Vale Peter Massey – our oldest former referee
I was sorry to hear about the recent death of former referee Peter Massey in an email from Rugby League journalist David Burke.
Peter died at the age of 90 and he was thought to be the oldest surviving former senior referee.
“He used to referee our amateur games in the late 60s and early 70s and I’ll always be indebted to him for recommending me to Rochdale Hornets in 1974,” said David in his email.
“Peter lived in Salford and when I was secretary of Height Under-18s RLFC as a sixth former he never turned down an invite to ref our matches.
“A top man!
“He lived in a nursing home in Salford and I went to visit him in August, when he loved chatting about old times, despite suffering from dementia.”
Peter did have one memorable claim to fame.
Back more than 40 years ago, on 29 January 1984, he was refereeing the match between Leeds and Wakefield on a very snowy day at Headingley and I was there as a Wakefield supporter.
In a fiery match Peter dismissed Wakefield’s iconic star player Wally Lewis for using foul and abusive language.
Lewis had protested to Peter about the dismissal of another Australian playing for Wakefield, prop Lindsay Gill for a tackle on Leeds halfback Steve Martin.
“Lewis used foul and abusive language to a touch judge who reported it to me,” Peter was reported as saying.
“He was then abusive to me and I warned him if he repeated the remarks he would go off.
“He again used foul language to me and I sent him off.”
Wally was appalled by the decision and had harsh words afterwards.
“After this I am certainly not coming back to play for an English club when you get sent off for something like this,” he said.
“I have told Derek Turner, our coach, that 1 will not be back and this isn’t something I have decided in the heat of the moment.
“It was the worst refereeing I have ever seen.”
Lewis also thought the dismissal of Gill was “a harsh decision”.
“Lindsay might have been slightly late but it was six of one and half a dozen of the other,” he added.
After the final whistle Trinity fans pelted Peter with snowballs as he left the field, although I’m glad to report that I didn’t join in.
After that game, Lewis had two more matches with Trinity on the 5th and 12th of February and, oddly enough, he was allowed to play in both games because the RFL disciplinary committee did not meet before he left England.
The only other record I’ve seen of Wally Lewis being dismissed from the field was when he was playing for Brisbane against Manly in Round 2 of the 1989 Australian competition at Brookvale Oval in Sydney.
On that occasion he was sent from the field by referee Greg McCallum on a charge of using a forearm to the neck of an opponent (Manly second-rower Glenn Ryan).
Meanwhile Peter carried on with his day job (there were no full-time referees in those days) as a clerical officer with the
Manchester Ship Canal Company at Salford Docks, which has now become Media City.
How times change!
The photograph shows Peter refereeing a match between Height and Swinton Supporters in a Sevens tournament at Moor Lane in 1970. David Burke is the player immediately to his left.
That was then the home of Langworthy ARLFC and is now the home of Salford City FC, who play in League 2.
My condolences to Peter’s family and thanks to David for supplying me with much of this information.
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