On the anniversary of his greatest achievement of officiating at an FA Cup Final, a well-known Norfolk referee has died.
Colin Reeve was linesman at the 1990 decider between Man Utd and Crystal Palace - a game that went on to a replay.
Better known as 'Revie', the former referee died on Sunday, May 12, at the age of 78.
Mr Reeve was born just outside Reepham in 1946 and lived practically all his life in the town.
One of nine children, he learned from an early age to be independent and self-sufficient.
Leaving school at 14, he worked numerous jobs including at Bernard Matthews, Abbey Farm Haveringland, David Cleall Builders and Fordham Johns before retiring with Premier Homes and their subsidiaries.
Mr Reeve met his wife Liz of 52 years in the late 1960s and they married soon after.
His great passion and at times obsession was sport and in particular football.
A feisty and speedy goalscoring right-footed left winger for Reepham Town and numerous Sunday league teams, he scored 30 goals per season for many consecutive years.
Injury curtailed his playing career but this disappointment helped push him towards pursuing his real love - refereeing.
In the early 1970s, and in his last season for Reepham Town, he managed the side to promotion for the first time to the Anglian Combination Premier division.
The achievement was lauded by the local press when they headlined ‘Revie leads Robins to glory’ - a nod to the manager of Leeds United at the time.
During his early football career, he was known to play on Saturdays and referee on Sundays and quipped often, that he "used to kick them on a Saturday and caution them on a Sunday".
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His career with the whistle then accelerated quickly, officiating in the South East counties league, Football Combination and then onwards through the local and regional leagues.
On the journey, he took charge of two schoolboy internationals and was the man in the middle of all the county finals at least once.
With strong values and a common sense approach to life, he took these attributes into the middle and was an honest and well respected tough ‘no nonsense’ referee.
Reaching the National League in the mid-1980s, he often finished in the top 10 nationally for officials' marks and was rewarded by being promoted to the Football League in 1985.
Eventually he was bestowed the honour of being linesman at the 1990 FA Cup final at Wembley.
The match between Crystal Palace and Manchester United went to a replay and Mr Reeve was fortunate enough to officiate in both games and enjoy the honour of the biggest game in club football twice.
By 1992, his age and the formation of the Premier League meant that he dropped back down a standard and continued for a few seasons until injury led him to retire.
Mr Reeve was also a passionate footballing administrator. At 15-years-old, he was the secretary at Reepham Town and picked his messages up from the local pub the Kings Arms.
In later life, as a regular patron of the pub, he was dubbed the ‘Reverend’ as he only visited for a pint on a Sunday.
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Club responsibilities led to local league and county involvements.
He was the fixture secretary of the Anglian Combination for nearly 30 years and also a Norfolk County FA council member for the same time.
After retirement, he returned to support the work of close friend Marcus Wilkinson at Reepham Town until an illness to his wife meant he felt he needed to be at home more.
During his final weeks, many people paid tribute to his decency, honesty and common sense - with the abiding notion that he was 'a proper bloke'.
He died peacefully in hospital surrounded by his family, and is survived by his son, daughter and three grandchildren.
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