Henry Mason was a brilliant referee who went on to do much of the referee scouting and training for graded officials.

personally I thought the Connolly brothers , Dave Campbell and Russell Smith were the real gems - players liked them and they were good blokes unlike Stuart " Whoops was that me" Cummins & Karl "I am an arrogant twonk" Kirkpatrick.

Best Ref I ever worked with was Bill Harrigan - Absolute top bloke and I once was 4th official for him and when I had to run onto pitch at a break to tell him he had been going for 48 minutes in the first half (there was no siren at Academy games only 1st team) he pointed to his watch that was a childs mickey mouse watch & said "gezz mate I was just beginning to enjoy myself"

He doesn't rate much mention these days but Mick Naughton seemed to be the ref most vilified when I started watching the game mid 70s. No idea how bad he was but as a youngster I was happy to boo him along with the rest of the SS.

If we are getting nostalgic about refs all I can say is that they were all "special" in their own way. Lindop, Campbell, Stan Wall etc. I saw Lindop screw us completely in a game against Cas. Every time we got clear to score he blew for a forward pass - despite the fact he was never anywhere near keeping up with play. But all that was just part of the fun (or misery - back then they were the same thing). The one consistent thing about all the refs I saw in the early 80's was that they had no clue where a human being's chest ended and their head began. They say players only want a ref to be consistent and in that regard they all thought that a man's nipples were positioned just above his forehead. Can't ask for any more than that.

Whitfield was a typical old school ref, he never so much as looked at his touch judges never mind consult them. He was quite obviously unfit and seemed to have the schoolmaster persona. His performance when he reffed Northern at Hull KR in the 80s when our lot walked off the pitch in protest springs to mind. He never forgave us for that.

I thought Holdsworth got a lot of stick and I gave him some but I found later in life when I was reffed by him that he was pretty good.

Russel Smith was garbage and his Castleford roots certainly meant he had no love of Leeds .

Old Robin Whitfield trick that. When you're struggling to keep up with play, find something - anything - that you can stop the game for. Number of phantom knock-ons or forward passes he used to come up with when he was blowing for air.

Calderwood being tackled without the ball in 2003 CC Final said it all from Smith

I remember Holdsworth doing similar one Wednesday night at Oldham. A long kick was knocked on by the full back leading to a scrum. The players acrually formed the scrum pretty quick after running nearly the length of the field to get in position. The ball went in, but John noticed something nobody else di and made them stop and do it again, after a little chat (and a breather).

Reading all this is making silverwood appear to be the Collina of rugby league.

Quote Mark Laurie="Mark Laurie"Reading all this is making silverwood appear to be the Collina of rugby league.'" Oh well to bring him back down lets just remember this shocker he gave as VR in this year's cup match between Cas and Salford https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=teOZn0k1Qa8

Quote Mark Laurie="Mark Laurie"Reading all this is making silverwood appear to be the Collina of rugby league.'" Oh well to bring him back down lets just remember this shocker he gave as VR in this year's cup match between Cas and Salford https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=teOZn0k1Qa8

Quote ThePrinter="ThePrinter"Oh well to bring him back down lets just remember this shocker he gave as VR in this year's cup match between Cas and Salford https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=teOZn0k1Qa8'" Should have been sacked on the spot. Appalling decision. How you can come to that judgment after watching it from 2 decent angles a few times. Beyond me.

Quote ThePrinter="ThePrinter"Oh well to bring him back down lets just remember this shocker he gave as VR in this year's cup match between Cas and Salford https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=teOZn0k1Qa8'" Should have been sacked on the spot. Appalling decision. How you can come to that judgment after watching it from 2 decent angles a few times. Beyond me.

Quote ThePrinter="ThePrinter"Oh well to bring him back down lets just remember this shocker he gave as VR in this year's cup match between Cas and Salford https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=teOZn0k1Qa8'" Good point. That is unbelievable.

Quote ThePrinter="ThePrinter"Oh well to bring him back down lets just remember this shocker he gave as VR in this year's cup match between Cas and Salford https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=teOZn0k1Qa8'" Good point. That is unbelievable.