In The Middle Trivia Quiz

Answer: Italy

Born in Bologna, Italy in 1960, Pierluigi Collina began refereeing in the late 1970s after a short stint as a defender. His rise through the Italian domestic leagues was rapid and within a few years the man with the iconic bald head was regularly officiating difficult games in Serie A. His progression didn't stop at the top of the Italian game of course as he soon found himself in the European and international arenas, officiating at tournaments such as the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA World Cup.

Collina reached the very top of the European club game in 1999 when he officiated at the incredibly memorable UEFA Champions League final in Barcelona featuring Manchester United and Bayern Munich. With the regular ninety minutes played, the German side were leading 1-0 and looked all but certain to lift the trophy; the next few minutes turned out to be the most incredible in the history of European football with Manchester United scoring not one but two goals. What made this event historic was that it was the first time that an English side had managed to complete the treble (winning the English Premier League, English FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League for a specified season).

In 2002, Collina went as far as a football referee can go when he officiated at the FIFA World Cup final where Brazil defeated Germany by two goals to nil in Yokohama, Japan.

Answer: South Africa

South Africa has a habit of producing top quality rugby union referees; not only did Andre Watson referee two Rugby World Cup finals on the bounce (1999 and 2003) but compatriot Craig Joubert made it to the most important match in international rugby in 2011. Given that the competition was first contested in 1987, a recent innovation compared to the FIFA World Cup which has been going since 1930, it meant that three of the first seven Rugby World Cup finals had a South African in charge. The finals in question were:

1999) Australia 35 - 12 France
2003) England 20 - 17 Australia
2011) New Zealand 8 - 7 France

Answer: Cricket

The typically placid nature of the sport of cricket can be the very reason why it is so difficult to officiate well; the days are often long and concentration must be kept at all times or as an umpire, you are likely to be found out. Was it a legal delivery? Did it pitch in line with the wicket? Was the ball missing the wicket? Did he catch a sneaky inside edge? Did the wicket keeper really catch that? These questions are just some of those that can be thrown at an umpire at any time and the likes of Bucknor, Koertzen, Shepherd and particularly Australia's Taufel were successful in that environment. Umpires have historically tended to be on the older side but Simon Taufel bucked the trend by making it to the Elite Panel of ICC (International Cricket Council) Umpires in his early 30s.

It is now quite common to see younger umpires on the world stage.

Answer: Snooker

The sport of snooker was deemed by promoters to be in need of a bit of an aesthetic transformation in order to make it appeal to a wider 21st century audience both in the UK and around the world. Scotland's Michaela Tabb quietly played her part in that when in 2003 she became an official, in what was then very much a man's world, at the most prestigious of all snooker competitions, the Snooker World Championship.

After six years refereeing at the highest level she was rewarded with the chance to oversee the biggest game of the 2009 season, the final of that very competition.

She would continue to be included amongst the elite of snooker's referees for many years after that, notably featuring at the final of the 2012 World Championship. As a keen pool player, Michaela Tabb featured on the refereeing circuit of that sport as well.

Answer: Australian Rules Football

Australian rules football is an exhilarating sport, characterised by incredible marks and flowing play, that makes you breathless just watching. The game is overseen by an army of officials, people who traditionally wore white clothing which gave rise to the less than flattering nickname of "white maggot". Umpires no longer wear white exclusively so the white has been dropped from the insult to leave just "maggot"!

Answer: Rugby League

Rugby league is a very different game to rugby union despite sharing the rugby name; the former is very much about big tackling and uninterrupted play whilst the latter values competitive restarts and tactical play. One of the many jobs undertaken by rugby league officials such as Australia's Tony Archer and England's Richard Silverwood is to keep count of the tackles that comprise a "set of six"; after a team is tackled six times then the ball is turned over to the other side and they begin a set of six of their own. Rugby league often leads the way with respect to reforming the way sport is officiated particularly with how it has made use of video replays and television match officials.

Answer: Cycling

Cycling bucks the trend when it comes to terminology related to its disciplines and officials with "commissaire" being a good example of that. To those who regularly follow cycling, the chief commissaire and his commissaire underlings will be familiar individuals but for the casual observer of sports it is perhaps a term that is only heard during major international events such as the Olympic Games. During the velodrome cycling events at the 2012 London Olympics, the chief commissaire attracted the attention (and ire) of some sports journalists and commentators of the home nation.

In particular, the chief commissaire became high profile when one of Great Britain's multiple gold medal hopes, Victoria Pendleton, was relegated in both the team sprint and individual sprint events.

Despite this she still obtained a gold medal in the quirky keirin event.

Answer: Raymond van Barneveld

Raymond van Barneveld was one of the great Dutch players in the sport (yes sport!) of darts, a game of precision that is wildly popular in the land of all things orange. Perhaps the highlight of his career was winning the PDC World Darts Championship in 2007 where he narrowly defeated the outstanding Phil Taylor of England.

In so doing he became only the fourth winner of the competition which was first contested in 1994 and dominated by Phil Taylor for the first fifteen years. In 2009, Taylor and van Barneveld met once again at the final with Taylor emphatically gaining revenge over his Dutch opponent. Bruce Spendley was a referee who was a stalwart of the PDC World Darts Championship, calling the scores at many finals over the years until he decided in 2013 that enough was enough and retirement beckoned. Bruce Spendley, the man with one of the greatest 180 calls in the game, bowed out after refereeing the second half of the 2013 PDC World Darts Championship between Phil Taylor and compatriot of van Barneveld, Michael van Gerwen.

This particular geek of all things refereeing misses Bruce Spendley a great deal!

Answer: Wimbledon

The oldest of the four Grand Slam events of tennis, Wimbledon, is steeped in history and convention. There is a requirement for example that players wear clothes that are entirely white with the exception of discreet logos. There is also an expectation that is enforced quite rigorously, particularly at the show courts, that the crowd keep noise to an absolute minimum; this is in stark contrast to the more vocal ways of the US Open. Keeping order at centre court is one of the jobs of the chair umpire, the official that has the power to overrule the line judges who make the initial in-or-out calls. In 2013, after a long wait, Sweden's Mohamed Lahyani officiated at the men's singles final which was contested by Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic. This was a most notable match as Andy Murray became the first British player to win the men's singles at Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.

In 2014, Britain's James Keothavong was the chair umpire at the men's singles final for the first time; the match was between two of the most successful players of the early 21st century, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

Answer: Germany 2006

"The Battle of Nuremberg" was a quite incredible football match but for all the wrong reasons. One has to sympathise with Russian referee Valentin Ivanov who seemed to have absolutely no impact on the game at all with sixteen yellow cards and four red cards turning out to be completely ineffective.

In circumstances where players from both teams wish to play extremely negatively, what is a referee to do? The game was one of the eight that constituted the "last sixteen" of the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany and was "fought" by Portugal and Netherlands.

The four players red carded by Ivanov were Portugal's Costinha and Deco with Khalid Boulahrouz and Giovanni van Bronckhorst being sent from the field for Netherlands. Netherlands won the game by the way, one goal to nil!