Rugby League Heroes: Robin Whitfield

[Total Rugby League]

The poacher turned gamekeeper Robin Whitfield was a prolific goalkicker for Widnes, Barrow and Huyton, but when the latter refused to pick him any more...

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[Waynebennettswinger]

46 minutes ago, Total Rugby League said:

The poacher turned gamekeeper Robin Whitfield was a prolific goalkicker for Widnes, Barrow and Huyton, but when the latter refused to pick him any more...

View the full article

Really good interview. I can’t recall one in this series with a current ref. Has there been one? 

[Anita Bath]

I did things my own way….what an arrogant thing to do (and to say). He didnt think the laws of the game were working so he introduced his own.

 

I have great respect for referees in all eras but this sort of attitude does nobody any good.

[Whippet13]

I don't remember much about Robin, but his brother Colin was a decent goal kicker. The first RL game I saw was Boxing Day 1983 and Colin scored all of Wigan's 12 points (1 T 4G) in a 12-8 win against St Helens.

[Morris Wanchuk]

I just remember the try he gave for Northern at Belle Vue in the Challenge Cup where the ball was grounded at least a yard short of the try line but he gave it from his position half way down the field.! 

[Rowan]

Remember him well- both as a bit of an er .. " stiff arm specialist" and a referee. I was covering the game when he sin-binned Ellery and then changed it to a sending-off during the half-time break.  Best line, though, is the chat with Alex Murphy. 

[Wollo Wollo Wayoo]

42 minutes ago, Morris Wanchuk said:

I just remember the try he gave for Northern at Belle Vue in the Challenge Cup where the ball was grounded at least a yard short of the try line but he gave it from his position half way down the field.! 

Yeah me too.  Neil Summers wasn't it.  Was it the Yorkshire Post that ran the report under the "Robbing Wakefield" headline?

[Phil]

I ran the line for him when I first started officiating “I don’t care what you see, you don’t come on my pitch waving that effing flag” he said.

30 minutes into the first half and a player is taken out late and high right in front of the dug out.

 I went on and basically chased him all over the pitch until he finally stopped the game. I then said in a voice loud enough to be heard “number 12 took number 6 out late and high, it has to be a red”

After the game he said to me “I’ll make sure you never do another professional match”

”Suits me fine” I replied “if it means I’m not party to that level of cheating”

 I carried on in the pro game but never ran a line for him again. 

[Damien]

I don't think he comes over well in that at all and sounds awfully arrogant. 

[M j M]

The way he used to wave at the South Stand at Leeds was incredibly aggravating to a younger me so I'm glad that he mentions it!

Just had a quick look at youtube to see if it's been documented anywhere amongst the vintage games but can't find one. He'd run out from the dressing rooms in the North East Corner, all the way to the centre of the field and then do this little trot from there to the South Stand touchline and back with the ball, raising the ball up and waving it at the fans as he went. Talk about winding the crowd up!

I would say we could do with more stuff like that today although the RFL referee dept would have a fit I think.

[Wigan Riversider]

1 hour ago, Rowan said:

I was covering the game when he sin-binned Ellery and then changed it to a sending-off during the half-time break.  

I was at that game.

Didn't Northern beat Wigan in a tight finish?

[JonM]

Always felt like a real honour when he refereed us as kids.

[JohnM]

a good and entertaining read.  Triggered one or two memories,  too, particularly about Keith Jarrett, though no mention of him being inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in the magazine's 73rd Annual Readers' Poll in 2008.

 

And who on earth was Spanky McFarlane?  

[corvusxiii]

4 hours ago, Anita Bath said:

I did things my own way….what an arrogant thing to do (and to say). He didnt think the laws of the game were working so he introduced his own.

 

I have great respect for referees in all eras but this sort of attitude does nobody any good.

Correct. I want the refferees to be invisible. To be unnoticeable. 

[Morris Wanchuk]

3 hours ago, Wigan Riversider said:

I was at that game.

Didn't Northern beat Wigan in a tight finish?

Yeah I was at the game as a ‘neutral’ and seem to recall taking delight in Bradford beating the great Wigan team at that time, plus the the kid I’d gone with was a Wigan fan!

[Anita Bath]

4 hours ago, JohnM said:

a good and entertaining read.  Triggered one or two memories,  too, particularly about Keith Jarrett, though no mention of him being inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame in the magazine's 73rd Annual Readers' Poll in 2008.

 

And who on earth was Spanky McFarlane?  

Spanky was a great cumbrian in the strong Workington team of 60s. Also played for Whitehaven and Barrow  (and I expect Cumberland).

 

No idea how he got the nickname, but could be an interesting story in there!

[Wigan Riversider]

2 hours ago, Morris Wanchuk said:

Yeah I was at the game as a ‘neutral’ and seem to recall taking delight in Bradford beating the great Wigan team at that time, plus the the kid I’d gone with was a Wigan fan!

Brett Iti played number 7 for Northern?