CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY FOR PREMIERSHIP LEAGUE REF PETE!
Yes Christmas is just a few days away and thankfully for the majority of us a period of rest and relaxation, and where we can put a hold to any dieting or sensible eating!
Not so however for certain vocations.
I was talking to a friend, Simon, who is a taxi driver in my local the other Sunday and he was telling me that this time of the year is his busiest and that he was hardly at home.
Well, life as a referee is much the same.
I’ve worked out that during the 12 days of Christmas I will be sleeping in my humble abode for precisely five nights, the rest of the time will be in far off hotels as I ply my trade.
Because of the way my appointments are made and publicised, I will not know where I am due to perform until Monday for the festive period, although I am hopeful of a few Premiership games.
Not only will I be away from home, but when you pass the port at the end of the Christmas lunch, or hand Grandma her schooner of Sherry (purely medicinal), think of teetotal me…oh for a few pints of lager!
With the Christmas holiday period being so lucrative for clubs with games being held on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, I have to be very disciplined in my diet and training regime, so much so that I have just ‘celebrated’ Christmas with my wife Jo last week.
This week sees me
refereeing at Wigan when they take on Sheffield United and my old adversary Neil Warnock. Hopefully Mr Warnock will be the same frame of mind as he was when we last met a few months ago, when he celebrated his first win as a Premiership manager against Middlesbrough.
So as you stock the cupboards with cut-price booze and fill the larder with chocolates and cake, think of me and Simon, my taxi driver friend.
For us, Christmas and the New Year will be very busy and one where our main focus will be on work.
Have a great festive period. I hope you get what you deserve from Santa and I’ll see you all in the New Year.
