A short history of CRRS
Cornwall Rugby Referees Society 1903
In the earliest days of
Cornish rugby, coaching meant travelling, and refereeing was thought quite
unnecessary. The captains of those
early Cornish club sides were felt by everybody to be perfectly capable of
adjudicating (or refereeing) on arguable points of play, and surprisingly few of
their joint decisions led to rancour. In the dawning days of Cornish Rugby, the
attraction of the sport was to the physical side of the Cornish nature. It was a sport of much appeal to a manliness that the young men of
Cornwall already delighted in; and they were quite prepared for their captains
(often men who had played in up-country schools) to take care of the nuances of
laws while they got down to basics.
For them the
basics were two in number: a sense of fairness, which they well understood (Fethy po
fyliel an gwarry ha tra nahan - `win or lose, the game and nothing else'
- was a precept so naturally accepted by them that it formed part of their
own old language), and they need, in this new-fangled game for sheer physical
strength. Given those
considerations, the feeling went, everything would be fine.
Actually, it was but clearly, it could not last. Even so, it took
Cornwall up to 1899 -
the county having by then embraced umpires, and eventually referees, as a useful
body of fellows - to suggest that they be formed into an association: and it
took a further four years before the Association's rules were approved. No one, obviously, thought it a matter
of great urgency. At the Corn?wall
County Referee's Association meeting on 4th February 1903, Mr Wasley, secretary to the Sub-Com?mittee submitted the proposed
rules for the CCRA. This Minute was
confirmed and signed as correct at the meeting of 9th March
1903.
The Cornwall Rugby Referees Society, or as it was known then association,
had been born. There were two other
interesting quotes from the minutes: at the Tuesday 12th January
1909 meeting a request was received from the
Constituent Body requesting "the appointment of referees to meet the wishes of
both teams if possible, and to use care in the appointment of referees for
important matches". At a further
meeting on Monday 20th September 1909 there was some a request from a club about payment, "to appoint
whenever possible officials from places nearer the ground on which the match is
to be played!"
`There was a time (and it was not that long ago) when 1/6d - 7.5p -
was deducted from a referee's expenses to cover the cost of a shower. Times however have changed and much for
the better. Referees may have been
a "necessary evil" since the inception of the game in
Cornwall, but our
contribution to it is something of which we are not ashamed. The reverse in fact: we allow ourselves
from time to time, a measure of pride.
Of course compared to our revered Constituent Body, our current Society
is a mere babe in arms. The
Referees Association became the Official Society in 1938 and prior to that
referees were appointed to matches by a committee whose members consisted of a
representative from each senior side, and a similar method was employed in the
selection and appointment of referees to junior matches. The current Cornwall Rugby Referees
Society was formed in 1975 after dropping the "official" from the title. The use of "Official" was only
originally used to mark a change from "club" referees, when there was just a
panel of "gentlemen willing to offer their services as referees". The inaugural
meeting of the Society was held in the Red Lion, Redruth and they continued to
meet there for over 20 years.
Further venues used have included Redruth Albany, many other clubs and
more recently the Lowenac Hotel in Camborne.
The Society is now inextricably linked with a national system of
Referee Societies trying to establish the highest interpretation of the laws:
conferences for assessors, referee coaches and for referees themselves within
the South West Peninsular
Federation (Cornwall, Devon and
Plymouth) as well as the larger South West Group (Federations covering the area
from Gloucester to Dorset & Wilts and down to Cornwall) and of course, at a
National level. Since 1970 there
has been an ever increasing and developing system of interchanges with Cornish
referees going to other parts of the country to take charge of matches and other
referees from outside Cornwall invited to
officiate at suitable Cornish games.
All this has led to a steadily improving standard and the Cornish
Society, although numerically small compared to other counties, has attained
many honours. Amongst them the
International refereeing status of L Jackson and L Prideaux, International touch
judging for D L Head, A D Martin and V T Martin and no less than 18 members have
achieved a standard for inclusion in the County Championship/National panel
status. The CRRS are very proud the loyalty their members display, and two in
particular Hedley Williams and Ken Loft, have exceeded 25 years of refereeing.
Of course, many others have contributed years of devoted service.
In the archives of the Cornwall Rugby Football Union (CRFU), there is
a Discipline Book, commonly known as "The Black Book". This contains the
adjudications of various panels that, down the years, have sat in judgement on
episodes of ill temper and unsporting play which Cornish referees have been
called upon to report. There have
been times when sendings-off have been to the benefit of the Referees' Society -
one of the most notable involving a Cornish player who having been dismissed in
a match, sought out the referee after the game. He said he would never play again but
would like to take up refereeing.
He did and eventually reached the county panel! As in all walks of life
however, lapses in discipline do occur and when they do it is up to the CRFU
Discipline sub-committee to deal with.
It is before this body that offenders are invited to attend, and at the
committee the facts of the case, as reported by the referee are read. It should be noted that under the laws
of the game, the referee is not on trial: his report is held to be a statement
of fact. The player though, is
offered the opportunity of giving his account of the incident, and after due
deliberation the Committee decides upon the penalty. It is interesting to note, after
glancing through "The Black Book" to see how penalties have varied across the
years and the types of offences the Disciplinary Committee have been called upon
to adjudicate.
- In the 1930s, teams were frequently reported for turning up late
for a kick-off, although it would appear that the team's explanations were
invariably accepted.
- Throughout that same period there were numerous incidents of
players in dispute with the referee, and suitably recorded with phrases such
as "disputing the referee's decision", "objectionable remarks to the referee",
"insulting language to the referee" and even "insulting the referee in the
pavilion".
- By far the greater number of offences reported before WWII was for
"fighting" or "striking an opponent".
Very few "kicking" offences were ever reported.
- The first entry in the book following the war reads
"14th July 1945.
Resolved to cancel all suspensions outstanding, whether for short periods or
sine die."
- The earlier pattern of offences continued through the 1950s and
into the 1960s when the form of misconduct "kicking an opponent" appeared more
frequently. Looked upon by most
players and all involved in rugby, as the lowest from of conduct, especially
the Disciplinary Committee who invariably inflict a heavy punishment on such
offenders.
- Whereas pre-War a week's suspension was considered hard, we now
find suspensions of months, a whole season and in one or two cases, even more
than one season. At one time,
when two players were sent off and suspended for fighting, they would quite
often leave the meeting and go off for a pint together. But in these days of
more competitive and professional rugby, the loss of a player in a game
because of his lack of personal discipline is looked upon much more seriously,
not only by the Disciplinary Committee but also by the player's own
teams-mates and Club Committee.
- Of course, sitting on the Discipline Committee has its lighter
moments. One player was suspended
after he allegedly "hit an opponent with both feet" and more often have
offending players tendered in their defence that "he tripped forward and his
face fell onto my boot/fist". Occasionally players appearing before the
Committee become belligerent but they invariably leave abashed and facing a
period during which they can not play the game which means so much to
them.
Referees do not take lightly the decision to dismiss a player from
the field of play, and only rarely is the referee seen to be at fault for taking
such a decision. Mistaken identity
does sometimes occur, and there are times when a referee can send off a player
caught retaliating against a previous offence, unseen by the referee. However, what is not a question is that
there is no place for thuggery or foul play in our game.
Any player having the experience of appearing before the Discipline
Committee will realise that his lack of discipline will cost him dearly. The
number of years available to any player are few, and when one eventually reaches
the age when he can no longer play the game (become a referee instead!), any
player so disciplined will surely regret any periods of his career which may
have been lost in this way.
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