THE word legend is often bandied about too liberally, but it can definitely be used to describe Low Moor Holy Trinity bowler Peter Tetley, who has died aged 84.

For example, he played for the club for 56 years, making his debut in 1947 aged nine when health and safety considerations were years in the future.

In those 50-plus years, 3,500 league wickets (at a very healthy rate of 62 wickets per season), and if you add in his victims in the Bradford & District Evening League it comes to almost 7,000 (a mere 125 dismissals a season), which is a staggering total.

In his pomp, he took 96 wickets in one league season, which was tough to beat, but Peter bettered it the following year by taking 97, and would probably have reached the magic three figures had the last match not been rained off.

His best figures were that rarity of all ten (10-26) and the even rarer 9-0, which made the daily papers.

Low Moor HT played in the Bradford Mutual Sunday School League from 1938-1989 and the Bradford Central League from 1990-2006, from where they joined the Halifax League.

Not surprisingly, Peter’s passing leaves a huge void in the Low Moor Holy Trinity cricketing family, and he was a driving force in making the club what it is now.

Cricket club secretary Martin Jenkins penned a player profile of Peter in 2020, and here is a selection of that article about a man who will have few cricketing parallels in the United Kingdom, let alone Yorkshire:

“It all started back in 1947, when, as a nine-year-old, his job was to act as ‘bag carrier’ for the team. He was quite surprised when asked one day if he'd mind chipping in as the team were one short.

He 'chipped in' a few more times during his years as a nine, 10, 11 and 12-year-old but it wasn't until he reached his mid-teens that he was thrown the ball by the captain during a league game.

The ‘bag carrier’ became Low Moor's youngest-ever player and their youngest-ever bowler. He made the odd run here and there as well, with his top score being 86 against Sunbridge Road Mission.

“From his first game in 1947 to his last game in 2003, his Low Moor playing career lasted for 56 years, but his length of service to the club is dwarfed by his bowling statistics.”

Add in inter-league and cup matches and the result is that unbelievable total of nearly 7,000 wickets, and Low Moor are understandably claiming that few in the country, if any, can match his statistics.

However, Peter’s commitment to Low Moor extended beyond the boundary rope as he has also been their secretary, chairman, treasurer, sponsor and even protested against the club’s potential eviction, standing up to the developers when they tried to turf Low Moor off their patch.

In addition, he has organised the club’s dinner-dance, has been a builder and painter and decorator, a groundsman and has scored and umpired – you name it and ‘Mr Low Moor’ has done it.

Peter leaves a wife and three daughters, and his funeral is at Scholemoor Crematorium on Thursday, April 14 (11.30am), with a celebration of his life afterwards at Clayton Golf Club.