YORK'S favourite mint-wielding football referee, Lol Cussons, turns 75 on Sunday but he still has no intention of hanging up his whistle.

And just to stress the point, he will take charge of two games on his birthday - Wigginton Grasshoppers v Black Bull in the Leeper Hare York and District League and St John's College v Rawcliffe in the York Sunday Afternoon League.

Cussons, who refereed the likes of George Best in his heyday, has now clocked up 52 years of officialdom and is the oldest ref in the North Riding, yet he remains as keen as ever to don his black strip.

As some readers may remember, the Evening Press feted on Cussons when he passed his 70th birthday and there was another article once he passed the 50-years-in-the-middle mark. Little has changed since then.

He still takes his mints out on the park with him - he is famous for deflating fraught moments by offering players a Polo - and he still runs about the pitch like a youngster.

"I still get a lot of pleasure out of it," said Cussons, of South Bank. "I wouldn't keep galloping all over the field at my age if I didn't. There's nothing clever about it, I'm just lucky."

Cussons played for Terry's - "I was only an average player" - before and after doing his National Service just after the Second World War but once that team folded due to too many players getting called into Service, he stayed involved in the game by turning to refereeing, taking his first match in 1952.

He worked his way up the ladder until he got called up to the Football League, firstly as a linesman and then a referee, making his debut in the middle in 1968.

He reffed the likes of Everton, Manchester United, Liverpool and Newcastle in these days - and not once in his League career did he flaunt the red card, choosing instead a calming word and a mint.

"The behaviour of players was much better then but I don't think you'd be able to do that now," he explained.

"The game is played faster and harder and the discipline of players is not the same. When I first refereed Man United, the players were on £20 a week. I don't know if there's an affiliation between the money situation and the behaviour but there's more cards brandished now.

"A lot of local players these day ape things they see on the TV, and they can sometimes see the bad things and forget the good."

In 1970, he returned to his reffing roots in the local leagues and he's remained whistle-happy ever since.

"I've done over 2,800 matches and I've only ever sent five people off," he said of his 52-year career.

"An advantage for me is that the players know I have some form and that's half the battle. It seems big-headed and I don't mean to be, but I get few problems because they give ear to experience.

"The mints can also diffuse a situation. Before I show a card a say, 'have a mint and shut up,' and it takes the tension away.

"I'm well known for that now and if someone steps out of line the players shout, 'Give him a mint, Lol'."

Updated: 10:14 Saturday, November 08, 2003