Referee Retrospective

Roger Kirkpatrick was also very well-known to general football followers in the 70s and he is one of the tiny number to remain so. It's probably fair to say much of that fame was down to his distinctive appearance and personality but he was well-regarded in terms of refereeing ability as well.

A few Southern refs did make it to the North East for League games before the regional restrictions but they would be from the South East or East Anglia, South Wales or the South West would be a huge distance & travelling time, only really viable when full-time refs in the PL were introduced.

Clive Thomas was certainly one of a very small number of referees from that era who could be considered "famous". At Southern grounds he was more of a familiar face but far less seen in the North so it's very likely an appearance at SJP would be remembered even if the game passed without incident.

I'm pretty sure he didn't, at least not in the League. He occasionally did matches in the North before regional restrictions took hold but in the North West or Yorkshire. The North East was too far away for League games but in the Cup - especially for later rounds - distance didn't really matter.

I think his Three Lions badge at that point was for running the line in a Scotland-Portugal friendly. Although the badges were given for taking part in major domestic finals they could also be for international appointments.

David Richardson (Clayton-le-Dale near Blackburn) is the referee.

In March 1980 Kevin Bond scored own goals in consecutive weeks, then scored another at the end of April!

You're right that the lack of video means that all these memories remain intact, not just about supposed refereeing errors but other things that happened in games. A goal that's remembered as "amazing" may have been nothing special. Maybe people need to cling on to these illusions (or delusions).

I think every club has at least one referee who they see as notorious, usually just on the basis of one match, not a series of games. Good performances are forgotten, bad ones (real or imagined) can stick in the mind permanently.

To add to that mix Gordon Kew was born in South Shields but raised in Scotland. He moved to Leeds as that was the home city of his wife (who was the daughter of a Football League referee). Clearly he was very used to moving around!

David Hutchinson was based in Witney in Oxfordshire at that time but started his League line career in Cambridge, his home city. As a League ref he was based in Bourn (Cambridgeshire), Harrogate and then Marcham near Abingdon, a contender for the most travelled FL official!

Football programmes are often very useful to the referee researcher but could occasionally slip up - the referee profiled here is Peter Walters, not Peter Walker. The linesmen Dave Sadler and Harry Smale were both from Barnstaple. This was from December 1975 & the last of Peter Walters' 11 seasons.

Play ended just after this incident and we had the bizarre spectacle of one of the Birmingham players leaving the pitch with the ball stuffed under his shirt! Not sure what the reasoning for that was but it brought a smile to the face!

Northern Irish referee Malcolm Wright (Portadown) watches as the Wales keeper collects the ball in a World Cup Qualifier against England at Wembley in January 1973.

Referee is Englishman Reg Leafe (Nottingham). One of his distinctive features seen here was having a band of black above the white turnovers on his socks. Some later English refs such as Gordon Hill echoed this style.

The referee is Piet Roomer of the Netherlands. Stanley Matthews was 48 at the time of this game and continued to play for another couple of years.

Scottish referee Hugh Williamson (Renfrew) seen during a Hibs-Motherwell game in February 1991.

West German referee Hans-Joachim Weyland and linesmen before the Brazil-England game in the USA Bicentennial Tournament in 1976.

Bobby Davidson did indeed retire in 1976.

Profile from 1986 of referee Danny Vickers (Ilford) who was a Football League ref from 1979-1990 (the last season an extension beyond the retirement age of 48). Linesman Jim McMenamin was one of the few who had also been a Scottish League official including running the line in a Celtic-Rangers game

That's right.

Aided by the match programme the linesmen are John Hazell (Colchester, cerise flag) and R.I.C. Thomas (Southampton, right of picture). John Hazell can often be seen in these Big Match TV games as he was based not far from London.

Unknown referee and assistants with the captains before the Malta-England B match in October 1987.

Profile from February 1992 of Scottish referee George Smith (Edinburgh) who was nearing the end of a long and successful career in domestic and international football including refereeing at the 1990 World Cup Finals in Italy.

You're right that he was promoted to referee in 1958 & on the line 55-58 (no supplementary list at that time). Programme profiles are generally very accurate with referees' names but not quite so good with dates. As with so many things it's best to have a few sources to check details.

That's quite an early picture of Clive Thomas with the Welsh FA & AFLRL badges, later he was seen with just the FIFA badge.

Profile from 1992 of referee Paul Vanes (Warley) who was a FL ref from 1984 to 1995. This includes his pretty impressive best time for running a marathon.

Harold Davey did indeed move around quite a bit earlier in his FL career although almost always around Nottinghamshire aside from the 1967-1968 season in Verwood in Dorset. He worked in the building trade which might have influenced the moves. This is a very good profile of him from Jan 1972.

Explanatory notes about the various codes and abbreviations can be found by clicking on the tab at the bottom of the screen.

1978-1979 season - results and referees for fl matches and cups.xlsx

I have a compiled a spreadsheet of all the FL & Cup results for season 1978-1979 with referees & linesmen where known. If you have referee details for any of the gaps please comment below or DM me, your help would be much appreciated: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...