Just recently two of Natal's top referees have died, two men who made a great contribution to rugby football - Dave Dell and Izak Wessels.

Dave Dell was essentially a man of Pietermaritzburg. He was born there, grew up there, went to school, there studied there, taught there and retired there before moving down to the coast at Pennington last November.

David Meredith Rhodes Dell - CJ Rhodes was his great uncle - was born on 20 August 1940. He started school at Boys' Model before moving to Merchiston, where he was the dux and then up to Maritzburg College. From there he went to university in Natal and then taught at Maritzburg College from 1963 to 1987. He was a senior deputy at College and then moved on to become the principal of Linpark, retiring in 2000. When he was  principal of Linpark, formerly Pietermaritzburg Tech, his wife was the principal of Russell High in Pietermaritzburg.

While at College he played for two seasons in the 1st XV, 1957 and 1958, with Skonk Nicholson as his coach. In 1983 he took over from Skonk as the College 1st XV coach, as he did till he left College.

He was in his time a Currie Cup referee in the 1970s.

Dave was a man of many interests. He had three books of poetry published, restored antique furniture and an expert interest in silver, acted as an auctioneer, took a geographer's interest in weather patterns, read a lot and listened to jazz. The cause of his death is uncertain. He suddenly became thinner and was tested for cancer but the tests were negative. He died in Pennington on 12 March 2009, survived by his wife Faye.

Izak Wessels was a Free Stater who migrated to Natal in 1974, a prison warden who became an administration manager for Ithala Bank for 30 years. He was also a provincial referee and then served  the society as an administrator.

Izak Marthinus Wessels was born in Excelsior on 11 October 1948 and he went to school in Excelsior. He became a referee, refereeing from 1971 to 1990 when he gave up to spend more time with his family. At one stage he was on the panel of the top ten referees in South Africa.

He became the secretary and then the chairman of the Durban Referees' Subsociety and the secretary and then the vice-president of Natal Referees' Society.

When he moved from refereeing he became the chairman of the Toti Camera Club, played bowls and enjoyed fishing and camping.

He had a tough battle with cancer which started in his prostate and was in hospital for the last two and a half months of his life. He died at his home in Winkelspruit on 2 May 2009, survived by his wife Magda, his son Izak, his daughters Chrizel Yeats and Izel Thomson, and four grandchildren.