Leading referee retires

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33963, 2 October 1975, Page 17

Leading referee retires

Mr Colin Houston, Canterbury’s top soccer referee for the last three years, has decided to re- - tire from active refereeing. Dutch by birth, Mr Houston came to New Zealand in 1962, played for Zealandia in Wellington until “he was able to make himself understood in English,” and then worked his way through the refereeing grades, despite having been on the Dutch national badge-holders list, until his promotion to the Rothmans National League list in 1973.

His most memorable appointments among the 311 games he has controlled included Canterbury’s fixtures against Bournemouth, Iran, Bristol Rovers, and Middlesbrough. Mr Houston’s first game as a referee was at a level usually reached after many years of experience. It came in the senior first reserve division of the Dutch semiprofessional clubs. The appointed referee missed his train to the ground and Mr Houston substituted. It is doubtful whether anyone else has started a refereeing career from so near the top. “My present ambition is to reorganise and improve the methods of referee assessments in New Zealand,” he said yesterday. “And I hope to be of some help to the up-and-coming referees.”