WHEN you've been a top class international referee and an England selector there can only be two people you could really annoy.

Anti-anything-English Max Boyce and anti-establishment Will Carling - and Peter Hughes has upset them both!

For Hughes, a committee man at Burnley RUFC, was the official the bad-losing Welshman penned a song about and was also one of the selectors that Carling infamously labelled as 'The Old Farts'.

But, as Hughes says himself, it's tough at the top and he's been right to the pinnacle.

A former international referee, an England selector, a privileged member of the RFU and an organiser of the Commonwealth Games rugby sevens, the list goes on and on.

But the unlikely common denominator between Boyce and Carling has to be his most unusual claim to fame.

Boyce wrote the words: "Neath blamed Abergavenny, Abergavenny blamed Neath and they both blamed the referee."

That referee just happened to be Peter Hughes.

"It was when the All Blacks were over here in the late 70s," recalls Hughes. "Max wrote the words after they had beaten both Neath and Abergavenny. He was always a bad loser but it was quite amusing to be the referee he was singing about."

It was some years later when Carling's outburst about the England hierarchy caused a few raised eyebrows in the rugby world.

"Of the two, I think I prefer to be know as one of Carling's Old Farts rather than a referee who was supposedly blamed for a team's defeat!"

Of course, there is a lot more to Hughes but rugby wouldn't be rugby without a few amusing anecdotes.

Now aged 65, Hughes regards Burnley RUFC as his base and home and has been since he moved to the area in 1963 - although he never played a game for the club then known as Caldervale.

"I moved to Burnley when I opened my dentist practice and immediately gave up the game," said Hughes a second row who hung up his boots at the tender age of 25. "The problem is you can't work as a dentist with a broken arm or dislocated finger and it was my own practice."

Instead, Hughes took up refereeing and within four years was 'fast tracked' to the National 'A' list. It took him a total of 15 years to be promoted to the International Panel and his first game in charge was the Japan v Scotland match in Tokyo.

That was the first of eight top class games Hughes refereed during his three years on the International Panel. France v Romania, USA v Canada and two matches in charge of the touring Australians, as well as those now famous All Blacks games, followed. But his highlight was the Five Nations match between Ireland and Scotland.

"To referee a match in the Five Nations was a wonderful experience and something I will always treasure. But to be honest I used to get just as much enjoyment refereeing a schools' game."

After three years, Hughes' time on the International Panel was up.

"It was tough at the top but after three years the powers that be decided that my time was up." But it was far from the end.

For in the ensuing years, Hughes' involvement with the game has taken him to 40 different countries - from arranging sevens tournaments in the Caribbean and Asian to being a part of the English Schools committee that saw a young England team including the likes of Will Greenwood, Ian Balshaw and Alex Sanderson triumph in Australia in 97.

Hughes is still actively involved with the English Schools, is president-elect to the Manchester and District Referees Society and is fixture secretary for the North of England invitation side Anti Assassins.

But one his greatest achievements was his involvement in the Commonwealth Games where he was head of the volunteers for the sevens competition.

Having acted as liaison officer for the touring teams of Western Samoa, All Blacks and South Africa in the 80s, Hughes was in the perfect position to oversee the tournament in Manchester.

"Working at the Commonwealth Games and having the responsibility for 137 volunteers gave me a lot of satisfaction and I know the competition was a huge success."

It was a success, so much so that he was approached by the RFU to help organiser the Under 21s World Cup in Oxfordshire this summer. No doubt they will be singing his praises after that event as well.

Blame him for those Neath and Abergavenny defeats, call him an Old Fart but you can't argue with what Peter Hughes has achieved in the game - not even Messrs Boyce and Carling!