reffed him in an a team match some years ago against leigh got the team sheet 1hr before k.o. then 20 mins to go somebody came in saying they,d got a prob with brendon i thought he,d smacked someone but no he was down as 8 but couldn,t get it on was it alright if he wore 10 as he,d got that on and they,d struggle to get it back off (i did let it go) i wasn,t going to tell him he couldn,t play

I also reffed him in an 'A' team game against Hunslet at Elland Road (Sonny Nickle was playing for Hunslet at the time) and unusually Fax were losing. Brendan was on the bench and 5 minutes into the 2nd half, it was decided to put him on (I think he was due to play for the 1st team on the following day and they were trying not to field him). The first two tackles Brendan made resulted in penalties, after the 3rd went the same way I brought him over and told him: "Brendan, they haven't brought you on for that". He looked bemused, with a quizzical "they haven't?" look on his face. I further explained, "no, they've brought you on to inject a bit of flair and pace in the front row". Brendan then settled down to play like a choirboy in defence and an off-half in attack. The result was, Fax still lost and the Fax coach was doing his nut on the touchline. But all the bother stopped and most importantly, I didn't have any reports to write afterwards.

Blimey Coddy - have you had an archive weekend?





I didn't know you'd been a ref! Interesting. You'll know Jim Smith no doubt - his son posts on here frequently. Did you ever ref Nigel Wood?

I see Brendan most Sundays and if we stop for a chat there are people passing who remind him about his Fax days ,he loves it.

Get him back at the Shay to do the half time draw. He'll get a great reception.

He was going to come to the 90s reunion with Preston, Harrison and the rest but the date coincided with his annual holiday.

I knew Jim Smith, ran lines for him a few times. I've probably reffed Nigel at some point too. I think my most memorable match was Leeds v Fax 'A' at Headingley one Friday night. I'd checked the team sheet to make sure that there were no Donald Ducks etc but it was only at the toss up that I realised the two scrum halves were Ray Ashton & Gary Stephens. That made for an interesting evening I can tell you.