John Connolly and the ‘personality girls’

Ah, that infamous moment when referee John Connolly patted the bums of two women in front of five million BBC viewers—the last bastion of cheeky male chauvinism. It happened during a televised Challenge Cup quarter-final at Wheldon Road in February 1994, between Castleford and Widnes. Silk Cut—then sponsors of the comp—hired a couple of models, or whom they called ‘personality girls’, to flank the tunnel and look pretty whilst the players ran out into the arena. It’s a similar thing to what they do with darts on Sky, a bit of eye candy on the arm of a working class hero. We can but dream…

Anyway, as we’re watching the box, waiting for the teams to come out, the obligatory boos rang out in anticipation of the officials’ entrance. Connolly strides out…and then the double take. ‘He didn’t just pat that blonde girl’s arse, did he? No surely not. I’m sure he did.’ If, by half time, the incident was still a figment of our imaginations, Connolly confirmed our suspicions by switching wings at the start of the second half and patting the brunette’s buns. It was the kind of action you’d expect a pissed-up Ollie Reed to do on a programme like The Word; but this wasn’t a Friday night programme watched only by the young and boozed-up, drug addled masses, it was Saturday afternoon!

Apparently, Connolly knew the women:

It was just a joke. I know the girls very well… I have personally received one letter of complaint from a lady in Halifax and I’ve replied to her. I told my wife about all this and we had a good laugh.John Connolly

So you had a good laugh eh…

I’m saying nothing at all about this.John Connolly’s wife

The women in question didn’t complain, but the RFL also failed to see the funny side of it; even though they had a paltry three letters of protest. Naturally, Connolly apologised. Nevertheless, we’ve never forgotten the episode. For services to keeping the On The Buses spirit alive in the nineties, either tip your hat or scowl in disgust at a true RL maverick.