50 YEARS AGO: THE will-he, won’t-he saga of Kevin Hector was finally over at Bradford Park Avenue.

The 21-year-old, who had regularly been watched by managers and scouts since becoming the Football League’s top scorer for the 1965-66 season with 44 goals, expressed a wish to play a higher grade of football, and a week later he had moved to Derby County.

Second Division strugglers County were believed to have coughed up £40,000, which was then a record fee paid by them, a record fee received by Avenue and a record for a Fourth Division player.

The question then was how much of Avenue’s £40,000 overdraft would be wiped off by Hector’s transfer fee. Some fans thought all of it would be but it is believed that only £10,000 was used for that purpose.

Avenue were near the top of the table when he went, and the early signs were that they would miss him, such as in the draws at home to Port Vale (1-1) and Grimsby Town (0-0, League Cup), the 3-1 replay defeat and the 1-0 home defeat against Barrow.

But at least Avenue dipped into their coffers to sign Peter Deakin from Peterborough United for just under £5,000, the 27-year-old having been the Posh’s leading scorer for the previous two seasons.

If you thought that things being thrown onto a football pitch was more a phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s, then think again.

After’s Hector’s departure, a bottle and a table knife were thrown into the penalty area during the match against Vale and, even more bizarrely, half a bar of chocolate and a candlestick were lobbed onto the playing area in a 3-1 victory at Crewe.

At least before Hector went, Avenue supporters had the satisfaction of seeing their team win the derby 3-2 at Bradford City, thanks to two opportunist second-half goals by his ‘partner in crime’ Bobby Ham.

The Bantams weren’t as high up the table, and lost their League Cup replay 5-2 at Doncaster Rovers, with Derek Stokes having to take over in goal from the injured Peter Butler.

Stephen Ingle was a regular scorer for City but injuries meant that they had to throw in youngsters, four teenagers playing in the 2-0 home win against Port Vale, including 19-year-old winger Jimmy Cuthbertson.

City and Avenue weren’t the only ones playing derbies as Bradford Northern won 30-10 at Keighley, with centre Ian Brooke “looking twice the player he was before going on Great Britain’s tour”.

Brooke scored a try, as did Terry Clawson, and they followed that with a dour 8-4 first-round Yorkshire Cup victory over Huddersfield at Fartown.

Then came a 37-10 win at Doncaster – remarkably Northern’s seventh straight away win – and a 27-7 reverse to Leeds at Odsal, with Leeds scoring 19 unanswered points in the second half.

Northern added to their playing roster by signing highly-regarded hooker Peter Mullins from Dewsbury.

In other first-round Yorkshire Cup ties, Keighley handed Halifax three tries on a plate in a 30-16 defeat, while Bramley shocked Leeds 20-18 at Headingley.

Upper Wharfedale Rugby Union Club decided at their annual meeting to change their name to Wharfedale, but didn’t bank on the confusion that would cause in county circles.

The Yorkshire RFU were considering holding a committee meeting to reverse the decision, stating that Bingley was in the Wharfedale district but that Upper Wharfedale was in the Craven district.

A few weeks later the Greens were still being referred to by people as Upper Wharfedale when they officially opened their new clubhouse, thus avoiding the hassle of having to get changed in the village a mile away, with a match against Frank Malir’s XV.

Cyclist extraordinaire Beryl Burton (Morley CC) was in West Germany, coming fifth in a blanket finish in the women’s road race taking place at the World Championships at Nurburgring.

All five were given the same time of 1hr 27min 21sec, with Belgian Yvonne Reynders getting the nod but Beryl got her revenge a week later in Frankfurt by winning the 3,000 metre women’s pursuit for the fifth time, clocking 4min 10.47sec to Reynders’ 4min 10.79sec.

A few weeks earlier, Yorkshire had won the County Championship cricket title for the 30th time, defeating Kent by 24 runs, with Don Wilson taking a hat-trick (shades of Toby Roland-Jones in 2016).