These great - and I use the word advisedly - people ensure our national game can actually go ahead, from grass roots to Euro 2008. Without them, it would descend into chaos and anarchy.

No doubt there will be plenty to tell at a gathering of Sheffield refereeing's great and good, past and present, at the Cutler's Hall this weekend for a special anniversary.

Sheffield and District Referees Association hold their Centenary Dinner tomorrow and they can look back proudly on an organ-isation that has spanned a century and served football in this area so nobly.

It was actually a gentleman from this very building, Alf Martin the first editor of the Green 'Un (itself founded in September 1907 and still in its centenary year), who suggested back in 1907 that a meeting be held to formulate some sort of referees' association.

So, the Central Cafe in High Street saw that historic first meeting when Sheffield's Referees Association was formed.

A browse through the association's centenary brochure identifies so many who have given long and meritorious service.

Many of the current hard working bunch haved topped 20 and 30 years of "Service before Self" (the Referees' Association motto) and there are loyal members, worthy veterans such as Mick Lowe and Ted Ring, who have been involved one way another for 40 and 50 years.

The high-profile figures have been the FA Cup final referees from the city, namely Eddie Wood - the first in 1933 - Jack Sherlock in 1958, George McCabe in 1969 and Keith Hackett in 1981.

Keith's name first surfaced in 1972 when he got on the Football League line, subsequently reached the very top and is now the professional game's refereeing supremo as head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board.

But so much is about refs at the local level and, like other associations, Sheffield continues to provide a invaluable help to those in charge.

Incidentally, a note from a meeting in 1934 and the words of the then Sheffield Wednesday manager Billy Walker: "Sooner or later, the two referee system will come along ... referees cannot keep up with modern-day football," he said.

Still magic in the FA Cup

THE magic of the FA Cup? It's still there and don't let anybody try to disillusion you by saying otherwise.

It may be "fashionable" in some quarters to knock the old competition due to the response of some of the top clubs in say, rounds three and four, but the 'magic' doesn't apply to them.

Anyway, I recall Chelsea looking delighted last year when they beat Man United, some of whose players were jigging round the old trophy when they won it a couple of years earlier.

It was special (won't the FA Cup Final always be so?) to those Portsmouth and Cardiff fans who revelled in it all last Saturday.

Having relatives from Portsmouth (and a niece out on the pitch beforehand along with some Ark Royal colleagues) led to me making a first visit to the 'new' Wembley - a magnificent stadium and my first impression was of a more grandiose version of the Millennium Stadium.

A great atmosphere but there was a twist in it too apart from realising that I'd watched the first game in this season's competition (Friday, August 17, Dinnington 2 Maltby 1) and was watching the last one.

The bloke in the seat in front said: "I know your face" and went on "Cricket? Trent Bridge?"

He'd sat behind me at the Ashes clash there in 2005, we'd spoken then and now, three years later, of all the seats I could have sat in, I was sitting behind him at the FA Cup final and he'd recognised me.

Must be the magic of the cup!

What do you think? Post your comments below.

Do you have a sporting trivia teaser or pub argument to settle?
You don't need to phone a friend or go 50-50, just send your questions
and queries to Les Payne at The Star, York Street, Sheffield S1 1PU
or email him at les.payne@sheffieldnewspapers.co.uk

READ MORE

Football headlines
More Blades
More Owls
More Spireites
More Rovers
More Reds
More Millers
More Ice Hockey
More rugby league
More rugby union
More boxing
Sports columnists
All sport categories