Tributes to ‘hard-line, no-nonsense’ referee Peter Rhodes

Rhodes famously sent off the likes of Denis Law and Ian St John and once incurred an 18-month ban from FIFA for officiating at a non-affiliated tournament in the United States.

He also enjoyed long spells as chairman of the York FA and York Sunday League and twice came close to becoming a director at York City, where he regularly voiced his concerns at former owner Douglas Craig’s autonomous position at Bootham Crescent.

That fear was later justified when Craig switched ownership of the club’s ground into a holding company, which demanded £2 million to transfer it back.

Former City Supporters’ Trust board member Bradbury, who remains grateful for the role Rhodes played during his own refereeing development, remembers with fondness his mentor’s cantankerous nature and said: “He was a hard-line, no-nonsense referee who was very well respected and it was probably not until I made the Football League list in 1988 that I realised how well respected he was throughout the country.

“He was also very helpful to me even though we had our fall-outs – I don’t know anybody who didn’t who was involved in York administration. He was obstinate and confrontational but only when he was fighting for something that he felt was for the good of the game.

“In many ways, he was a man before his time, which was shown when he went to America 16 years before they were accepted into FIFA.”

Until his health deteriorated in recent years, Rhodes attended games at local amateurs Dringhouses with old pal Patrick and former Accrington Stanley player Frank Prole, who was a long-serving committee member at the York Minster Engineering League club.

Recalling the camaraderie of those Saturday afternoons, Patrick said: “It was like the Last Of The Summer Wine with the three of us. We never saw much of the football – there was more rabbiting on about the old times.”

Patrick, the fourth-highest all-time goalscorer for York City, also recalled Rhodes’ fearsome reputation as a referee, adding: “Whenever anybody wanted a tough referee, they called for Rhodesy.

“I remember a charity match I played in against a group of wrestlers at Heworth. I wouldn’t have wanted to play against them every week and he was the obvious man for the job, but that was the only time he refereed me. He was always in charge of matches at a higher level.”

Rhodes combined his football duties with running a grocer’s business in Wain’s Grove, Dringhouses.

At the height of his fame, in the wake of the Law and St John dismissals, he was labelled the country’s most controversial referee by the national press but went on to win a libel case against the Daily Express.

The settlement was sizeable for a referee whose first fee had been one and sixpence for taking charge of a Dringhouses v New Earswick 14-16 Minor League match on Knavesmire.

Decades on from the Law incident, in a 2007 interview with The Press, Rhodes revealed: “I used to regularly referee Manchester United but never got them again after that.”

Liverpool were seemingly more forgiving with the late, great Bill Shankly once naming him as one of the game’s finest referees and, in 1999, he received a silver salver for his service to the Football League and Premier League Referees’ Association.

FA doyenne Sir Stanley Rous also once referred to Rhodes as the “best-paid referee in the history of the game” after York’s infamous man in the middle was head-hunted by the organisers of the outlawed American competition due to his uncompromising style in domestic and European club football.

The money he earned from the experience enabled him to buy the four-bedroomed house he shared with his family in Woodthorpe but the trip was far from straightforward.

With the need for basic equipment overlooked by the tournament’s officials, Rhodes was issued with a blank-firing gun instead of a whistle and, when there were no flags provided for linesmen, bought two pairs of pink camiknickers for his fellow officials to use.

He was also forced to abscond to Bermuda at one stage after a warrant was put out for his arrest following unfounded accusations that he was wrongly awarding penalties.

Closer to home, Rhodes used to act as a chauffeur for Tom Lockie in the 1960s, transporting the then York City manager to a variety of North Yorkshire service stations where important transfer deals were often sealed.

He also twice failed to earn himself a place on the board at Bootham Crescent, leading an unsuccessful takeover bid on his return from America in 1968 and then having an offer to become a club director withdrawn ten years later because of his reputation for ruffling feathers, which he did little to douse when describing Craig’s dominance of the club’s shares as “a dangerous situation” at the Minstermen’s 1998 AGM.

Rhodes was successful, however, in his bid to become a director of York’s rugby league team in 1980, but became disillusioned after spending two years exposing corruption at the club.

Earlier in his life, Rhodes served in the RAF and suffered a fractured skull and broken spine in a crash after being instructed to “chase pheasants” by a superior.

According to friends though, despite his colourful and varied life, he always wanted to be remembered as the man who fought successfully for the council to remove grazing cows from Knavesmire, sparing future generations of footballers the job of clearing up bovine mess before matches.

Rhodes’ funeral service will be held at St Edward the Confessor Church in Dringhouses on Tuesday, November 1, at 1.45pm, followed by cremation at York Crematorium at 3pm. All are welcome.