There was a November record turnout of GROGs to hear international rugby referee, Mike Adamson, talk about his career as a player (GHK, Hawks, Warriors and Scotland 7’s) and as a referee.. Even although he had a splendid playing career, Mike was fairly unassuming in his description of it. How many others would highlight that their playing career with Warriors lasted all of 5 minutes …. in a losing side? Mike gave a wide ranging talk covering his impressive playing career and an equally impressive, though still unfinished, refereeing career. He incorporated equal doses of humour, pride in his achievements, gratitude for everything rugby has given him and interesting details of his experiences. His rugby career was highlighted by his 30 Scotland international 7’s caps. He had many happy memories of that time although being in the losing side to Chinese Taipei at the Hong Kong 7’s was not one of them! His first big break in refereeing came when, out of the blue, he was asked to referee a bounce 7’s match between Australia and Wales before the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Naturally he said ‘yes’ and since then his star has continued to rise. Mike felt timing favoured him when 7’s was included as an Olympic event. He was recognised as having expertise in that area and in 2016 off he went to enjoy an amazing experience in Rio as a “Technical Official”, refereeing the opening match of Australia v France. From there he moved on to 15 a side rugby and we got a sense of the proud but eerie feeling he experienced in his first 6 Nations match when England played Italy at Twickenham in 2021 when pandemic rules excluded the presence of a crowd. After a few more memories and a couple of confessions, Mike moved on to discussing the recent Rugby World Cup and had some interesting comments to make. Not the least among these was his view on the newly introduced Bunker system, a view clearly in line with that of a vociferous number of those present. Potentially a good idea but ahead of its time. Mike gave an articulate and interesting presentation before moving up a gear to take questions from the floor. Although the questions were all knowledgeable, Mike wasn’t fazed by them and answered with clear insight and authority. We wished him well in his career with a bottle of the much desired Special GROGS whisky