It’s not rocket science
(ER... WELL, IT IS FOR TOUCH JUDGE CLINT)
“CAN you make an atomic bomb?” is not the first question top match officials are normally asked.
And “Do you glow in the dark?” doesn’t usually crop up in conversations with rugby league’s men in black.
But touch judge Dr Clint Sharrad hears both regularly, plus a whole raft of others, thanks to his day job.
The 42-year-old, who has run the line at seven Grand Finals, two Challenge Cup finals plus World Club Challenge games, is a nuclear scientist.
He lectures at Manchester University and the list of publications and studies to his name would frankly be mind-boggling to the average fan.
But Aussie-born Sharrad admits he’s well used to the reaction when people discover his fusion of jobs.
He laughed: “I usually try not to mention the nuclear thing because it scares people away.
“If people ask I’ll tell them I’m a chemist because that’s what my PhD is in but if they delve a bit more I’ll mention that I’m a nuclear scientist and engineer.
“That’s when they think you’re going to glow in the dark or ask if I can make an atomic bomb.
“Some people think it’s kind of cool
because of Breaking Bad but then they realise it’s actually quite dull.” When Sharrad is mixing in academic circles, there is also a similar intrigue if anyone discovers his second job.
The man who grew up in Ipswich, Australia, idolising local hero Alfie Langer, said: “They will ask me which code and I always say the better one.”
Although time consuming, fatherof-one Sharrad says the combination of the two jobs gives him a balance.
He said: “It’s good to have a release and do something different. In some respects it’s healthy as a match official to be able to go to another job.
“There are quite a few academics among the officials and guys who have jobs more interesting than mine.
“Basically as a nuclear scientist I’m looking at ways of managing the nuclear legacy, improving nuclear energy by making it more sustainable and acceptable to the public as a carbon energy. Of making it better for the environment.”