A leading Keighley sportsman in the 1960s, Gerry Greenwood, has died after a long illness.

Mr Greenwood followed in the footsteps of his late brother Jack - also a distinguished all-rounder on the local sports scene - playing cricket for Keighley and captaining the side for several years.

He played rugby league with Keighley Albion for about a decade, which included a spell as skipper, and he was a member of Keighley Golf Club.

Mr Greenwood - who died last Friday, aged 70 - was born at Cross Hills but moved to Keighley during childhood, attending the Boys' Grammar School where his sporting prowess shone. He was a member of the school's cricket and rugby teams.

After leaving school he joined our sister paper - the Telegraph & Argus - as a proof reader and cub reporter.

Following a two-year spell with the RAF, during which he served in Malaya as a senior aircraftsman, he returned to the T&A where he took up sports reporting.

About two years later he changed career direction and got a job as a salesman, rising to senior ranks.

Mr Greenwood had a strong interest in local politics. He served as a Conservative councillor on the old Keighley Borough Council - representing East Ward - for three years until 1970, when he moved to Kings Winford in the West Midlands to take up a job promotion.

He continued to serve as a councillor, and he and his wife Gladys - whom he had married in 1953 - enjoyed a term as deputy mayor and mayoress.

He was also a magistrate.

Following redundancy in the 1970s, Mr Greenwood started his own company - Greenwoods Visual Aid and Audio Visual - which is still operating today, with his son Michael at the helm.

Mr Greenwood leaves Gladys, Michael, two other children - Karen and Ish - and four grandchildren.