HOLY Spirit Parish, Heckmondwike - A Centenary of Change, is a handsomely illustrated, well-produced 140-page book, the culmination of four years' research by seven parishoners, chronicling the origins of the church in Bath Road from 1914 through to the present day.

In such a generous account of the parish's Roman Catholic Church and schools - St Patrick's and Holy Spirit - and the people attached to them over the past 100 years, picking out one man seems unfair; but the story of Father Paddy Roche, the Holy Spirit priest from 1963 to 1977, is worth highlighting if, like me, you didn't know about him.

Born and raised in County Kerry, his passion for golf and his skill at playing it made him friendships among Hollywood stars, Apollo astronauts and American Ryder Cup golfers including probably the greatest golfer of them all, Jack Nicklaus. How did this come about?

"In 1949 when the American Ryder Cup team came to Britain he went to see them play, began talking to some of the players and as they left, they asked him to visit them if he was ever in the US. Two years later the team returned and Father Roche met up with them again - even driving them around the area in his battered Austin Seven car.

"In 1957 he finally made it to America where the Ryder Cup team presented him with a new set of clubs and a cheque...It was also during this visit that Father Roche met the Hollywood star Bing Crosby - also a keen golfer - and the two men remained good friends for the rest of their lives."

Crosby is believed to have visited Heckmondwike regularly, attending Mass, keeping out of the public eye. Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra were friendly acquaintances, sending congratulations when Father Roche celebrated the silver jubilee of his ordination.

In 1967 he met American astronauts on a golf course at Houston, Texas. This led to an invitation to visit NASA, the space agency. He attended several Apollo space launches. After beating astronaut Alan Shephard at golf Father Roche received one of the two golf balls that Shephard had hit on the surface of the moon.

This ball is now owned by Ilkley Golf Club. In 1977 Father Roche became priest of the Sacred Heart Church, Ilkley. He died in 1985. Jack Nicklaus said of him: "I remember him quite fondly. He was a wonderful man."

The preceding chapter in the book features another extraordinary Holy Spirit priest - Father John O'Connor, on whom his friend the writer G K Chesterton based his priestly detective Father Brown. Father O'Connor became priest at St Cuthbert's Church, Heaton, in 1919.

Copies of the book at £10 are available from Peter Moreland on 01924 501774 / 07760 205122 or petermoreland@hotmail.com.