About Berkshire Rugby Refs

A Dinner was arranged in the early season of 1966 which proved a great success with another being organised for 28^th October 1967 at the Grosvenor Hotel, Caversham.

During the season exchanges had fallen off, some societies regarding Berkshire as a poor relation because the standard of rugby was thought to be too low. Berkshire was probably suffering from the fact that, being so close,  ‘big’ clubs in the London area were attracting the best players. However, games available within the County were still increasing, nearly 800 covered by 41 referees. With the increase in the number of schools, 14 now affiliated, there was a marked difference in the number of games available before and after Christmas. Some referees were complaining that they did not have sufficient games in the second half of the season and that they were of a lower standard than those they had been used to controlling.

Peter Thorpe, Chairman, and Denis Easby, Appointments, indicated that, because of other commitments, they could no longer continue in these positions. Lionel Stephens was elected as Chairman and Dennis’ brother, T J Easby was appointed in his place.

1968 – 9 saw a big change in the organisation of refereeing groups in England. An Advisory Panel had been set up by the RFU which resulted in the formation of the Southern Group consisting of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire. Berkshire had the honour of providing the officers for the inaugural meeting, Lionel Stevens as Chairman and Peter Thorpe as Treasurer cum Secretary. There was also a change of Appointments Secretary in the Society, Mr R G Smith replacing Mr Easby. Tom Ashworth also represented the Society on the County Championship Panel of Referees.

1989 was also noteworthy as, not only had Peter Stevens and Keith Montgomery been accepted by the RFU Advisory Panel, as it was now known, Keith also accompanied the British Police and Combined Services tour to New Zealand.

Grading of referees also became more formal with a voluntary group of ‘watchers’ being set up. As previously noted, these reports were confidential and the referee did not necessarily know that he was being watched. This caused a certain amount of concern amongst the members, referees being down-graded without knowing why, although, mentioned in the minutes, fitness had a great deal to do with it. It was also noted that ‘games of a worthwhile standard are in very short supply in Berkshire’.

‘Sandy’ Young gave notice that he wanted to retire as Secretary at the 1970 AGM. Holding the position since the Society’s inception in 1948, changes in the Laws, and they were being changed again for the coming season, had left him out of touch with the practical problems of refereeing. Mr R G Smith, the Secretary, agreed to take on the job of Appointments as well.

The Society continued supplying referees to the Oxfordshire Schools 7’s and, through exchanges with other Societies for games such as:- Bedford v Gosforth, Birmingham v Clifton, Bridgewater v Taunton, Guys Hospital v Taunton, Cheltenham v Lydney and Bath v Exeter. The Southern Group continued to function with ‘Junior’ Exchanges between themselves.

The number of referees unfortunately fell from 52 at the end of last season to 33 at the start of this and, although there were 4 recruits, the season finished with only 31. There were also a lot of ‘cry-offs’, 147 in total which put an additional strain on the smooth running of the Society.

The problem of insufficient ‘watchers’ was causing concern with only an average of 2 being available each Saturday. and only 50 reports being received.

Although there a few were games being played on Sundays, something that the RFU had frowned upon, a Knock-out competition was being organised for the 1971 season. This put an additional strain on the active members of the Society and more work for the Appointments Secretary as was late cry-offs. There also seemed to be a deterioration in the commitment of the referees with some failing to turn up for the lower level games.

Although membership of the Central Group had been retained, the Committee decided to resign from this Group as Berkshire was not getting any games allocated. The Southern Group however had improved its management of the exchange system and 16 games were offered to Berkshire referees. The Society also managed exchanges with Ken, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, North Midlands and Somerset.

A ‘Card’ system whereby the referee handed Assessment Cards to the clubs, was initiated and, although there was a postal strike in operation, this seemed to work well and enabled the watchers to be concentrated on referees who either needed help or were good enough to progress.

Mr Smith had accepted the job of both Secretary and Appointments not expecting these jobs to be as demanding as they were. Keith Munro, who had joined the Society in 1964, took on the job of Appointments Secretary and Bill Willis was appointed as Treasure. Bill had joined the Society the previous season, moving to the area from Durham.

Bert Ridley and Alan Douglas were nominated and accepted for the RFU ‘A’ List, the first for several years together with Keith Hellewell, who had joined us from Yorkshire and was already on the RFU Panel for County Championship Games. Alan went on to referee Championship Matches but, unfortunately, Bert suffered from a recurring injury and was not able to continue.

Other Societies have claimed to have been the first to have a Lady referee. Let’s put them right. In the 1975-6 season, Hilary Bradshaw, whose husband played for Maidenhead, joined the Society and had a successful season. She had the obvious problem with changing facilities, the Shire Hall Club being the only one in the County with facilities for the ladies and she had to be careful not to get too close to play. I watched her refereeing a Colts match while waiting for my game to start; she got a bit close to the maul and got pulled in. Several players came away from that maul smiling!

During the 1980-81 season the Secretary, Keith Munro, died in tragic circumstances. His wife, in his memory, presented a Trophy to be awarded to the referee who had ‘Made progress with his refereeing skills, had represented the Society on exchange and had, in general, been an asset to and an ambassador of the Society’. The original Tankard has been lost, anyone reading this and has knowledge of its whereabouts, please get in touch. However, the award is still made every year, some recipients going on to referee at higher levels than we have in Berkshire but all have been a credit to the Society.

In 1983 Bill Willis, who had joined the Society from Durham, retired as Treasurer after 12 years in the post. In his final report Bill suggested that the Travelling Expenses paid be raised from 6 to 8p per mile. This was greeted with unanimous approval.  Bill left the job leaving a balance sheet showing that Travelling Expenses during the season were £2324.21 as compared to £19.15 in 1973/4 when the Society started to collect match fees instead of the referee claiming direct from the club. The final balance for 1982-3 season was £1828.88.

Bill was given a season off before being persuaded to become the Society’s Chairman.

Lionel Stephens and John Haines were elected as Life Members at the 1985 AGM and the Society was informed that Steve had also been elected a Life Member of the Berkshire RFU. Both Steve and John had been stalwarts of the Society and rugby in general for many years.

Brian Tozer had been accepted onto the RFU A list in about 1983 and had had a couple of good seasons. In the season of 1985-6, Geoff Fagence, and Peter Stevens joined him and  between them they covered games at Bath, Bristol, Moseley, Saracens, Both Universities and an RAF Station Final.

A Grading Sub-Committee had been formed after the previous season’s AGM under the Chairmanship of Alan Douglas.  The number of Reports on referees had increased to 196, probably due in part to the number of exchanges that were taking place but also due to the retired members and senior referees without a game, giving up their Saturday to watch the youngsters. The Society had swopped referees with 20 other Societies during the season. The number Cards received from the clubs had also risen to over 650 and a new system of Grading was being introduced by the RFU, Alan and his team were going to have their work cut out dealing with that lot.

The RFU had instigated a new system for grading referees that was supposed to ensure a B1 referee in Berkshire was of the same standard as the rest of the country. In most cases this worked well with other Societies accepting our Merit Table games in exchange for one of theirs. But it didn’t happen everywhere. On one occasion we had been given, in exchange for 4 of our Merit Table games, 2 Merit Table games and 2 friendlies. I complained to the Society concerned and was told ‘There are no friendly games in _______ me ‘ansom.’. Clearly we were still regarded as the ‘poor relation’ by some Societies.