Lightcliffe Cricket Club is mourning the loss of one of its greatest servants following the death on Monday of George Bottomley aged 92.

Bottomley gave outstanding service to the JCT 600 Bradford League club during a 75-year association that saw him produce great things on and off the field.

He first played for the first team in 1933, although he had had a couple of seasons with the second team before that.

He was introduced to the club by two Lightcliffe stalwarts Charlie Young and the legendary Albert Hartley.

He retired from league cricket at the end of the 1962 season, but played friendly cricket with Craven Gentlemen based at Norwood Green for two or three years before he took up golf.

In 333 matches for the first team he scored 3,967 runs, took 508 wickets and held 102 catches. During the years 1941-45 he only played seven times because he was abroad on war service in Rhodesia where he played with and against many first class cricketers.

His best season with Lightcliffe was 1947, when he scored 571 runs and took 70 wickets. For the next three seasons he was pro at Meltham in the Huddersfield League.

There's a wonderful atory which Lightcliffe members like to tell about the century he scored in the Sykes Cup Final in 1948 when his collection of more than £100 weighed so much in pounds, shillings and pence that it had to be left at Fartown police station overnight.

He was later to become pro at Pudsey St. Lawrence from 1955-58. In 1955 he played against Lightcliffe in the Priestley Cup Final. Lightcliffe won by four wickets.

He was a medium pace outswing bowler who also bowled an off-cutter. He was a clever bowler, able to recognise a batsman's strengths and weaknesses and play on them.

He was a very confident cricketer, able to outhink less intelligent opponents. A cunning man in some ways.

Players weren't allowed to practise after the game had started but, if Lightcliffe were batting second, he sometimes got his son Michael and other youngsters such as another club stalwart Bob Horne to bowl at him during the tea interval.

Nobody was going to complain about a player encouraging youngsters to play cricket? He gave the boys sixpence if they bowled him out, so of course they tried like hell

Bob Horne recalls: "I remember bowling him once, playing in the interval down where the nets are. I got my sixpence but it took me a long time to realise that George must have been simply encouraging a young cricketer by allowing me to hit the stumps. I think that would be typical of him, but he'd never let on. "

When he finally called time on his playing career in 1963 he became a member of the committee and from the early 1980s until 1998 he was the club’s chairman.

His outstanding contribution was acknowledged in 1995 when he received the Bradford League’s coveted award – the Sir Leonard Hutton Trophy for services to the league.

Great sportsman and gentleman are just two of the words his many friends use to describe the gentle giant.

Bottomley’s sporting prowess wasn’t confined to the cricket pitch. He was also a fine footballer and was even offered the chance to play for Arsenal under their legendary manager Herbert Chapman, but was persuaded instead to follow a career with local carpet manufacturers TF Firth.

He played golf for many years at Cleckheaton and was also a member of the Old Brodleians Rugby Union Club.

Lightcliffe chairman John Brooke said: “This is a great loss for our club. George was a remarkable man. He was one of those rare individuals who enjoyed a wonderful playing career, then gave a tremendous amount back to the game after he retired from playing.

“He had tremendous knowledge and knew the game inside out. For me personally he was a great support. His wise counsel helped me on many occasions.

“Even up until two years ago George was still helping organise our gala day which does so much to raise funds for the club.”

Bottomley, who leaves a wife Jean and two sons Michael and Andrew, passed away in a nursing home at Hartshead Moor after a long illness. His funeral will be at St Matthew’s Church, Lightcliffe on Monday at 2pm.