On Friday evening at the rugby club in Parow 25 of Western Province's non-active referees met, some for the first time since they stopped refereeing.

Freek Burger had the idea and he, Bobby Black, James Apollis and Paul van Blommestein set about contacting the referees for a social evening.

The oldest referee present was Harry Abrahams at 80 with Alan Hirschberg close behind him at 79. There were several former provincial referees there - Freek Burger, who was a Test referee in his day and later the manager of South African referees, Harry Abrahams, a former Test referee, Wynand Mans, Paul van Blommestein, Bobby Black, who was the chairman of Eastern Transvaal (Valke) before migrating to the Western Province, Justus Potgieter, Dionne Katzenellenbogen, Alan Hirschberg, James Apollis, Frikkie van Wyk, Gerald Njengele and the three living chairmen - Paul Dobson, Douglas Holwill and the current chairman Dennis Immelman.

Playing on a  big screen was film footage of matches past - in the days before crouch-touch-pause-engage, when Scrums went down in the players' time and did not collapse, when putting the ball in skew was a major offence. This produced that good, "how much better it all was" feeling!

There were speeches by Freek Burger, Dion Katzenellenbogen, Harry Abrahams and the three chairmen with contributions by others.

The passing of some well known members was marked - Ralph Burmeister, Hansie Schoeman, Boy Louw, Wessel Kolesky, Sammy Loots, Willem Brits, Salie Davids, Frank Greenblatt, Gordon Joffe, Flappie Kuün, PCF Smit, Carl Spannenberg, TC Hartzenburg, Denis van Rensburg and Nick Snyman.

There were lavish snacks and no end of cheerful conversation, all the men delighted to see each other again. It is hoped that more will come of the idea.