Whatever motivated long-serving Brad-ford soccer referee Eddie Kalinowski, who died recently aged 81, it certainly wasn't money.

A tribute to him from the Bradford Ref-erees' Association, the Bradford Sunday Alliance League and Philip Rhodes from the West Riding County Amateur League noted: "Over the seasons, referees' fees in local football have risen.

"But Eddie was never known to take his full fee. His reply was The cost of running a team is expensive and my unpaid fee is my contribution to the club'."

Kalinowski, who only retired from refereeing in early 2006 in his 48th successive season, didn't let ill health deter him either.

"It is not a generally known fact that, in 1996, Eddie was diagnosed with lung cancer and lost 40 per cent of one of his lungs.

"Eddie was convinced that he would not be able to referee, go for walks in the Yorkshire Dales - another of the hobbies he had taken up since retiring from full-time employment - or go on holiday to the Scottish highlands.

"His surgeon, who was himself a rugby union referee, told Eddie that there was a great shortage of referees and officials in all sports, and that losing part of his lung would make no difference to his ability to referee."

Within six months, he was refereeing again. Born in Puck, Poland, Eddie, who was a war-time part-time professional with St Johnstone, worked in the wool trade and, after retirement, was manager of Carlton Bolling Sports Centre and was Santa Claus at Tong Garden Centre.