On October 14th Holt welcomed Eastern Counties to a game held to celebrate the anniversary of the Bridge Road ground. The two sides had met 50 years ago to the day when the ground was opened. On the touchline at this season’s game were five members of the Holt team that appeared in the 1968 fixture, together with the long-standing Holt member who refereed that game, Mike Stott.
Mike has lived in Norfolk all his life and, in common with many Holt members, attended Gresham’s School before starting work on the Fruit Farm near North Walsham. In the early 1960s he was a founder member of Holt Rugby and played several seasons for the First XV as a scrum-half. He is modest about his own playing abilities and, as the club expanded and attracted more players, he settled into the Second XV. In 1966 two Holt teams were playing away at Earlham, Norwich where the designated referee for the first XV game failed to appear. Mike was asked by the Holt captain to relinquish his second XV place and take up the referee’s whistle for the first time. This he did and, in his own words “I enjoyed it, it clicked and it went on from there”.
Thereafter, until his retirement from active refereeing in 1990, Mike estimates that he officiated on average at 40 games a season – although he has not kept count he must have approached or overtaken 1000 games. He became a list ‘A’ referee for the English Rugby Union and, in his long and distinguished career has refereed games at Northampton, Cambridge University and for Eastern Counties.
When asked what makes a good referee, Mike puts the emphasis on man management and, above all consistency. “If there is one thing that spoils a game and upsets the players it is inconsistency in refereeing decisions”. He has, over the whole of his career only sent a player off for foul player on three occasions: once was in a game between two police force teams, which he says were always pretty brutal affairs. He believes that many problems can be avoided by good communication and he is very supportive of new initiatives, which encourage referees to communicate more frequently with club coaches.
Although his record of officiating games is most impressive, in many ways Mike is more proud of his administrative achievements in improving and developing referees in the County. At the age of 78 he has been a member of the Norfolk Referees Society for 51 years, serving on their governing body for 48 of them. For 24 years he served on the Eastern Counties Rugby General Committee and in recognition was made an Honorary Life Member. He has been prominent in developing the exchange system between referees from different parts of the country. In recognition, in September, he and his wife were the guests of the English Rugby Union at a Mitsubishi sponsored “Value the Volunteers” dinner and tour of Twickenham.
As his colleagues emphasise, Mike has a particular gift for mentoring and developing younger referees. He recalls one occasion, in the late 1990s, when he was asked to look at a game at the University of East Anglia, where a young law student who had just arrived from Gloucestershire was refereeing; the student was thought to have potential. Mike was very impressed, immediately persuaded the student to join the Norfolk referees society to develop his game, and acted as his advisor and mentor. The student in question was Wayne Barnes who became the leading English referee of this generation and for many years has refereed Six Nations and other international games.
Mike retains vivid memories of the 1968 Holt Eastern Counties game, which the visitors won by 25 points to 19. “I did not have a good first half. The Holt captain took me aside at half time and asked me to take it more seriously. It was more than a festival; they wanted to play rugby. My performance was much better in the second”. Although, given his modesty, he may not recognise it in himself, this self-awareness and desire to improve has probably been an important factor in his considerable and sustained success as a referee. Whatever the reason Mike Stott has made an immense contribution to Norfolk Rugby and the Holt Club.

A slightly different version of this article appeared in the Eastern daily Press and the North Norfolk News. Mike Stott was interviewed by BBC Radio Norfolk on the eve of the anniversary game https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/p06lrvkv