Witholding the Ball?

[Sour]

This was posted in another forum, over here in the UK. Happened recently in a warm up game for South of England before the British National Champs in a few weeks

On Sunday with only a 30 or so seconds left on the clock, this scenario happened.

Blues team are attacking the red goal, trying to wind down the clock. Referee calls get it in and keep it in. Ball goes out of play behind the cage close to the corner flag.

Blues restart in possession - Blue player goes to the corner flag, faces it, and spread his shoulders tucking his stick close to his chest. Shielding the ball from the two defencemen trying to dispossess him.



Basically: What's the call here? (By any rules you care)

The attack box extends across the field here in the UK

[Murray#72]

Isn't it just hes got the stick tucked into his chest? Thats withholding the ball, cos how are the defense going to disposes if he's got the face of the stick into his chest so the ball cant come out.

P.S. You have corner flags? We use cones

[Woodenstick]

If the ball is pinned to his body, illegal, technical foul, lose possession. If not, one player goes around him, to the front and checks the stick. He is out of the box and loses it in 10 seconds in any event (assumes you play 10 second advance rule).

This brings back memories of the old W&L turtle play, where the ballholder is surrounded by teammates so defense can't get to the ball, only turtle has to start in the box and I believe is no longer legal.

[EricL]

Its called chesting and its illegal.

[Sour]

If the ball is pinned to his body, illegal, technical foul, lose possession.Ball is close to his body, not pinned against, simliar to where it might be during a roll or split dodge

If not, one player goes around him, to the front and checks the stick. He's standing right in the corner, and a player must have both feet within the boundaries of the field to play the game, so from outside of where the man is....no play can be made

He is out of the box and loses it in 10 seconds in any event (assumes you play 10 second advance rule). We play on an ILF pitch, so no "box" as such, just the restraining line is used, and no 10 second advance rule either

any more?

[dram183]

with a pole you could wrap around him, or wrap check with a shorty

[farside268]

I think a withholding call would be a pretty easy sell here, regardless of how many inches there were between his crosse and his chest. It seems that people get wound up in the specific wording of the rules too often and lose sight of the spirit of the game. When you're faced with a situation that isn't expressly covered in the rules, determine what's appropriate based on what's fair. It seems pretty obvious to me that there is a heavy focus, especially in lax, on keeping the ball playable. Given that standard, your proposed time-killer should probably be ruled as withholding (at minimum).

[btgoalie21]

take the d pole and jack him in the head with it, sure ur going to get a penalty but he wont remember what happened