Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2014 | Page 23

INTERVIEW

and Newchurch, often refereeing two
games on a Saturday and two more on a
Sunday.
He said: “My mum and dad were taking
me all over the place to referee games.
My first senior game was Niton Reserves,
and I wasn’t even old enough. The Island
referees’ secretary asked me to do it,
saying it wasn’t official but telling me to
ask mum and dad to just drive past the
Niton ground; the players knew I would
be coming. I jumped out of the car, got
changed and took charge of the game.
The pitch had the biggest slope in the
world - it was all right running down it,
but never easy to get back up it.”
Lee kept a written record of all the games
he officiated, and as a youngster he also
wrote in the book: ‘Arsenal v Liverpool,
Barclays League Division One (one day)!’
“Of course I had ambitions, but you
never really know what you are going to
achieve, and how you are going to do it,”
he smiled. “After refereeing Island games,
I was lucky enough to be asked to referee

"Forget about double
French, you will
never be any good at
French, but you might
have a chance as a
referee."
in the Hampshire League, then in the
Southern League aged just 21 - one of the
youngest ever referees. I remember being
asked how I would get the respect of the
players, being so young, and I said ‘as
long as I get my decisions right I am sure
they won’t worry about how old I am’.”
After leaving school Lee worked for
a family-run gift shop business on the
Island, before he and his late father
started a window cleaning company. Lee

later moved to Bridgewater in Somerset,
working for an agricultural firm, and
then on to Bristol before refereeing
commitments prompted him to become
self-employed, setting up another
cleaning company in Bath. However, he
says: “I have always regarded the Isle of
Wight as home, and I still call it home.”
He continued his refereeing ascendancy
in the Conference League before being
appointed a Football League linesman for
a game at Exeter City. He was then asked
to take charge of his first Football League
game in 2003 - Northampton Town v
Torquay when the temperature on the
pitch that August afternoon reached 106
degrees F.
Lee continued to impress at Football
League level, and in 2007 he was invited
to step up to Premier League level. He
said: “There is no better feeling than being
asked to be a referee in the biggest league
in the world, and getting the best seat in
the house. My first Premier League game
was Derby County v Birmingham City,
www.visitilife.com

23