The Spreadbury Interview - Part 1

By Witchwood
July 18 2003

Having spent some considerable time watching God’s Winter Game over the past dozen or so seasons, I have quite often found myself wondering exactly what motivates a person to become a referee or touch judge.

They are often the recipients of “forthright advice” from the spectators, if not downright abuse. Even when the home team have just completed a handsome win over their arch-rivals, you would be hard pushed to find anyone in the crowd who was anything more than grudging with their praise for the men in the middle. As a cricket umpire (cricket, of course, being God’s Summer Game), I am motivated by a desire to take an active part in the game, despite being totally unable to bat, bowl or field to any reasonable sort of standard. Then again, I’m not subjected to abuse while I’m out there. So, I approached one of the better known referees, who happens to live not too far away from me, who kindly agreed to be interviewed for Come All Within. His mum calls him Anthony, you and I and everyone else know him as Spreaders. We met up one sunny Thursday lunchtime in June, and over a Ploughman’s lunch and Coke, we had a very agreeable chat for an hour or so……..

CAW: How did you first get started in refereeing?

Spreaders: Well, as a player I was a hooker, but I injured my shoulder badly enough to stop me playing, so at age 17 I started refereeing for the Somerset Referees Society. That’s quite a large geographical area but as I lived in Bath I tended to stick with the 19 or 20 clubs in that immediate area at first. As I became more senior in the society, the system for appointing referees became one of exchanges. In other words, the London society would exchange with the Somerset society. This happened at the same time as Bath became the top club that they are…..

CAW: [cough, splutter]

Spreaders: ….so everyone wanted to referee in Bath, and as a result I was able to get a good senior game to ref in London.


CAW: How did your career progress from there?

Spreaders: In 1984 I was appointed to the RFU Panel, then in 1989 to the International Panel. My first major international game was in June 1990, Australia versus France in Sydney, which was a bit of a baptism of fire as I had to send Benazzi off for kicking Rod Macqueen in the head. Since then I’ve done a further 16 or 17 internationals, my next is Australia versus New Zealand at the end of July.


CAW: Do you think you would have made it as a player had you not been forced out through injury?

Spreaders: Not professionally, I was never that good, second XV only really. I was never going to be a Dorian West.

CAW: Or a Keith Wood?

Spreaders: Oh, bless him! No-one could be like Keith Wood could they?


CAW: When did you become a full time referee?

Spreaders: In 2001, chance of a lifetime for me!

CAW: What did you do to pay the bills before that?

Spreaders: I was a paramedic in the ambulance service for 18 years, I ended up as a Divisional Officer, third in command. I can’t expect a job from the RFU at the end of my practical refereeing career, so I’ll go back to driving my ambulance and being in the back, re-qualifying every three years.

CAW: When do you expect that to be?

Spreaders: Well, I’m 41 now, and refereeing exceptionally well, particularly when I referee Harlequins……

CAW: We’d noticed that!

Spreaders [laughing]: ………and I would hope that I’ve got a further four years at the international level, and maybe an extra two years at Premiership level after that. I’ll be about 47 then, and with the speed of the modern day game with the youngsters coming in, you have to be realistic. However, I’ll be that much more experienced then so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.


CAW: What about your immediate ambitions?

Spreaders: As far as the World Cup this year is concerned, I’m on what’s known as the “initial squad”. On the 16th August, the IRB selectors will be appointing 24 officials to the World cup, that’s 16 referees and 8 touch judges/television match officials, drawn from the IRB’s merit based list. It’s clear that there’s got to be a Northern/Southern hemisphere split amongst the officials for neutrality. As far as the referees are concerned, we’re expecting it to be 9 Northern and 7 Southern. So, if I’m considered to be the 10th best referee in the Northern hemisphere, I won’t be going. They might have to take other things into consideration as well. For instance, if England get to the quarter finals, they may decide that an English referee can’t do any of the quarter finals if they decide to extend neutrality that far. At the end of the day it all comes down to what they decide on the 16th August.

CAW: I take it you’d like to go?

Spreaders: I would love to! I haven’t done a World Cup before, because the RFU were never going to send two West Country referees to a World Cup. Ed Morrison is my next door neighbour, he went to the World Cup in 1991, did very well and got the final in 1995. I’ve got no problem with that, none at all. My view is that if you don’t expect anything, and something comes along, that’s great. I didn’t expect to get Australia-New Zealand as an appointment, and I was absolutely over the moon with that. So let’s see what happens. I’m not counting any chickens.


CAW: Have you ever had to use your medical skills when out in the middle?

Spreaders: Yes I have. At the elite end of the game, the medical facilities and the personnel involved are all professional people, so there’s never a problem they can’t deal with. At the lower levels it’s different. Once, when I was refereeing Walcot Old Boys and Frome, a player shattered his femur, so I had to put a drip up and give him some pain relief before the ambulance arrived. I did Saracens-Bristol back in April, there was a heavy tackle, I turned round and there was Matt Salter squealing like a pig, having fallen heavily on his shoulder. I knew that Matt had had fusion in his neck, so this could have been a very serious injury. I stopped the game and eventually he went off on a stretcher. So yes, I have used my medical skills from time to time. There’s another advantage to it too, players tend to know my background so they know they can’t get away with feigning a blood injury – they know I’ll always insist on seeing the cut before they go off. There’s another funny story to tell regarding that too. In 1992 I refereed Wales versus Australia on a Saturday. On the Sunday I was back on shift as a paramedic in Bath. At about half past four that afternoon we had an emergency call to a man with chest pain. When we got to this guy’s house it was obvious he was having a heart attack. While we were there, Rugby Special came on the TV, the guy saw me on the telly and in his living room at the same time and it nearly finished him off there and then!


CAW: You became a professional referee in 2001. How many other professional referees are there in England?

Spreaders: Five of us in total. Myself, Chris White, Steve Lander, Roy Maybank and Dave Pearson.