Reader was from Southampton, 24 Hanley Road to be precise.

And, speaking of precision, you are right that the final game was
not a final tie. It was the decider though and Brazil thought they
had it won before they started. There was a good tv history around
the time of Germany 2006 with some telling interviews with a couple
of surviving Brazilian and Uruguayan players.

Gil Upton

--- In soccerdatauk@yahoogroups.com, "Jim Brown" <jimrbrown@...>
wrote:
>
> Fascinating stuff re Reader. Do you know where he was from?
>
> I have in my mind that he came from Warwick, is this correct?
>
> One pedantic point - strictly speaking there was no final in 1950.
It was
> the final game of the final group.
>
> Jim Brown
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: soccerdatauk@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:soccerdatauk@yahoogroups.com]On
> Behalf Of uptonga
> Sent: 25 August 2006 11:48
> To: soccerdatauk@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [soccerdatauk] Re: English Referees in Scotland 1900s -
George
> Reader 1950
>
>
> --- 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
>
>
>
>
>
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