WHEN Darren England referees Saturday’s FA Cup final between Manchester City and Chelsea at Wembley, he will become the third Barnsley man to take charge of the prestigious fixture.
Arthur Holland, from Worsbrough, was the first in 1964 followed by Steve Lodge, from Darton, in 1997 while Scott Ledger, from Royston, was assistant referee in 2023.
Lodge, who now reviews incidents for referees’ body PGMOL, said: “For Barnsley referees it’s fantastic. To have three is good going and I am not aware of any other town in England of Barnsley’s size where that has been achieved.”
The first trailblazer for refereeing in Barnsley was Holland who combined his job as a salvage worker at Barnsley Main, and his role as a club cricket umpire, with a high-profile career in football.
Born in 1916, he began refereeing in the 1930s at a local level then started in the Football League just after the Second World War.
He took charge of the 1963 European Cup final at Wembley in which AC Milan, featuring Giovanni Trapattoni, Cesare Maldini and Gianni Rivera, beat Eusebio’s Benfica 2-1.
He returned to Wembley a year later for the 1964 FA Cup final in which West Ham United, who had Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst in their team two years before winning the World Cup, beat second division Preston North End 3-2.
The following month, he took charge of the 1964 European Championships final in which hosts Spain beat the Soviet Union 2-1 at Real Madrid’s Bernabéu.
The teams were led out by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco while several members of Real Madrid’s all-conquering team took on all-time great goalkeeper Lev Yashin.
Arthur retired soon after and ran a pub in Kendray.
Lodge was a schoolboy when Holland was at the peak of his career but followed a similar route from local leagues to the top level of refereeing.
He was a referee for the first ten years of the Premier League until he retired in 2002.
Lodge was an international referee and also took charge of the 1997 FA Cup final in which Chelsea beat Middlesbrough 2-0, with Roberto Di Matteo netting in the first minute.
Lodge, now 73, said: “It’s definitely the pinnacle of my career.
“When you walk out onto the field and look up to sky and pray nothing controversial goes off.
“It didn’t so I was delighted no one was talking about me at the end of the game.”
Lodge mentored England at the start of his refereeing journey
“It’s a fantastic achievement for Darren. He’s worked very hard and deserves it.
“It doesn’t surprise me because he has a good head on his shoulders. He should be proud of himself.
“When he called me to say he’d been selected, he was over moon and rightly so.
“It’s the best appointment a referee can get.
“He will remember it for the rest of his life.”
It has been almost a quarter of a century since Lodge retired, before being a referee’s assessor, and he admits the sport has altered significantly for referees.
“It’s completely different.
“The pressure on a modern day referee is far more intense than it was in my time, and it was fairly intense in my time.
“You have VAR now as well.
“There is a microscope on a referee with ten or 15 cameras compared to one or two when the Premier League started, and the scrutiny from the media is much more intense.”
