James Child
| DOB | 4 July 1983 |
| First Society | Dewsbury & Batley |
| Joined Grade 1 list | 2008 |
| Joined Full-Time List: | 2010 |
James Child had been a touch-judge in eight Super League Grand Finals between 2007 and 2016, and in five Challenge Cup Finals, before refereeing the 2017 Betfred Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford.
His wealth of big-match experience also includes video-refereeing appointments for two Challenge Cup Finals at Wembley, and the touch-judge role at World Cup Finals in Brisbane in 2008 and at Old Trafford in 2013.
He was on the panel of referees for the 2017 World Cup, with his appointments including England’s quarter final win against Papua New Guinea, and identifies Stuart Cummings, Russell Smith, Rex Milner, Geoff Berry and Tony Brown among his major influences – although “without doubt, my biggest champion has always been my dad. For the first 10 years he took me to pretty much every game I officiated, but now he prefers to watch on TV – he can’t hear the comments from the crowd that way!”