16 May KO:17:30 League 1 Rd: 7
Rochdale Hornets v Oxford RLFC
Spotland Stadium, Rochdale

Referee: A Sweet
Reserve: R Calder
Touch Judge: D Griffiths
Touch Judge: J Barr
Match Commissioner: C Morris

Referee - Andrew Sweet (Leeds). Previous games:
23/06/2013 - South Wales 6 Oxford 28 (penalties 9-4 in favour of Oxford)
04/08/2013 - Hemel 30 Oxford 16 (penalties 3-6 against)
02/03/2014 - Oxford 19 London Skolars 12 (penalties 8-11 against, sinbinned Chris Clarke)
31/08/2014 - Oxford 29 South Wales 22 (penalties 9-8 in favour)
08/03/2015 - Hemel 10 Oxford 22 (Challenge Cup) (penalties 11-9 in favour)
03/05/2015 - Newcastle 36 Oxford 20 (penalties 9-5 in favour, sinbinned both Adam Brook and Matty Blythe)
P6 W4 L2.
Worth mentioning that Blythe's sinbin led to a charge - he has put in an early guilty plea and so gets a one match ban.

Reserve: Ryan Calder (Leeds)
Was a touch judge for the warm-up match against Hunslet Warriors in January.

Touch Judge: Dave Griffiths
Has been touch judge for a few Oxford games, most recently the warm-up match against Dewsbury reserves in February.

Touch Judge: Jamie Barr (St Helens) - his fourth Oxford League 1 game this season either as touch judge or reserve referee. Last one was the Skolars game.

Match Commissioner: C Morris
I think this is probably former referee Colin Morris of Huddersfield.

Have to say I'm not sure it's good for anyone that we keep seeing the same couple of refs. I'm not suggesting any bias but when I used to referee football we were rotated around teams and I always thought it was a good idea. Keeps everyone fresh and means preconceptions can't be a problem.

We had the same with Cobb and T Crashley in previous seasons, it's obviously based on some sort of idea from the rfl. Can't say I'm a fan.

Referees for Oxford's regular season league matches only:

2013
Tom Crashley - 3
Dave Sharpe - 3
Clint Sharrad - 3
Jamie Bloem - 2
Ronnie Laughton - 2
Andrew Sweet - 2
Peter Brooke - 1

2014
Mike Woodhead - 6
Peter Brooke - 4
Adam Gill - 3
Andrew Sweet - 2
Jamie Bloem - 1
Gareth Hewer - 1
Chris Kendall - 1
Dave Merrick - 1
Dave Sharpe - 1

2015 so far, including Rochdale
Scott Mikalauskas - 3
Andrew Sweet - 2
Tom Grant - 1

Overall leaders are therefore Mike Woodhead (6), Andrew Sweet (5) and Peter Brooke (5).

With there being fewer matches in the top two divisions each weekend, I would have expected a bit more variety this year, so maybe it's just a fluke the way it has started off. The other concern must be about how many qualified referees there are - from my own very limited experience in other sports I know just how thankless a task it can be. I read last year that most of the referees coming through were from Castleford Academy, because that school has actively encouraged it as a career path.