JOHN Wood always vowed he would hang up his referee's whistle on his 70th birthday.

He did just that last weekend, after taking charge of his final match between Cinderford Bucks and Stroud Nomads. Stroud won the contest 12-8.

Looking back over his 37-year career as a ref, John said: "I started out in Yorkshire in 1974 before being posted to Germany with the RAF. I officiated in inter-service and inter-station games.

"Most of the RAF bases at that time had internationals playing for them, so I met such greats as Peter Larter and Geoff Frankcom of England and Geoff Young of Wales. It made the refereeing interesting and certainly focused the mind.

"As always with true stars, they were more than helpful."

Returning from Germany, John joined the Gloucestershire Referees' Society. He continued to officiate in service matches too, including the first match to be held after the Falkands War between an RAF side and the Royal Engineers. The players were wary of kicking the ball too far from the pitch because there was a minefield on one side.

John also refereed in the Bahrain Gulf Survivors tournament in Bahrain, in temperatures of 40 degrees C.

In 1986 John was persuaded by then chairman Ken Morse to join the Cinderford committee and become resident referee. He is now the club's secretary and fourth official.

He remembers a 26-man 'handbags at dawn' fracas between Cinderford and Lydney Colts in 1986, which forced him to sit both teams down and warn them that they were risking their future county selections. There was little trouble after that.

John said: "Because of my job as fourth official for Cinderford, my opportunities to referee have been greatly reduced, but I have still managed the occasional game.

"As secretary of the Forest of Dean Combination I was looking after last season's inaugural Under-15s cup finalists when I realised, due to an oversight, we didn't have a ref. I was rapidly driven home to collect my kit and whistle to referee the game."