--- In soccerdatauk@yahoogroups.com, "uptonga" <uptonga@...> wrote:
>
> --- In soccerdatauk@yahoogroups.com, "scottishfootballstatistics"
> <scottishfootballstatistics@> wrote:
> >
> > During recent research I came across a few matches in Scotland
> which
> > had an English referee in charge. All of the games seem to
involve
> > Celtic. An example of this would be the 1906/07 Glasgow Cup
Final
> in
> > which John Lewis of Blackburn was referee of Celtic v Third
> Lanark. I
> > haven't as yet uncovered a reason for these referee
appointments.
> Can
> > anyone shed any light on the subject?
> >
>
> An obvious answer might be neutrality although a Celtic v Third
> Lanark Cup Final does not, to a mere Sassenach, seem to carry the
> same overtones as Celtic v Rangers. And this was before the
infamous
> 1909 C v R Final when the cup was withheld because of a riot.
>
> In this case, it may have something to do with the status of John
> Lewis himself. He was a ref from the first season of the Football
> league (1888) and was one of the most famous, if not the most
> famous, of his day - known as 'Honest John', from memory. He
reffed
> 3 English Cup Finals of the 1890s and many internationals too. Not
> only that, he was on the management committee of the FL from 1894
> and vice-president 1901-1926. He was not the only committee man to
> ref in those early days - JJ Bentley (FL President 1894-1910 and
> owner/editor of the Athletic News) and CE Sutcliffe (1898-1939)
come
> to mind.
>
> What appears odd is that he ceased as an FL ref in 1904 but it was
> not unusual for people like Lewis and Sutcliffe to continue to ref
> internationals, no doubt other games too, which, it would seem,
> embraced other prestige games like a Scottish Cup Final. Nice
little
> earner one might say but they were men of mighty influence in
> British soccer too and to have Lewis as the ref might be seen by
the
> SFA as adding lustre and prestige to their own competition. It
would
> be interesting to know some of the other English names you have to
> see if my theory holds water.
>
> Reminds me that the ref of the 1950 World Cup Final in Brazil was
> the ex-FL referee G Reader of Southampton. He had come off the
FL's
> list after the 1946-7 season but continued to ref internationals.
> English refs were still held in very high esteem those days
(reffed
> 1954 WCF too) as emerging national FAs started to get on their
feet
> and develop their own refs of integrity, learning from the British
> along the way. Before WW2, ref Howcroft was seconded to the
> Argentinian FA to help develop a referees cadre. A good read about
> refs is 'The Man in Black' by Gordon Thomson. See also Simon
Inglis'
> Centenary History of the FL, 'League Football and the men who made
> it'.
>
> One final strangeness, for a couple of seasons or so from 1888,
> there were a couple of Scottish residents on the FL's lists which
> suggests that deep lines in the sand had yet to be drawn. Quite
how
> it worked in practice is unknown. Even WG Grace is on one FL list
> but no FL game has ever been found that he actually reffed
although
> he was active in that capacity in his native area around Bristol.
> Makes you think that all you needed was your own whistle and you
> were a referee - well an umpire in the earliest days but that's
> another story! Modesty prevents me mentioning my book on refs -
see
> SoccerData's catalogue.
>
> Hope this ramble helps!
>
> Gil Upton
>
Just to add to the thread, I found I had made this note about 1950
World Cup Final ref G Reader:

GEORGE READER : According to `The Complete Book of the World Cup' by
Cris Freddi (1998), Reader was the oldest World Cup referee at 53
years 236 days, in the 1950 Final. Thus, he would be 54 on 22
November, 1950, having been born on 22 November, 1896. He first
appeared on the Football League's Supplementary List of referees for
1939-40 when he was 42 (43 during that season). After WW2, he
appeared only in the National List of referees for 1946-47, when he
was 50 (in the November). This was five years older than the maximum
age for referees of 45, introduced in 1939. So, by the time of the
1950 World Cup Finals, he had not been a Football League referee for
just over three years. Also refereed these games (others too?):

Scotland v Northern Ireland, British Championship, 27 November 1946
Great Britain v Rest of Europe, at Hampden Park, 10 May 1947
Scotland v Switzerland, friendly, 26 April 1950
Brazil v Mexico, World Cup, 24 June 1950

Gil Upton