Tom McCarthy, whose Central Bar at No. 40 Main Street, Castleisland is a virtual Mecca of televised sports and huge draw for fans of everything from horse racing to rugby.
As we say here, ’tisn’t that at all but Tom got a brainwave over the Christmas period and after the snow prolonged holidays in particular.
As people and customers of his began to unwind from the cabin fever and confinement of the ‘winter wonderland’ period he noticed a little cattiness and excusable irritability among some during the unwinding process.
During one such exchange someone in the bar mentioned that the transgressor should get a yellow card.
Referee Dropped In
As it happened, later in the week, a referee dropped in for a drop and Tom asked him if he had a spare set of cards and the man obliged a couple of days later and now Tom is nearly as well equipped as any inter county or international referee.
He admitted he couldn’t wait to knock a use out of the cards and he also admitted that the minor discretion hardly merited a card at all but that he couldn’t resist the power in his hands.
Even so the yellow had the desired effect and his regulars have opened a book on the most likely amongst them to fall victim to the red card.
First Red Card in 1976
The first UK soccer player to be shown a red card was Blackburn Rovers player David Wagstaffe in 1976 in a second division match against Leyton Orient and the red card was inspired by traffic lights?
UK referee Ken Aston was in charge of the referees for the home based 1966 World Cup and it dawned on him that changes had to come about in the game as it wasn’t obvious to the spectators that a player was sent off the field of play in the increasingly big arenas.
Yellow = Aisy Patie !
It seems that while waiting at traffic lights the idea of the red card as a clear indicator came to him. The card system was experimented with at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico and it was successful.
Now it and the yellow are a force at Tom McCarthy’s Central Bar on Castleisland’s Main Street.
The yellow is only a kind of an ‘Aisy Patie’ warning – as Dauber would say. The red is the boy. But who’ll be the first?
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