RateTheRef

I well remember Mr Tirebuck's performance in the 1960 (I think) West Riding Senior Cup final between Bradford PA and Leeds United.  But leaving that aside, I am trying to find confirmation of my long-held belief that Mr Tirebuck has what will for ever remain a unique claim to fame. As some will remember, in 1960 it was agreed that as an experiment ITV would show a number of live first division fixtures on a Saturday evening. In the event, however, the experiment was rapidly deemed a failure and only one game was shown, this being the fixture on 10 September between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers. I watched the game, and Mr Tirebuck's relatively unusual name and his absolutely unforgettable performance of a few months earlier having given him some prominence in my mind, it is my abiding memory that he was the referee on that occasion.
 

I looked at The Times, via "The Times Digital Archive", of Monday 12 September 1960 for this game. There was actually little football coverage in this edition, probably because both the Tokyo Olympics and the county cricket season were reaching their respective climaxes.

Only two of Saturday's games were reported on, namely :-

Arsenal 2 Tottenham Hotspur 3 - referee J G Williams of Nottingham

Everton 3 Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 - referee K Tuck of Chesterfield

The game between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers (0-1) was mentioned in a paragraph headed "Gates Fall", which looked at the decline in attendances at Football League matches. This included the sentence :-

"And as for the first league match - between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers - to be televised, part of the League's controversial effort to regain popularity, that too brought a decline of 6,000 on the average Blackpool crowd".