LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE REFS!

In keeping with my new, upbeat and positive tone for this column, I felt it was time to acknowledge the unsung heroes of the Sporting circuit, the referees who man the front-line week after week, pressing the buttons, marking the score cards, and making those tricky judgement calls about whether a visible fragment really did come off that distant clay, and whether that rabbit was broken just before or just Classic I made a point of tracking down a familiar face who I’ve seen at countless events over the years, Jes Simmons. I caught up with him as he was winding down at the end of a busy day, eyeing what was to be his luxurious bed for the night – the floor of the Garlands clubhouse restaurant. “I’ve got a nice airbed and sleeping bag, and I’ll be happy with that,” he told me. “There’ll be four or five of us refs up here, others have got campers or caravans. We do block book a Travelodge for the Essex Masters, but if you’re going to spend 40 quid a night for a hotel it knocks your wages a bit. It’s all right. I’ll slum it for a week, then go home and sleep for two days!”