

Description of match. Try to highlight what is good rather than dwell on mistakes.  Give a mention to a player who is working hard to raise his game. Acknowledge what was good about the opposition, after all it makes us look better if we did well against them. A short report every week is more likely to be used that a long one once every few months.

Scorers eg

Tries: John Smith (2), Tom Jones etc.

Conversions: Peter Jones (2)

Penalties: …

Drop Goals …

Team: either list by position eg

1 Tom Jones, 2. Peter Smith (sub Harry Smith (65mins)..

Or just

Team from: followed by a list of everyone who took part.

Names must be proper names not nicknames

I can do a small amount of editing but please try to get it roughly right in terms of spelling and punctuation etc. It only takes acouple of minutes to run the spell checker. Remember the deadline is about mid-day Monday and that is hard to meet if it comes in late and needs a lot of correction.

A report for use on the public pages of the club website still should be reasonable correct but style can be relaxed a bit. Nicknames are OK but remember a lot of members who do not know your team will read it. Humour is OK but do not go too far.

A report in the members only pages can be a bit more relaxed but remember juniors and their parents may read it so keep it clean(ish).

Finally a key rugby tradition we never criticise a ref

Dave Sharp

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