In the beginning, a sort of football game was being played all round the world. No one knows when or where it actually started, but the were games being played 2-3000 years ago, in places like ancient Egypt, China and Japan. All the games had one thing in common; there was a ball and teams of men (and women in Japan).
In England it developed as a contest between villages and towns, there were few rules and often to sole object seemed to be to injure the players on the other side. (Not much change there then!).
It wasn't until 1863 when football as we might start to recognise it appeared. The game had been played by public schools but each had their own version and there were no common rules. Some ex-pupils came together to thrash out some rules so that different teams could play each other. These have become known as 'The Cambridge Rules' and so the Football Association was formed. These first rules formed the basis of the Laws of Football, which were adopted by the rest of the world as people from Britain spread the word.
The Lancashire Football Association was the fifth County Football Association to be formed in 1878 when 28 local teams came together. The North West was at the heart of a new professional league with six of our teams in the original 12. In 1888 Accrington Stanley, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley Everton and Preston North End joined Aston Villa, Derby County, Notts County, Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the formation of the Football League.
While the game was being played at the public schools, no referees were needed because 'gentlemen never committed intentional fouls'!!! If there were any disputes the captains sorted them out. But as the game became more competitive, these disputes were 'referred' to the third independent person, who strolled up and down the touchline (he wasn't of course allowed on to the hallowed turf).
When the FA Cup was played in 1872, for the first time a referee was actually appointed to judge on disputes. By 1892 the authorities allowed the referee to judge on intentional fouls and award penalties. He was even allowed to blow a whistle for the first time (prior to that he tried to attract attention by waving a white handkerchief - can you imagine that?)). But times were-a-changing and in 1892 the referee was actually allowed to take charge of a game from on the field in the middle of the action.
But with the new powers came some familiar problem... match fees or rather the lack of them. So in 1893 the first Referees society was formed. The 'national' Referees Association came together as the referees' "trade union" just one hundred years ago like us in 1908. One of its first concerns was about match fees, which were 'late in coming' (some things have never changed).
While football of course was going from strength to strength and there was always the need to find someone brave enough (or foolish enough) to take up the whistle.
So it was that in 1908 that the Fylde Referees' Association was formed. Sadly the records from the early years have disappeared but it seems that 14 members joined that year and membership doubled the following season. We also know from local league handbooks, that each club had to nominate a referee. By 1928-19 there were 29 members increasing to 45 just two years later.
By 1936 there were 62 members, which meant that every referee in the area belonged to the Association. Just think 100 percent membership - wouldn't we just love to have that in 2008?
During the Second World war, there were few local games being played and membership dropped to 12 and invitations had to be sent out "to invite past referees to come back and help throughout this difficulty". Everyone had to do their bit for the war effort!
On 4th December 1945, the first meeting was held and the President Joe Stott was "delighted to see once again all those who had been away in the Services". And thanks were given "To the old stalwarts who had kept local football while the younger men were away in the Services". But alas subs had to be raised to 2s 6d (12p).
Surprisingly it wasnt until January 1949 that our Association agreed to join the Referees' Association.
In 1953 Joe Stott sadly died. Joe who was 86 had been the President for 41 years and had only relinquished that post the year before. His proud boast was that he had been a Football League referee and had come off the list in... 1911!
One of the main reasons for a local referees society has always been training. We don't know exactly how often our founders met or how they conducted training. But in 1946 training classes started up again and were increased to twice a month to make sure everyone could pass the exams But for more years than most of us can remember, Blackpool has been proud to be one of the few societies to hold weekly meetings throughout every season and we continue to do so.
It used to be the case that training began in September leading to the exams in December and then the unfortunates were let loose onto the local parks. The only variety of training came when the Lancashire Referees Association used to hold their weekend schools, conveniently here in Blackpool. There we were able to meet with referees from other parts of the County and learn from different instructors.
But over the last few years things have changed completely. At long last the Football Association has taken charge of the training syllabus and all sorts of new methods are being tried. In Blackpool we have enthusiastically accepted and tried them all. There was a two-part system, which taught basic law and then how to referee in the second part.
The latest scheme is one that has proved really successful. Candidates spend two full days with the exam at the end of it. This is much more practically based using a football pitch to demonstrate the Laws in situ. It means successful candidates can be refereeing very quickly.
The FA and the Lancashire Football Association are also holding an increasing number of seminars aimed at different levels of referees, assistants, assessors and instructors. These are well-organised, useful sessions for referees from around the County and many from Blackpool have benefited from them.
The FA is issuing CD's and videos, plus leaflets and their own magazine, which are full of great training advice. To cope with these modern training aids, we were successful in biding for a Lottery grant three years ago, and were able to purchase a computer and projector, which were added to a considerable amount of training aids we have accumulated in the last few years.
But one of the biggest changes we have seen lately, is the fact that although we continue to have one nominated Training Officer, we have managed to get nine other members to be trained as instructors. This has meant that not only do the members see different faces at the sessions, we can also split to the session into different groups and pitch the training differently.
Every referee tries to reach the peak of what his abilities allow, but often many are content to exercise their trade locally putting something back into local football.
Many have ambitions to reach the highest levels. Blackpool has been fortunate to have many who reached the National list and even some who found themselves on the FIFA list as well. Mark Cowburn was our most recent representative as a Football League referee, he has recently retired from the list. We currently have two assistant referee, Andy Newell and Scott Oldham on the Football League both of whom has come up through our ranks.
A couple of our members also had a trip to on the line at the old Wembley, Alan Hill was an assistant at the 1992 Charity Shield and Barry Oldham was an assistant at the Auto Windshield Final in May 1999.
We were all proud indeed in 2007 we had our latest Fifa official appointed when Natalie Walker was elevated to the Fifa Assistant list and we know she will be trying to make the next step upwards. She has already clocked up trips to Italy, Romania and Iceland as well as some international games in this country. Natalie's best trip so far was the Chile in 2008 when she was an Assistant in the 3rd/4th play off in the Women's Under 20 World Cup. She has also been an Assistant at the Women's FA Cup Final, the Women's League Cup Final and referees in the women's Premier League.
But never fear we also have a group of younger members, who will be knocking on the League's door before too long.
These are the some of the members who found themselves right at the top of the tree:
One disappointing feature of the last one hundred years is that Blackpool has not yet produced a referee who has taken charge of the World Cup Final... but we are working on that!!!
But like other societies we are always trying to provide a Social Scene for our members as well. Over the years we have invited many guest speakers. Fifty years ago the Anniversary Dinner speaker was none other than Sir Stanley Rous, a towering figure in football field, Secretary of the FA and later President of Fifa itself, as well as being a former FA Cup Final referee. Some of us can remember listening to Jack Taylor who refereed the 1974 World Cup Final, George Courtney, another World Cup referee, also Peter Willis, President of the RA and an FA Cup Final referee. Then there was Norman Burtenshaw, Pat Patridge, Keith Hackett and latterly Mark Halsey from the Premiership. Harry Catterick and Gordon Lee, some time Everton managers, Sir Tom Finney and a certain player called Jimmy Armfield came in 1963. The speakers over the years have been many and varied.
We also host successful Sportsman's Dinners with guests like Jack Charlton, Alan Ball and Emlyn Hughes and John Aldridge et al.
The highest honour we can give to a member is to offer them Life Membership. This is not something that is given lightly. The individual has to have contributed something out of the ordinary over many years to the running of the Association. Currently we have seven Life Members: Tony Andrews, Graeme Clarke, Howard Emmett, Don Exley, Gerry Hagan, Alan Morton and David Taylor.
Our Society achieved its Centenary in 2008/09 and to celebrate we held two very successful Dinners, a Sporting Dinner and a special Ladies Night when we were able to give thanks to our friends and families for their support.
One of our founder members was a referee called Arthur Ward of Kirkham. Those were the days when there weren't many international games and anyway the only real international games that counted were the games between the Home Nations, especially between England and Scotland. Arthur refereed FOUR of those games and must have had the unique honour of being an Englishman invited by the Scottish FA to referee the game against England in Scotland!
The week following that game, Arthur was turning out on the local park as was his usual habit. He was early for his game and he spotted some young boys about to start their game but without a ref. "Do you know anything about refereeing, Mister?" one said. "A bit" admitted Arthur. "So can you ref us?" and so the game was played. Afterwards Arthur asked the lads if everything had been OK, "You weren't bad" came back the reply, "Well at least you were a bit better than the one we had last week".
That's all we can ever ask for... here's to the next a hundred years, the stories that will be told and the glories and disasters our future members will face.