South Yorkshire Times, May 2nd, 1970
He’s Number One Referee – ‘Down Under’
A former Swinton referee has been voted Western Australia’s number one man-in-the-middle this season – and his brother has taken an award as top Forces referee in Germany. Kilnhurst-born Barry Harwood (28) and his brother Alan (33) have achieved this remarkable double for Swinton for consistently good performances in their own spheres – and for Barry that means refereeing top representative matches Down Under.
A former Mexborough Association League referee, Barry emigrated to Australia four years ago, and now he has settled in Perth and married a top Australian badminton player. His wife, Joan, is secretary of the Western Australian badminton federation, and has unofficially represented her country in the All-England Championships at Wembley.
The couple left Swinton on Monday after a month’s stay as part of their honeymoon. They have visited Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Moscow on the way to the old country, and will stop off at Johannesburg and Rome on the return trip.
Masseur
The it’s back to Perth, where Barry is a masseur, and to refereeing – the season will just have started out there. Says Barry: “The football in Western Australia top league is about Yorkshire League standard, and matches are played on Sundays to avoid a clash with Australian rules football, which is the big sport over there.”
When Barry began refereeing ‘Down Under’ he was at the bottom of the ladder. Now he has under his belt the Western Australia v South Australia representative tie, the State v the Greek National team, and matches against Inter Bratislava and Lev Yashin’s Moscow Dynamo.
The Best
In fact, Barry was at the centre of a big controversy this season, when the Greeks asked for a F.I.F.A. referee for their big match. The State refused and held out for Barry. The Greek’s capitulated – and after the match agreed he was the best they had encountered in Australia. It was after this that Barry was voted Western Australia’s referee of the year
Are there any problems over there? Barry says; “There is a verbal battle between followers of Australian rules football, and football as we know it. But with immigrants and better television coverage, soccer is becoming increasingly important.
Language Difficulty
“There are also language difficulties as a lot of the players have come from different countries. And Perth is just about the most isolated city in the world. It’s 1,200 miles to Adelaide, the nearest State capital, so there isn’t much contact.”
Barry’s parents live at 4 Benton Terrace, and he has four other brothers living in England and one other, Alan, who will be home from Germany in May.