Whistle blown on Davy's referee career

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Ice hockey chiefs were lining up John Davy to referee an international game - until they learned that his resume was riddled with fibs.

Mr Davy, the dumped chief of Maori Television Service, claimed to have been a referee with the National Hockey League in North America.

But Herald sources said Mr Davy was a poor social-grade referee who had taken a one-day training course.

Canterbury Ice Hockey Association officials wanted him to control a game on July 11 between New Zealand and the Canadian Moose side.

Canterbury association president Ian Bell said: "We thought, 'this is newsworthy, this will put us on the map.' "

The plans were dropped when Mr Davy was sacked from the television service and it was discovered that his refereeing skills were modest.

Mr Bell said Mr Davy would have been out of his depth refereeing an international game.

Canadian High Commission councillor Bill Bowden said: "Like everyone else, us Canadians believe what people say." Ice hockey was like rugby - a tough game to referee.

An accountant in the Canadian ski-resort town of Whistler, Robbie Thorn, said he had refereed social-grade games with Mr Davy, whose skills were "very poor".

And Dave Crowther, the former referee-in-chief of Whistler minor hockey, told the Vancouver Sun that Mr Davy's skills were "terrible". "This guy had the most unusual grasp of reality I've ever seen anywhere."

Full coverage: Maori TV