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At age 13 Nick took a referees
course with Lancashire FA. He started refereeing in the North Bury League
at U10 level for one season. He quickly moved on to 11 a side games in
the North Bury, and Bury and Radcliffe Leagues as well as some school
games at Tottington High School.
Nick had just
reached his 16th birthday when he progressed to assistant
referee on the North West Counties Division 2 League swiftly followed by
progression to Lancashire Amateur League as a referee at age 19.
Nick obtained
level 4 in 2006 / 07 and began to referee in the NW Counties Div 2 along
with assistant appointments in the Conference North and Unibond and NW
Counties Div 1 Leagues.
The FA appointed
him to 2 development games Rossendale Utd v Chorley and the U18
premiership youth fixture between Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers.
At the end of
the season Nick was promoted to level 3 making him the senior referee in
the Bury Referee’s Association. This meant he could referee in Conference
North, Unibond League and NW Counties Div 1 games and assistant referee
on Conference League games.
This season
Nick has been at Altrincham, Burton Albion, Droylsden and Northwich
Victoria in the Conference League. He also appeared on the Premier League
Reserves games, Everton v Sunderland and Liverpool v Manchester United
Reserves at Warrington Rugby Club with a crowd of 11,000…!!!
Nick has
refereed Pontins League reserve games at Accrington Stanley, Bradford
City, Burnley, Chester City, Huddersfield Town, Morecambe, Rochdale and
Tranmere Rovers. He was the referee for the Lancashire FA Professional
Youth Cup Final Blackpool v Wigan.
Nick is a
member of Lancashire FA referees Development Group under the leadership
of former premiership referee Eddie Wolstenholme. Nick attends the Young
Referees Conference at Staverton with Premiership referees.
This season he
was appointed a coach / manager and had the privilege of being allocated
to George Cain (Former Premiership referee) George has assisted Nick
through his season and Nick has been grateful for his support and
guidance.
This season
Nick has been appointed to the National list of assistant referees. Since
then Nick has received his first appointment as assistant referee for the
Morecambe v Manchester City game in the Pontin’s Reserve League Cup Semi –
Final. He will again be required to attend the PGMOL conference at
Staverton and have his fitness assessed at Warwick University.
Despite
tremendous successes Nick still loves to referee games at Walshaw and has
never forgotten where he started his refereeing career
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