50 YEARS AGO

KEVIN Hector received a gold watch from Bradford Park Avenue in recognition of his 45 goals for them during the 1965-66 season.

Meanwhile, Bradford City appointed 'Bill' Burnicle as trainer-coach, with Bantams chairman Stafford Heginbotham saying: "The accent is on coaching."

Bradford Northern named Tommy Smales as their captain, despite him being injured until October, while Alan Kellett was announced as vice-captain.

After their 0-0 draw against Uruguay, England were beginning to build up a head of steam in the World Cup. They defeated both Mexico and France 2-0, Bobby Charlton and Roger Hunt netting against the Mexicans and Hunt bagging a brace against the French.

This gave England a quarter-final tie against Argentina. However, England manager Alf Ramsey came under pressure from the authorities to leave out his midfield enforcer Nobby Stiles, who was booked in the first minute against France.

Ramsey apparently asked Stiles if the foul was committed on purpose and Stiles said it has just been mistimed. That was good enough for Ramsey, who stuck to his guns and told the Manchester United player that he would be playing against Rattin and company in the last eight.

Yorkshire lost only their second game of the season – to 1965 runners-up Northamptonshire, who made 174 (Tony Nicholson 4-66, Fred Trueman 3-41) and 190 (Nicholson 3-33) compared to Yorkshire's 175 (John Hampshire 76) and 123 (Brian Close 32). The Tykes bounced back by beating Nottinghamshire, with Geoff Boycott getting a hundred in both innings.

25 YEARS AGO

GREG Abbott may have only completed nine years with Bradford City before moving to Halifax Town for £30,000 but the Football League still allowed him a benefit match, which was due that November at Valley Parade.

More money was coming to City as catalogue company Freemans signed what chairman Dave Simpson described as a "vitally important" £150,000 three-year sponsorship deal.

Only abut 400 fans watched the opening matches of the World Student Games at Valley Parade but a later attendance of 1,000 saw slick-passing South Korea beat Nigeria 4-1.

Bradford Northern were involved in a tug-of-war with Warrington over New Zealand Test forward Kelly Shelford.

The Cheshire club claimed they had signed him in June, while Northern said they had his signature a month later, had resolved his 1989 contract dispute with Whitehaven and had received full clearance from the New Zealand authorities to sign him.

Craig McDermott, who had already taken 102 Test wickets for Australia, was announced as Yorkshire's first overseas player on a three-year £100,000 deal, although injury later prevented him taking up the contract.

Yorkshire made their highest score of the season – 418-8 declared against Derbyshire at Scarborough, with David Byas hitting 135, Richard Blakey 90, Peter Hartley 50 not out, Martyn Moxon 44 and Jeremy Batty 27 not out. But it looked as if North Marine Road would remain as their only out-ground, meaning a potential goodbye to Harrogate, Park Avenue, Abbeydale Park and Acklam Park.

Bradford Coalite Dukes director Bobby Ham was not a happy man after their 50-40 home Speedway Star Cup victory over Berwick.

Illegally-cut tyres was the issue, with Ham saying: "In our match at Reading (24 hours previously), one of our riders, Paul Thorp, was not allowed to use a similar tyre to what three of the Berwick riders used (against us)." The Dukes completed the match under protest.

TEN YEARS AGO

BRADFORD City not only signed midfielder Jermaine Johnson but also negotiated a five-year £2million deal with Event Management Catering for use of the club's banqueting and conference facilities.

A young Bantams side, whose oldest player was 22-year-old Michael Symes, lost 2-0 at Farsley Celtic, with the visitors including Joe Colbeck, Joe Brown, Tom Penfold and trialist Jerome Watt.

The fourth-placed Bulls, who said goodbye to former boss Brian Smith after his seven-week stint helping out Steve McNamara, attracted a five-figure crowd (10,388) at home to bottom side Catalans Dragons.

Despite the 30-16 scoreline in favour of the hosts, the match was more of a contest than many imagined and the Bulls notched tries via Marcus St Hilaire (2), Lesley Vainikolo (2) and Brett Ferres.

Wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy hammered 57 off 18 balls, 13 of which he sent to the boundary, as Yorkshire showed their intent in a Twenty20 clash against Derbyshire at Derby.

Craig White hit 54 off 33 deliveries and Anthony McGrath 58 not out from 44 balls in their 210-3 but rain stopped play when Derbyshire were 34-1 off 2.1 overs in reply.

Richard Pyrah's best innings thus far in a Woodlands shirt took them to the Priestley Cup final. His 58 not out guided the hosts to a six-wicket victory over Pudsey Congs with 6.1 overs to spare, Tim Orrell making 41.

Congs had earlier scored 180-9, of which Andrew Bairstow scored 62 and Matthew Doidge 52, Pieter Swanepoel taking 4-26.

Bowling Old Lane won the other semi-final against Hanging Heaton.