The flying referee gets his cap
When Larry Lamb was refereeing in the seventies it was a very different world.
When Larry Lamb was refereeing in the seventies it was a very different world and, an Air Commodore commanding RAF Lyneham, Larry could simply help himself to a Comet and fly out to a match.
And not just any match either. His first international in the middle was the All Blacks v France in Bordeaux.
“I flew myself there in a Comet. Of course, you couldn’t do it now, but in those days I didn’t have to ask anyone for permission. It was great fun, and the matches were always exciting, although I do recall being nervous as the All Blacks v France was my first Test match in charge.”
When I arrived, having flown a Comet across, there was a guard of honour and I had to take the salute..."
Larry Lamb
On another occasion, Larry flew himself out to Sri Lanka to referee an inter-services fixture there.
“When I arrived, having flown a Comet across, there was a guard of honour and I had to take the salute, which was a bit embarrassing to be quite honest,” he chuckles.
Now 98 and England’s oldest surviving referee, Larry wasn’t able to be at Twickenham when 23 other top England rugby referees received caps from RFU President Jeff Blackett. So RFU Senior Vice President Nigel Gillingham, drove over to Larry’s Hertfordshire home to present him with his cap.
“I was honoured and rather humbled,” says Larry. “I didn’t expect to be selected to get a cap.
“I became a referee because I played for various Services sides: RAF Lyneham, Training Command, Transport Command. To be quite frank I wasn’t good enough to play in the Inter Services at Twickenham at a time when quite a lot of National Servicemen were international players.
“Air Chief Marshal Sir Gus Walker, who had played for England and a former RFU President, told me it was time to give up playing and become a referee and then I discovered I was on the London Society’s intermediate list and refereeing Quins second team and the likes of Wasps Vandals. Frankly, I began refereeing at a level I was hardly competent to cover but I did fairly well and was told ‘keep it up and one day you’ll be on the international panel and pretty soon I was.
“I enjoyed refereeing tremendously. I realised you had to be really fit and I did a lot of training. I ran round the Lyneham airfield every day and commentators would say of fast players that the only one quick enough to catch them was referee Larry Lamb!
“I became an Air Vice-Marshal and when I would turn up at a club to referee, they would find it very strange that a 2-star officer who flew jets was taking charge of the game. Refereeing was great fun, and I took it all in my stride really. I wore an RAF blue jersey because teams didn’t really wear that colour so there was no clash.
“Some things were different then. I remember refereeing the only match to take place in the UK one Saturday because there was such a heavy frost that pitches were unplayable. Scotland were hosting France at Murrayfield and the two captains made the call. As referee, I just called them out to decide and they said the pitch was fit to play on, so the match went ahead.”
Members of Larry’s family were there for the cap presentation and said Nigel Gillingham, a former RAF officer himself: “It was more of an honour for me than it was for the Air Marshal. He was an outstanding referee, officiating at 14 Internationals and virtually every other prestigious fixture on the then first-class calendar, including as touch judge at the RFU’s Centenary game when England played the President’s Overseas XV in 1971, and, certainly, the only one who could help himself to an aircraft and fly out to referee international matches. He’s truly a legend.”
