Referee speaks out after man wields gun at under-10s football match
Nick Fish was refereeing a Ledbury Swifts youth football match when he was alerted to the fact a man was wielding a gun on the adjacent pitch at Ledbury Rugby Club.
The experienced referee took the children to safety while police searched nearby woods for the man.
“I was refereeing and I was approached by the management of the rugby club. They said they were looking for a man with a gun, he had been on the side of a football pitch with it and had since gone into the woods,” he said.
“At that point I stopped the football and phoned the police.”
As the vice president of Ledbury Swifts and the club’s welfare officer, Mr Fish was the senior individual on site and was forced to act quickly, moving the children to the top end of the field before speaking to the parents and doing the same with them.
“Once the police arrived, they walked through the woods, walked the perimeter,” he said. “It took about an hour and a quarter.”
After the man could not be found in the nearby area, one of the two games at the rugby club was able to be finished, while the other had to be abandoned.
A police spokesperson said : “We were called to Ledbury Rugby Football Club following a report of that a person had been seen with a firearm.
“Officers attended and a search was carried out but no suspect or firearm were located.
“It later became clear that the sighting took place several hours before it was reported to police.”
Following the match, on Saturday morning, Mr Fish reported it to the Herefordshire Football Association.
“I think everybody was happy with how it was dealt with – we have had some social media comments and it was dealt with very professionally, calmly,” he said.
“Everyone was happy with what we did and at the end of the day it is the first time I have every come across it in football, it is an isolated event, we are going to review our policy this week with a view to it not happening again. Make sure everybody knows they should not be bringing that sort of thing onto a football pitch.
“I have been involved with Ledbury Swifts for 20 years – it is the first time I have ever had anything like that happen.”
The scary event has left Mr Fish frustrated at the ‘stupidity’ of the individual.
He added: “It is somebody’s stupidity and lack of thought. One person’s stupidity causes a lot of chaos for lots of people.”