St Helens Rugby League Referees Society Newsletter – Edition 36
Denton, Mackenzie & Stuart Go To Blackpool
Three of our members were in action at ‘The Big One’ when the Summer Bash arrived at Bloomfield Road in Blackpool for its
Mackenzie Maddison and Stuart Fraser were appointed to the curtain raiser on day one of the annual Championship flagship ‘Magic Weekend’ style event. Mackenzie acted as Touch Judge to Referee Aaron Moore (Wigan) with Stuart appointed as Reserve Referee. Lancashire took the spoils on the day meaning the 2 teams will head to Odsal, Bradford for the deciding tie.

Denton Arnold also took to pitch at Bloomfield Road and was involved in a thrilling game between Featherstone Rovers and York City Knights. Featherstone ran away with the game in the first half but the recently promoted York team proved tough opponents in the second half, almost pulling off a remarkable comeback. This game was shown on Sky Sports.
This appointment adds to Denton’s established list of appearances at the Summer Bash event; in 2016 he
Congratulations to all three members who performed well on the big stage.
St Helens Schools Cup Finals
The Society once again provided officials for the annual St Helens Schools Rugby League cup finals held at The Totally Wicked Stadium.
Year 7 Final Appointments – Cowley International College v St Cuthberts Catholic High (Paul Wellens Trophy)
Referee: Ryan Cox
Touch Judges: Nick Hart & George Johnson
Timekeeper: Adam Jackson
Year 8 Final Appointments – Cowley International College v Rainford High (Eric Chisnall Trophy)
Referee: Shaun Pickering
Touch Judges: Innes Arnold & Kristian Silcock
Timekeeper: Adam Jackson
Year 9 Final Appointments – Cowley International College v De La Salle High (Chris Arkwright Trophy)
Referee: Liam Jones
Touch Judges: Stuart Lloyd & Dan Bamber
Timekeeper: Innes Arnold
Year 10 Final Appointments – De La Salle High v St Cuthberts Catholic High (Keiron Cunnigham Trophy)
Referee: Shaun Pickering
Touch Judges: Denton Arnold & George Johnson
Timekeeper: Innes Arnold
Year 11 Final Appointments – Cowley International College v De La Salle High (Alex Murphy Trophy)
Referee: Ryan Cox
Touch Judges: Innes Arnold & Nick Hart
Timekeeper: Denton Arnold
Congratulations to each member involved!
Meet Your Referees – Frank Tickle
Name: Frank Tickle
Age: 73
Years Officiating: 40
Highest Levels officiated;
Division 1 (Referee)
Division 1 (Touch Judge)
Proudest Moment of your career?
‘Getting the letter to inform me I had been promoted to a senior referee.’Funniest Moment of your career?
‘When I watched Mick Hesketh diddle Martyn Haigh out of a fiver.’Why would you recommend becoming a Rugby League Match Official to someone?
Frank Tickle – Life Member
‘Listen to experiences Referees’ advise and implement a routine.’
‘Teammates’ with Nick Hart

Who is the funniest member of our Society?
‘There are a couple of people that come to mind but Shaun Pickering always makes me laugh during training.’Who is the most boring member of our Society?
‘No one really, everyone is a pretty good laugh.’Who is the best trainer in our Society?
‘This year it is a tie between Shaun Pickering and Stuart Fraser. Stuart because of the sheer dedication, but Shaun too who puts 100% in every week.’Who is the Society sicknote?
‘Recently this has to be Innes Arnold, who has had the same cough for the last 3 months! Or me, usually pull up with something new each week.’Which member of our Society has the best changing room banter?
‘This is a hard one, but I would say Ryan Cox. I always have a great laugh when I am on games with him.’Who is the best dressed member of our Society?
‘Denton Arnold. He always seems to be dressed smartly for everything that he does.’Who is the worst dressed member of our Society?
‘Stuart Fraser. He has some questionable outfits on nights out.’Which member of our Society would you least like to be stuck on a desert island with?
Nick Hart – Full Member
‘Our training coordinator, Craig Hill, he would probably think up some exercise for me to do.’
Stuart Completes The London Marathon
In previous editions of our newsletter we brought you the story about Stuart Fraser planning to run in the Virgin Media London Marathon, well he completed it posting a final time of 4 hours and 33 minutes. Stuart ran the marathon to raise money for the National Autistic Society, in the end raising a total of £1095.

After months of training and preparation, he joined 40,000 other runners in achieving what Stuart himself described as the ‘greatest achievement in his life’ and he has already got his name down for next year.
Shaun & Ryan Officiate The Rhinos Challenge
On Friday 17th May, Shaun Pickering and Ryan Cox headed to Skegness to officiate at the ‘Rhinos Challenge’ which saw thousands of young players descend on Butlins in Skegness for a rugby-filled weekend.

Shaun and Ryan were 2 out 3 referees who travelled down from Lancashire to join 24 other referees travelling from Yorkshire and London. Shaun and Ryan refereed around 16 games over two days, both enjoying the experience of refereeing teams from Yorkshire and London who they don’t get to officiate on a weekly basis.
Development Meeting Update
At this month’s development meeting we worked on movement around the field. We had one person refereeing with everyone else running through a set of six. This was good because it worked on our positioning and also decision making. We then did some work on TJ positioning. To do this we had one person T
Important Upcoming Dates
Match Officials Course – Saturday 1st June 2019 (c
General Meeting – Tuesday 4th June 2019
Development Meeting – Tuesday 18th June 2019
Future Editions
Please send all future stories to Ryan Cox so these can be added to newsletters.
Please send all notable appointments to Denton Arnold so these can be added to the honours list.
One thought on “Flags and Whistles – May 2019”
Great news letter
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