A cycle a day has kept the doctor away for a man from Sutton who will celebrate his 90th birthday in style tomorrow.

Ralph Hodgson has been cycling since the age of 14.

He regularly takes a trip to Cross Hills on his bike for his shopping and his regular Saturday visit to the bookmakers for a small flutter.

Every time he sets off he asks the neighbours if they want anything, and on the journey into Cross Hills people stop and wave and cars sometimes beep their horns. Now, the Hodgson clan and other friends will all gather at the cricket club in Steeton tomorrow to celebrate alongside him and marvel at how he has kept so fit and healthy.

Mr Hodgson said: "I have been biking all my life. When people see me they say 'there goes that man on the bike'. I have thought about doing the Tour de France this year -- I don't think I will win, but I might get in the first four!"

Mr Hodgson was born in 1916 at Elmsley Street, in Steeton, and was brought up in Queen Street alongside his brother Denis, by his mother Jane Ann Hodgson.

His father, Ralph Hodgson, was killed in September 1918, near Bapaume, in the last stages of the First World War War.

Mr Hodgson jnr went to Steeton School and left at the age of 14 to start work at Bobbin Mill, before moving on to work at various factories, including Landis Lund, in Eastburn, now known as Cinetic Landis Grinding Ltd. He was never out of work from the day he left school until his retirement.

He also served three years in the army from 1945, mainly as a military policeman, in India, Borneo and Singapore.

In 1944 he married Joan Rayworth, of Sutton, and they still live in their original house after more than 60 years of marriage. They had four children together, Richard, Martin, Jane and Josephine, and now have 11 grandchildren and three great grandchildren.