MISTER REF - Test Referee Max Baise's story

Mister Ref: Test referee Max Baise's story.

By Max Baise, edited by Amanda Botha.

Published by Max Baise, 2015. Soft cover, 192 pages. Neat condition; as new

The story takes us from Žagare in northern Lithuania to Hoopstad north of Bloemfontein in the Free State; from the Outspan Hotel in Odendaalsrus to Ellis Park in Johannesburg; from a chance meeting to the famous fourth Test of 1974. It is a great story and reminds us older folk of the rugby in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s and also of the opportunities that South Africa gave people and denied people in those days. The Odendaalsrus meeting is astonishing. Two cousins, adult children of Jewish immigrants, living in the Northern Free State, two men keen on rugby, went for a beer at the Outspan Hotel. There they saw many cars, asked the barman what was happening and was told there was a referees' meeting. Max suggested to cousin Solly that they became referees. They both became Test referees. In fact they both refereed Tests in the same series when the Wallabies toured South Africa in 1969.

The autobiography takes us through Max Baises playing career a centre for Free State Schools while at the Blouskool in Kroonstad and on through his refereeing career. He goes through his great career as a special referee, one who brought much personality to a dour job, in a sense the forerunner of the modern refereeing. Most interestingly there is a great deal on that fourth Test in 1974 when the Springboks and the British Lions drew 13-all and Baise's part in it especially awarding a Roger Uttley try and not a Fergus Slattery one. There are forewords to the book written by Uttley and Slattery.