It's a 70-minute game!

Just when you dare think "ah, the end of the season is nigh" up crops a host of hastily re-arranged appointments and, before you know it, May is already looking busy on the officiating front.

This weekend a AR appointment commands my attentions on Saturday at Evesham, a junior festival in Somerset on Sunday, while the following weekend heralds a County Cup final and 7s tournament the week after.

But this week a call came in at late notice from TW1 to referee the AASE plate final between Filton Academy and St Paul's College at Henely on Wednesday, so after sweet-talking the boss for the day off, it was a 2-hour rush up the M4.

Oh my - but how these boys have grown! Given that Filton feed into Bristol and St Paul's into London Irish, I was expecting two teams of (and how to out this delicately) "well-conditioned" young men, but when the St Paul's captain towered above me at at least 6ft 4, I felt, well, tiny.

And it did seem bizarre in having to enforce under-19 laws in a match played by two excellent teams who would otherwise demolish plenty of senior sides, but how pleased did I feel when, with only 15 minutes played of the second half, the questions of "how much longer ref?" started coming.

How much longer? You lot are *cough splutter* almost half my age - you should have oodles of breath left in you!

Kids these days - bulging biceps and bags of gas, but where's their stamina, eh?