Huddersfield Giants

I first started watching Huddersfield (Fartown) in 1945 and have never ceased to be a supporter since then. For about half of my time, I have had to travel from homes in Keighley and Bradford. I have been a terrace side supporter for much of that time, but in 1988 when the club was at its lowest ebb and was about to close down completely as a professional club, I came down from that terrace and became part of a 3-man consortium led by Mick Murphy to save the club. I got out of the printing industry and became the club’s only full-time worker running things from a Portacabin under the Main Stand.

The club did re-establish itself and it was my proud boast that I managed to run every game without paying out a penny in costs due to some incredible volunteers.

Sadly, when I had lost as much money as I could afford it was time to go back to the terrace and just enjoy match days as before.

Having handled many of the club’s affairs at the RFL, I was then invited by David Oxley of that body to join their Disciplinary Team where I stayed for 26 seasons.
When it became known to the club that I had completed 70 seasons of non-stop support, Chairman Ken Davey kindly invited me to re-join the Board as an Associate Director.

When I remarried in 1985, we flew to Las Vegas and of course I wore a claret and gold Huddersfield no.5 jersey on the day in tribute to my favourite player of all time, Lionel Cooper.

High spots, first win at Wembley in 1953. Low spots, being in the 300 fans who witnessed a terrible end to the 1987/88 season.