During his refereeing career he was based in Stourbridge, in the borough of Dudley, West Midlands, and was by profession a legal executive.
This is a well-remembered Final, not least for a crucial double-save by North East goalkeeper Jimmy Montgomery, as Sunderland, of the old Second Division, defeated Leeds, one of the top clubs in the country at that time, by 1 goal to nil.
[6] He also took charge of a European Cup quarter-final between Bayern Munich and Ajax in 1973,[7] and of Club Brugge's famous win over Real Madrid in the same competition in the autumn of 1976.
He would probably have received more appointments of this stature, but for his busy fellow West Midlander, Wolverhampton's Jack Taylor, who was England's senior representative at that time.
By coincidence, his career had overlapped with another long-serving Football League, FA Cup Final and international referee from Stourbridge – Eric Jennings.