READING referee Ray Emmans officiated at his 1,000th Hellenic League game on Saturday.

He was one of the referee’s assistants at the Division 1 East fixture between Wokingham & Emmbrook and Chalfont Wasps.

In all, Emmans has been involved in more than 2,000 matches since his first appointment in 1971 for the game between Thatcham and Burnham.

As well as the Hellenic, he completed 300 Isthmian League games in 11 seasons, plus another 50 on the Conference, Southern and Football Combination leagues.

Ray helped form the Allied Counties Under-18 League, which saw the man in black tot up another 500 matches.

The 1986 Berks & Bucks Senior Cup final between Wycombe Wanderers and Aylesbury United and the FA XI versus Isthmian League XI are among his highlights.

However, his biggest claim to fame came when he was seen refereeing matches in six episodes of the Channel 4 TV series The Manageress which was aired in 1989 and 1990.

Now aged 68, he is coming to an end of his refereeing career with his work commitments at the Reading FC Academy also taking up more of his time, but he is still looking to get through around 40 games a season.

The players of Wokingham & Emmbrook and Chalfont Wasps formed a guard of honour for him as he took to the field before last Saturday’s game at Lowther Road, while the host club later presented him with a bottle of whiskey.

I hope the Hellenic League will also show some gratitude to Emmans and I doubt if anyone will ever beat his record.