ROY KING has hung up his boots after 12 years of 100-mile round trips from South Yorkshire to referee in the York area.

Sixty-nine-year-old KIng first started officiating in the York Leeper Hare Football League in 1992 in a game featuring White Horse, Ulleskelf.

On Saturday, he was at the same ground by special request to referee his last match, between White Horse Church Fenton Reserves and Moor Lane Reserves, from York.

"I was trying to blow the final whistle as loud as I could, " said King, "but I was so choked up I could hardly blow it. I'm going to miss it."

Before the match, league president Brian Shearer and referees appointments secretary Chris Dale presented King with a tankard to mark his loyal service.

King went into hospital yesterdayfor a knee operation, and faces an operation on his other knee next month.

He started to referee matches during the miners' strike in 1985 when he helped out in games near his home in Brierley, near Barnsley. He was a miner for 34 years at the now closed Dodworth Colliery, and it is his work there as an onsetter that he blames for the need to have the operations.

King became a Class 1 referee and when he heard through the grapevine that there was a shortage of match officials in York he began his travels. "It is a good standard of football in the Leeper Hare League and the referees are well-respected," he said.

Over the years he became good friends with the landlord and landlady of the White Horse, Nigel and Sue Langrick, and donated a football to the football club's junior teams in each of the last three years. He returned to the pub after the match on Saturday to say his farewells.

But King may still be making appearances at York area matches in the future. He is hoping to accept an offer to assess referees once he has recovered from his operations.

White Horse defeated Moor Lane 3-1 with goals from Jon Sumner, John Marshall and Danny Hirst - a result which condemned Moor Lane to relegation.

Updated: 10:59 Thursday, April 15, 2004