The beginning of 99-1090

In the May 2004 edition of “The Whistler” – the magazine of the South Bedfordshire RA, there was an advert from Christopher T. Rock, Worcester advertising for referees for Norway Cup – “the largest tournament in the world”. I slapped in a holiday request at my job at Nationwide, Bedford as a cashier and July 24th 2004, I was about to begin my first ever Norway Cup.

Communications and flights were done by Rocky via the Yahoo Forum for British Referees called “Bread and Jam” Sadly, all traces are now missing online.

Looking at some old data, there were 74 Foreign Referees that year. 43 of which from Britain and 1 from Ireland (The brilliantly funny Julian Canny). I remember there was a very strong community from Wolverhampton and Worcestershire. Funny enough, I don’t remember much of the early tournaments.

My first ever Norway Cup was on pitch 7 kunstgrasse. U16 boys line to Willy Furu – the legend still attends now. 2nd game of the day I took the middle. I remember a great guy called Pete Agnew watched the 2nd half and gave me some pointers – after all I was just a class 2 then!

Day two I went to Voldslokka. Wasn’t sure what this dommerbuss was all about and a lovely chap who has just celebrated his 60th birthday came to my rescue. His tan glowed like a proud garden fence that had been bathed in Ronseal – the right honourable David Chinnery. Luckily we were on 3 games together and I had pleasure to line to him.

Evening entertainment came in the form of the pub at Holtet tram stop (now closed). Very rarely did we go down into the city at night. When we did the regular haunts were Destinys, The Flying Scotsman, Bohemians and some dirty bar above the Bussterminalen. Branfjell hall was open through the night and there was always music, cards and drinking going on. The tradition of work hard play harder, was certainly set up by the likes of Mark Daniel, Julian Canny, Goldy, Andy Cox et al. I was much younger and certainly a lot more conserved back then.

There was also the Britain vs Rest of the World football match which was banned in 2006 due to the sheer violence and aggression – particularly towards Rocky as the referee!

Some notable differences I remember:

- We stayed in Branfjell school for the first 5 years I reckon. Top floor in the science labs. Had to go 27 fucking flights of stairs to go for a piss. The rooms all had a blackboard that were tallying red, yellow cards and penalties etc.

- Middles were 80kr. Norway invented inflation many years later(!)

- Flights only went into Torp

- What is now KFUM pitches was the fun fair. Pitch 7 was the only artificial field.

- Fixtures were 3-4 a day. Loads of downtime and you only refereed in the morning or afternoon.

- Only 3 venues if I remember correctly. Bjolsen/Voldslokka, Abildso and Ekeberg. I don’t remember 7v7 being around then either.

- There were no awards, no pizza party, no Scouse Bar, no social media, no rationing of food, and talking of food – it was fucking awful back then!

- The standard of Norwegian officials – they will agree – was so so poor. Very old school set in their way. I remember one guy who refused to use touchline flags purely because they do not make a whipping sound. Oh and trying to get them to run right backs oh my lord…

Some of the notable alumni that year were:

Steve Wildgoose – Steve was very unique. Very blunt, very offensive… his favourite line was “where you from? (Answer) well why don’t you fuck off there.” Also found it hilarious to tell people that Norway’s problem was full of foreigners. Annoyingly he was an ok referee but a bloody liability.

Peter McGillan – the mad jock exiled in Bristol. Loved a story and found singing on the stairs at 2am.

Gary Clinton – a 16 year old then who went onto to provide one of the funniest off field antics in Norway Cup history

Mark Sutton and Chris Husband went onto Football League and Bryan Nyatanga whose son Lewin went on to play for Derby County and Wales.

David Chinnery, Martin Hancock, Chris Rock are the only ever present since my first year.

End of Norway Cup celebrations were held in the Pavillion at Sportsplassen and was a strict shirt and tie event. The tradition was a sing off versus the Germans and a free bar.

2004 is still a bit of a blur but nevertheless – It started my strange affair at Ekeberg.