I guess there was nearer 16000 in that day.

One of the first games I remember that changing ends was forbidden.

Take your pick. There were 4 of them.

iirc, we played Hull KR at home, a few weeks later (severely depleted, with Mick Blacker and Gary Stephens as HBs on loan, as we literally had no players left), and guess who was reffing that night. Yes, the one and only Biased Billy Thompson. Guess what. He "made love to us, energetically" that night, too.



I'm with biscuit on the Wigan thing. They got the big decisions in those days (still do).



David "smug lover" Oxley and his acolytes at the RFL got what they wanted in those days. 2 VERY strong Humberside teams. And "woe be tide" anyone else. Refs (and their preferred/instructed by the RFL, teams) got away with murder, as there was precious little screened coverage of our game, so out and out cheating could be glossed over.



Say what you want about Sky, at least our game gets a lot more coverage now, so blatant bias can't be swept under the carpet.



As I've said many times on these boards re reffing standards today compared to the 80's, when posters say "oh no, it's Child this week".......

......YOU'VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD.



I pity to think what our sub 35 year-olds would think of Thompson/Kershaw/Lindop/Smith/Whitfield/Campbell.

There's a few more turd names for you to mull over, biscuit. Try not to throw things. I'm over it now. I hope you are, too

God this thread has wound me right up, will go home and kick the wife now!!!

Thank heavens, there would have be outrage if you had said the dog!

Lefty, you've just mentioned Gerry Kershaw and my blood ran cold, how many times did that man shaft us!

John Holdsworth was my fave ref (if you can have such a thing) of yesteryear. He wasn't biased particularly but blimey could that guy play to the galleries.



His arm signals to wave play on would have brought a tear to the eye of Lawrence Olivier and had the Old Vic audience in raptures. And if the BBC cameras were in town he couldn't have been more theatrical if he'd come out in tights clutching a skull and reciting Hamlet.



Now we get incompetent blandsville residents in terminator headgear.

I was there too. Money must have changed hands that day. Unless he was...erm....I better not say

In those days you were fully aware why the fore named by Lefty wore a black strip!

He leaned towards Leeds I think. He put his residential as Kippax as opposed to Leeds so he could ref them.



Its like saying you live in Lymm Village as opposed to Warrington Borough.

That's how I remember Holdsworth...I thought he was a decent ref, plus he didn't mind getting in the middle of "set too"



got right in the middle of Boyd and Hanley in Millwakee as well

[Then Billy Thompson cheated, quite why or how I have no idea but never ever have I seen something like that on a sporting field since.



The story I heard at the time was that Hull were considering starting another team, called Hull White Star ( I think) and that Thompson was lined up to be a director of the new club (allegedly)

.

Thompson became a life member of Hull FC.

I vaguely remember the Hull White Star team too.

About the same time as Kent Invicta started up? ?

Quote BOBBIE_IS_SUPERMAN="BOBBIE_IS_SUPERMAN"I think you will find.. That this..... www.wire2wolves.com/wolfbites.ph ... se_level=2 IS the day we were robbed '" It is the memory of this; the day before my 8th birthday, stood on my crate to see over the wall at the Fletcher End, that will always have Wigan as our biggest rival in my mind. It is my memory of this that made last year's Grand Final that much harder to swallow.

Quote BOBBIE_IS_SUPERMAN="BOBBIE_IS_SUPERMAN"I think you will find.. That this..... www.wire2wolves.com/wolfbites.ph ... se_level=2 IS the day we were robbed '" It is the memory of this; the day before my 8th birthday, stood on my crate to see over the wall at the Fletcher End, that will always have Wigan as our biggest rival in my mind. It is my memory of this that made last year's Grand Final that much harder to swallow.

Terrible decision by Russell Smith, I'm still not over that 20 years on!



I disbelieve that referees are biased in the modern era, but that day we were straight up robbed.

I would NEVER kick the dog.

When I saw the title of this thread I immediately thought of Billy Thompson and that cup game with Hull.

I have seen some atrocious decisions over the years, including the one by Russell Smith against Wigan. Many of them could, at a stretch, be interpreted as bad judgement, but Billy Thompson that night was patently dishonest.

I do not know any other referee whose decision making has affected the result to such an extent. He should have worn a mask. An absolute disgrace.

The Wigan one I remember being in the Fletch and at the final hooter just been stood in shock for a few moments thinking WTF happened there.



As for Ref David Campbell he was ref once for Priestley v Widnes college and lost control of it.

I remember my cousin playing for Leigh Town team once, he scored 4 tries, all chalked off. All of them completely legit, the last one the most blatant bit of cheating ever.



1st one foot in touch, the TJ didn't put his flag up but the ref saw it

2nd and 3rd one foot dead in goal which was nonsense as he was nowhere near.

4th one, 40 metres out from the try line, broke the line, side stepped the fullback went under the sticks.

Ref said he failed to ground it correctly, cousin threw the ball at him called him a cheat, sent off.

....was Billy Thompson that ref too?!!

No idea but Mickey Higham was in that team too, he might remember.

It wasnt BT then.

remember both hull and wigan games..the bob eccles no try if my memory serves me correct,wasnt he put thru by dave chisnall or a forward rounded the full back only for thopson to bring him back,and ronnie duane to miss the kick..im sure the phil ford try came from a ken kelly kick which hit a hull player so played everyone on side but not to that clown..the russell smith one was also a disgrace,just typical of the decisions wigan got and still do do only on a lesser scale..imagine if silverpud was around in those days wed be relegated

I met Billy Thompson a few times and he once told me about a Wembley final he refereed...He visited both team's dressing rooms and declared *Listen lads, nobody's ever been sent of here before but Billy Thompson's never been here before*....An hour later he sent Syd Hynes off.

semi final of cc v Oldham (if I remember correctly) - forward pass that took us to Wembley in the early 90's.

Oldham were robbed.