A former cricket umpire has made it 100 not out.

War veteran Bill Stell, of Neville Grange Care Home, Saltaire, celebrated with his family and The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Bradford, Choudhary and Zahida Rangzeb, at an advance party this week.

Mr Stell, a widower who has a daughter, two granddaughters and two great grandsons.

A keen sportsman, he played football and cricket for the Co-op on half days off, and later spent six years as an umpire for the West Bradford Cricket League.

He said: "The party was a great surprise, I certainly didn't expected to see the Lord Mayor and I even got a kiss from the Lady Mayoress. I certainly don't feel like 100."

After working part-time in a woollen mill while at school, he joined the Co-op, in Keighley, as an apprentice grocer. He stayed there for more than 45 years, either side of a stint in the RAF during the Second World War.

Love blossomed over the grocery counter when he met his wife-to-be and regular customer, Fay, with whom he spent 74 years happily married until she died in 2005.