Decorating foreman Shakeel Malik is close to completing his dream job.

His employer, Shipley-based national painting, decorating and specialist coatings contractor Bagnalls, is putting the finishing touches to the clock tower at Lord’s cricket ground, home to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), known as ‘the home of cricket’. The site team is led by cricket-mad Shakeel Malik, who has worked for Bagnalls for 11 years.

He said “No other job can compare with painting at Lord’s.

“I’ve loved this place since I was a little boy and now I spend half my life here. It couldn’t get much better.”

The Lord’s clock tower also houses the famous Father Time weather vane which was relocated from its original position in the grandstand to the Mound Stand in 1996.

Family-owned Bagnalls, which has been operating since 1875 and has 12 branches around the UK, has a longstanding relationship with MCC and has undertaken painting work on all the venue’s stands, including the Warner, Tavern, Allen, Mound, Edrich and Compton stands. In 2010 the firm’s painters abseiled the Grand Stand to access high level work.

Bagnalls has also carried out redecoration work to the outside of the Pavilion, which dates back to 1889.