Referees in football and rugby are expected to go gracefully around the age of 50. But Ray Grace is still whistling on the fields of American Football in Wales at 82. Twm Owen finds out why.

 

Most people in their 80s would be content with a Sunday afternoon stroll in the park as a physical challenge – but not Ray Grace.

The 82-year-old, who lives in Llanbradach, near Caerphilly, has for 30 years been refereeing American Football games in the highly competitive British National League – “because it’s a pleasurable way to spend your Sunday afternoons”.

Like the majority of Britain’s American Football players and fans, Ray’s interest was sparked by television coverage. When NFL highlights were first shown on Channel 4 and S4C in the 1980s it led to teams forming across Britain, including in Wales.

“I would have liked to have played. I would have been a wide receiver, it’s where the short ones go,” says Ray – who stands at just over 5ft tall – a British American Football Referees Association (BAFRA) accredited official for more than 30 years.

Ray, who as a younger man played football in the local leagues in Cardiff, was 52 and too old to don helmet and shoulder pads but was still inspired to take to the gridiron. After watching his first American Football game at Cardiff City’s home ground, he soon found himself taking charge of the team he had first seen play when making his debut as an official.

“I got into it from the television, of course, but the Cardiff Tigers were playing down Ninian Park and I went to see them play and I thought ‘I like this, it’s something I’d like to get involved in’.

“From there I applied to BAFRA and was put on a training programme and that’s how I became involved as an official.”

While the NFL has seven officials on the field Ray usually works as part of a four or five-man crew for games that can last up to three hours on a Sunday afternoon throughout the spring and summer.

Ray is a head linesman with added responsibility for overseeing the volunteer chain crew who hold bright orange markers along one sideline that measure the 10-yard distance teams must reach for a first down.

Players, who’ve almost always been at least half his age – and due to his diminutive stature – often three times his size, will regularly charge towards the sideline from where Ray keeps his watchful eye on proceedings.

Ray takes charge; Pic: Tall Boy Images.

BAFRA officials are paid a small match day fee and Ray jokes he couldn’t afford to retire as nearly all of his fellow first-generation UK officials have.

Despite his age, Ray has little problem keeping up with the fast, physical action and for more than 30 years has been part of a university study, centred around Caerphilly, that has found following healthy, active lifestyles reduces the chances of developing chronic illness.

Ray said there are many positives from his involvement in the game: “I enjoy it immensely, especially the camaraderie between all the officials and the teams.

“Unlike soccer, the teams tend to appreciate the officials more and we have a good relationship with all the teams which makes it a pleasurable way to spend your Sunday afternoon.”

Becoming a ‘zebra’ – as the game’s referees are known due to their distinctive black and white stripped uniforms – has led to sporting opportunities Ray could never have imagined he’d experience.

“I didn’t think I would ever referee at the Arms Park but I did that with the Cardiff Mets,” recalls Cardiff born and bred Ray of the second team to form in the capital city, who, in the late 1980s, played out of the home ground of the world’s greatest rugby club.

When the Mets hosted the touring Vancouver Meralomas team in a 1988 friendly it led to another unexpected twist in Ray’s late life sporting career.

“The most exciting time I’d had really was many years ago when I did a game in Vancouver.

“A team had come over from Vancouver to play at the Arms Park and we got talking to them and one said if you’re ever in Vancouver give me a ring and I’ll get you a game.

“I was going to Seattle, and Vancouver is only across the border, so I rang him and he said he would find me a game. I was expecting just a field but it was in the BC Place Stadium.”

The 60,000-seater domed stadium, which in 1984 was the stage for the Pope’s visit to Canada, is usually the home of the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.

“I was refereeing a high school game between an American team, from just across the border, and a local team and it was played before a BC Lions game. That was a very exciting time.”

Ray says American referees attend BAFRA’s annual conferences and friendships formed led to him having the opportunity to referee a junior game in Houston during one holiday.

The expansion of American Football across Europe means British referees also have the opportunity to officiate on the continent, says Ray.

Ray lays down the law. Pic: Tall Boy Images.

But Ray’s only regret is that while American Football’s popularity is growing in the UK, at present, the South Wales Warriors, who play at Llanharan Rugby Club’s Dairy Field, are the only Welsh team in the British American Football Association National League – a stark contrast to when he first earned his stripes.

“I do wish there were more Welsh teams,” adds Ray, who started at a time when Cardiff had two rival teams and the Swansea Dragons and Gwent Mustangs also competed in the senior leagues with youth teams also based in Cardiff.

Despite the game’s demise at a community level it is thriving among Welsh Universities with Bangor and Swansea having joined the more established teams from Aberystwyth and Cardiff in the British university league over the past 10 years.

Ray, who has made the long trips to officiate at both Aberystwyth and Bangor in the university league that runs over the winter, says he would like to see more support for the game.

“I still watch on the television but I would like to see the local teams represented on the local television, particularly the Welsh university teams.”