50 YEARS AGO

TOP managers Bill Shankly (Liverpool) and Joe Mercer (Manchester City) were among the crowd to watch 44-goal Kevin Hector as Bradford Park Avenue defeated visitors Stockport County 3-1.

Hector didn't add to his record tally, Bobby Ham, Geoff Gould and Albert Broadbent scoring to take the club's seasonal tally to a record 102 goals, beating the 101 that was set three times in the 1920s.

Meanwhile, there was a surprise when it came to Avenue's retained list, with one-time skipper Don McCalman being given a free transfer.

Others in the same boat were Geoff Thomas and McCalman's fellow Scots Sam Lawrie, Eric Burns and James Gilpin.

Bradford City gave free transfers to nine, including goalkeepers James Rollo and Ray Wood, formerly of Manchester United and Huddersfield Town, right back Alan Hopper, centre halves Alan Fox and Michael Smith and wing-half James Thompson.

Brian Close and Fred Trueman had to do a quick-change routine when it came to Yorkshire's match against the West Indian tourists at Park Avenue.

They were expecting the match to start at 11.30am, as per advertised, but arrived at the ground at 10.45am to find out that wickets were pitched for 11am.

Yorkshire made 177-6 declared in front of 3,000, with the Windies replying with 114-4, Conrad Hunte being 66 not out.

25 YEARS AGO

IT WASN'T a good time to be a Bradford City fan.

They had lost a record £643,000 in 1990, prompting Bantams chairman Dave Simpson to say that belts must be tightened and that there was no prospect of them splashing out on transfer dealings as they had when buying Sean McCarthy for £250,000 from Plymouth Argyle the year before.

And on top of all that, it was then announced that Grattan's three-year shirt sponsorship deal had ended, and that injury-hit Mark Stuart was being transfer-listed ten months after coming to Valley Parade for £80,000, also from Plymouth.

Bradford Northern, meanwhile, were showing interest in Australian Greg Alexander, but were facing competition from Leeds and Wigan to sign the Penrith player.

Leeds United signed the Wallace twins, Rod and Ray, from Southampton, while Bradford Coalite Dukes speedway team acquired Australian Craig Hodgson.

Dukes rider Gary Havelock won the British final, prompting club director Bobby Ham to say that he deserved an England recall for the World Pairs semi-final in Pardubice, Czech Republic on June 16.

A lack of preparation time certainly didn't hamper Haworth cyclist Dave Rayner.

Just a day after finishing 57th in the Tour of Spain, he won the fourth round of the Scottish Provident League in Bristol, despite his bike being lost in transit before they were reunited with each other at Manchester Airport.

Meanwhile, Bradford-born businessman Tom Moran, who was manager of Allerton-based snooker star James Wattana, reckoned the Thai had missed out on £1m over the previous three years due to not being able to sign sponsorship deals with tobacco companies in Asia.

TEN YEARS AGO

THERE was definitely a 'we've got a problem Houston' moment when Keighley Cougars entertained Featherstone Rovers.

Referee Craig Halloran and his touch judges were miked up to each other but could only tune in to Radio Two!

That was until Super League referee Ashley Klein, who was at Cougar Park as a spectator, sorted out the problem after 46 minutes.

However, by then Cougars coach Barry Eaton had already seen a number of controversial decisions.

Cougars had earlier lost 22-4 at Hunslet Hawks on a pitch that Eaton described as shocking, when the visitors were again victims of some dodgy refereeing decisions.

Off the field, things were going well for Bradford Northern as Brett Ferres had followed Andy Lynch and Paul Deacon in signing new contracts, and former Bulls coach Brian Smith, who was between jobs, was helping out Steve McNamara on a consultancy basis, while Basil Richards had also joined as an assistant coach to fill the gap left by Wigan-bound Brian Noble and Phil Veivers.

On the field, the news was much less healthy, with McNamara calling the 42-18 Powergen Challenge Cup defeat at Wigan Warriors "awful".

He added: "We were consistent. Consistently poor from the first minute until the last. We started bad and probably got worse."

At least they showed more spirit in their next match, even though it was a 30-0 Super League home defeat to Leeds Rhinos.

Lewis Emanuel was offered a one-year deal by Bradford City, who showed the door to Danny Forrest, severing a 12-year link with the club.

Marc Bridge-Wilkinson (knee clean-up) and Ben Muirhead (hernia) both went under the knife, while 20-goal Dean Windass called on City to sign another striker in time for the new season.

Leeds United lost their Championship play-off final 3-0 to Watford, while Halifax Town lost their play-off final 3-2 to Hereford United, scuppering their bid to get back in the Football League.

Yorkshire lost what was in effect a County Championship rugby union semi-final 11-10 against Lancashire at Otley, with Yorkshire coach Bob Hood saying: "We won every aspect of the game, apart from the scoreline."