The funeral of former Thackley committee member Albert Betts has taken place today.

Stewart Willingham, who was Secretary at Thackley for more than thirty years, was a close personal friend of Albert and his family and has written the following tribute to one of the club's biggest characters.

"As the funeral of Albert Betts is to take place, this seemed an appropriate time to write a few words about this extraordinary man who played a large part in the club between 1977 and the late 80s to early 90s.

"It's not often that any of us can pinpoint the exact moment that something happens, but the first moment we heard of Albert Betts was when he rang the club in the middle of a meeting to decide what the club was going to do for the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

"The then Lord Mayor of Bradford, Paul Hockney, who was also our President at the time, was at the meeting, wearing the famous red, white and blue socks which he had promised to wear throughout his year of office.

"Albert was ringing to enquire if the club would consider allowing his young team, Aireville, to use our facilities, which, after later discussions with Albert, we agreed to.

"That started in motion a period of great success, not only for his team, but also for the club in terms of many of his team making their way into the reserve side and the first team.

"Indeed, in his time with us, Albert filled several positions with the club, ranging from Reserve Team Manager, Committee Member, General Manager and Trustee.

"Apart from being a hard worker who threw all his energy into whatever task he was doing at the time, Albert was always up for the unusual.

"Who can forget the several trips to Europe he organised for his team where they took part in youth tournaments.

"Not the ordinary sort of tournament for Albert and his team - no way - only competitions with some of the top teams in Europe being among the competitors were good enough for Albert.

"I remember one event where the youth teams from PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord were among the competitors!

"Several members from the club went along on these trips. Peter Glover, who was then the First Team Manager springs to mind, as does our erstwhile President, Dick Paley,

"Also an ever-present on these forays into Europe was 'Mr Thackley' himself, Arthur Hylton, who, along with wife Annie, declared that they were the best holidays he'd ever had!!

"Albert spent about twelve years with us before a fall out with the then manager, who Albert didn't think was playing enough of his team in the first team, caused him to up sticks and move to Guiseley where he carved as big a niche for himself there as he had at Thackley.

"There, he became Secretary for several years before pressures of his wool business caused him to stand down to pay more attention to more important matters!

"The very fact that Albert was an extremely successful wool merchant is strange in itself, seeing as he was brought up in the East End of London!

"Born in 1931, Albert grew up in the same locality, and at the same time as the Kray twins, but fortunately took a different career path!

"He started as an apprentice welder but moved into Shipping and Forwarding after about three years, when he'd had enough of the dirty, manual work!

"It was this move into Shipping which brought him in touch with the vibrant wool businesses in Bradford and ultimately, after he'd realised that he could make more money buying and selling his own wool than shipping wool for other people, he founded his own wool merchants, Anglo Eastern Wool Company and moved to Bradford. The rest is, as they say, history.

"Albert had principles and stuck by them - rigidly. Whether or not you agreed or disagreed, Albert stuck by his principles. What better epitaph could there be for any man!"