dant after the board of directors claimed the October floods, which wrecked the clubhouse and grounds, left him with no duties to undertake.

But Mr Dennis, 60 - a member of the disaster sub committee appointed to steer the Wagon Lane club in Bingley through the flooding crisis - claimed his job was later re-advertised under a new name and he had been sacked for economic reasons.

An employment tribunal in Leeds heard that Mr Dennis, of Aire View, Silsden, was shocked to be told of his dismissal at a meeting in November.

Representing Mr Dennis, his son, Steven, a journalist, told the hearing the first his father knew of the redundancy from his £23,000-a-year position was at a five-minute meeting with the chairman of the board, Kevin Turley, and a solicitor in his water-saturated office.

Mr Dennis senior told the hearing he knew staff were to be reduced from three to two after the flood but thought the bar manager job would go as he himself still had duties to liaise with the brewery and alarm company and to deal with enquiries about functions.

''I have always had the club's interest at heart and in the short term I would have been able to accept a lay-off because I consider the general manager an integral part of the re-launch.''

Another post of club co-ordinator was later advertised and another person appointed with a £16,000 salary.

Mr Dennis senior said the job was a 'carbon copy' of his and that he would have accepted a reduction in salary if he had been offered it.

The club said it was a different hands-on role which encompassed organising the bar and expanding catering for which Mr Dennis was not qualified.

The bench unanimously found in favour of the applicant saying the principal reasons of the club in dismissing Mr Dennis was to restructure salary.

David Sneath, chairman of the bench, said the club had acted unreasonably in not consulting Mr Dennis about the club co-ordinator role.