Speaker - Club Members

Alan Morrell was the first up to tell us about his childhood hero Len Shackleton who used to play for Sunderland despite having originated in Bradford. He described him as the George Best of his day and he was infamous for his tricks on the field such as taking penalties by walking away from the goal mouth and then back kicking the ball into the net. This earned him the nickname "The Clown Prince of Soccer". However his individuality was such that he didn't make a good team player and as such was only picked to play for England five times.

Next up was Derek O'Hearne. Since Derek at his peak was a member of the Yorkshire squash team it was not surprising that his favourite was Jonah Barrington. But to set the scene for how successful Barrington had been Derek first told us about the Khan clan who had dominated the sport for 25 years. First Hashim Khan had won the British Open (the equivalent of the world championship) after watching play at the local officers club, where his father was steward. Having seen him play the officers sponsored him to the championship, which he won 8 times between 1951 and 1958 only missing out in 1957. He had 12 children, 7 of whom became tournament winning squash players. The Khan grip over the sport was finally broken by Barrington who had been persuaded to play by a member of the Khan clan. He decided that in order to beat this famous family he needed to become super fit. He would train for hours on end and even at the end of a squash match could be seen in the changing room doing hundreds of press ups with his feet on a bench and hands on the floor. This excessive fitness was successful and he won 6 British Opens between 1967 and 1973 only missing out in where he lost in the semi-final to Cameron Nancarrow.

The final speaker was Keith Brown who told us about Joseph Fanning a flat race jockey who lives in Middleham (where Keith & Kate have a house) and rides for Mark Johnson's stables. He was born in Dublin and went to the Irish Racing Academy but then came to Yorkshire to be apprenticed to Squeak Fairhurst. After 2 years with Squeak he moved to Mark Johnson where he has remained. In his career he has had more than 2,500 wins which has only be beaten by Frankie Dettori. Keith told us that a jockey earns £130 per race ridden and 12.5% of the prize money that he wins for the owner.