I'm happy. Least it's not Silverwood or Ali T.

Interesting analysis. It seems that Steve Ganson has, in many people's eyes, transformed his reputation over the past couple of seasons. At one time it was always "Oh no, not Ganson!" but now most fans seem pretty pleased when he's in charge. Not all, but most.

Always liked Billy Thompson myself. A.J Murphy's favourite official

That's because Ganson has been the best ref for the last 2 seasons

fred lindop, any one?

Oh no, Matt King's Cat. Thanks for that! I'll be having nightmares now, for the rest of the week. I still fret over that Cup Quarter final at Wilderspool v Hull in 1983. Think he disallowed 4 trys that day, and we ended up getting beat 10-5. Cue biased Billy getting YET ANOTHER police escort off the pitch. I still get wound up over that game, 27 years on.

Any body remember John Smith from the 80's and early 90's. STREWTH, he hated us.

Oh Smith was a terrible twunt of a man. Humourless too. Holdsworth was my favourite panto-villain referee. He LOVED reffing and being centre of attention, and would happily banter with frothing fans (my dad included) whenever he was waiting for a controversial try to be converted. Him and my dad struck up quite the rapport over the years.....

Bang on, Rocky. For all his faults (and there were many), Holdsworth wasn't too bad. Pantomime villain sums him up perfectly.
Another on my hatelist would be Gerry Kershaw, nasty scrawny little man.

Was it Phil Ford who had two tries disallowed in the space of about 3 minutes? I'll never forget that game. Seen some pretty hostile afternoons at the zoo but that one took some beating. I thought that game was refereed by the wondferful Firey Fred Lindop but my memory must be playing tricks. Anyway, a game to remember for all the wrong reasons for us. I always think of the blokes on the Hull bench who were laughing at some of the decisions that went their way.
Oh yes, love the Duke album cover. Their last prog album then the pop crap followed.

Hows Russell doing is he still reffing in Oz

Always amazed me he went reffing in Aus. How did they understand him? Don't remember seeing any subtitles in the NRL.

Bob Jackson once told me that all the players liked Holdsworth as he was fair and wouldn't stand any messing about.
I think most fans hated him for his posturing and flailing arms when indicating a decision.
Always remember him stooping to pick up a water bottle to have a swig just as John Woods was trotting back after kicking a conversion. Woodsy kicked the bottle off the floor about 30 foot down the pitch just as Holdsworth was about to pick it up. Everyone was laughing. Always thought Holdsworth was a decent ref and bloke. Smith was a completely different kind of ref, maybe it's me but I can't remember a decent game he was in charge of. His games were slow and littered with petulant penalties.

add to that stan wall...more sense out of a brick wall

He certainly had something against Warrington, a very bitter man.

no defo billy thompson..the funny thing about him getting a police escort off the pitch..it just left 2 sets of nutters to have a massive free for all on the pitch and on the terraces which then spilled onto the streets..i remember phil ford having a try chalked off from a ken kelly kick thru which struck a hull player.fordy picked the ball up and scored behind the posts at the fletcher end..even the hull players new it was a try..barsteward

Yeah, MKC, definately was Biased Billy that day. It was the most BIASED performance I've ever seen, before or since. Wilderspool was full to bursting that day, 11,500 approx in there.
I still remember listening to Radio Manchester that morning, when they announced Hesford had pulled out of the game. GUTTED. Ahh well, at least 'Ull got beat in the final, to stop the RFL's pro Hull stance at the time.

Yeah, DUKE still stands the test of time. Probably their last GREAT album. There's been some high spots since, but a little too commercial for my liking. Ho-hum.

Who remembers the linesman suffering an electric shock when his stud punctured the power cable in the TV loom? I think the game was Wire v Widnes.
By the way, anyone singing the virtues of anything by Genesis need their bumps feeling!

We've had a few OK officials too. Always thought Ray Tennant was reasonable. Russell Smith wasn't that bad on the whole, apart from THAT match. It cost me £300, as i'd had a few sheckles on us to win the league that season, at 50/1.DAMN

More numpties would include Colin Morriss - he even managed to balls-up that pretend rugby game they had in Emmerdale years ago. My missus got me to watch.
The Connolly sisters

OOOOIIIII SIDEBURNS. NNNOOOO. The mighty Genesis are not to be knocked. Untrendy, yes, but brilliant musicians. Susanna Reid is coming round later to feel my bumps!! (I hope).

Colin Morris reffed a game involving Halifax a few years back when he didn't give a single penalty during the game... John Holdsworth was always listed as being from Kippax which allowed him to referee Leeds matches much to the ire of the opposing fans.

Robin Whitfield was one I remember not being over popular with the Wire fans when we had him...

Holdsworth used to get Wembley every year, either him or Ray Tenant. Fred Lindop used to tell them "if you can referee at Warrington you can referee anywhere". Warringtons own Kenny Spencer sin binned Colin WHitfield once for taking too long on a goal kick.

Another shuddering blast from the past there, Mr Piano. Robin Whitfield. He wouldn't give us a cold, let alone a penalty. Wasn't Colin his brother?
Ronnie Campbell was one who I remember had his parentage questioned, several times.

I'm sure you're right about the Whitfield's Lefty. Positive they are brothers. Heard Fred Lindop on BBC Manchester last night on RL extra talking about his years a 'top' referee. He reckoned that the game that
stood out in his memory was a HKR v Wire Cup game at Craven Park. Thinking back it must have been 88/89 season which of course was Sir Les' last one with us. Sure Steve Roach played in that game too but Mike Greg and Mark Roberts were outstanding. Surprised me, Fred stating that that was his stand out game when you think of the finals/internationals he reffed.

I remember that game and I also thought it was Lindop. One of the very few times I thought the ref was bent.

You are right, Billy Thompson it was. I remember that Wilderspool was like a powder keg that day. Didn't he get Fordy offside for that one when he was on-side by about 10m?

I'd never seen a ref get a polic escort before, which at 12 years old was quite exciting. First time I heard my dad swear that day.

he was well on side...sure it was bob eccles who scored off a chissie pass then chissie got flattened..thompson gave us a penalty waving away our claims for advantage...sure ronnie duane was kicking that dat day due to hesfords absence and sure enough he missed the kick..it was just like luton and millwall at full time...remember going hull one year in the end of season playoffs..stan wall was the ref..he dis-allowed alan scotts try straight from a scrum..no one knew why.tho he had his shirt wrapped round his shoulders due to his old one being ripped off him..that day we were stood along the side where the players came out,we had allsorts thrown at us..again there was running battles on the streets...it was a horrible place to go