Is There an Arbiter In the House

I was at a match last week and on Board 2 the Guy arrived almost half an hour late.

He sat down looked at the clock and said that will have to be reset, the board has been set up incorrectly.

Everything looked OK, but he pointed out that the notation lettering on the side of the board had been inverted.

White was set up on the seventh and eighth ranks, black on the first and second.

The Home Captain refused a reset.

He said the board was in a correct position for the game to start and the letterring was peripheral to that. 

Who was right here

The guy is making excuses for being late imo.

Yep, he is making excuses. At most the clock could be stopped to set up the board correctly to make it easier to write down the moves. A clock reset for something like this (or most other things) is just rubbish.