LADIES' man Reg Heald is used to getting the odd funny look - but after all, he is the only chap in Otley's Women's Institute market.

Reg doesn't make jams and cakes. However, he does do a very nice line in wooden doorstops, handpainted children's toys and coasters.

He also makes lamps out of painted egg boxes and is attempting to revive the traditional children's 'marble board' game.

Reg, 87, is not quite a full member of the WI, but he is the club's only male affiliated member with rights to attend the annual general meeting.

"It's one of these European things. At one time they wouldn't have dreamt of having a man, but now they have to," he said.

Reg, who claims to be a bit of a lady's man, says he always loses out on voting matters. "I'm a bit outnumbered when it comes to voting, but they accept me now," he said.

The former engineer with Otley firm Waite's and Savilles retired just 22 years ago and says he has always been interested in making things.

"I've got a workshop in the garden and I'm working every night until 10pm. I'm working harder now than when I was at work," he said.

Reg, who is married to a non-WI member, gets all his wood from offcuts at Pinecraft in Otley and fashions them into all sorts of pieces.

"I've always wanted to work, it keeps you going and I've always been crafty, I just like making things."

One of the most popular things he makes are wooden doorstops.

"People are always asking me to make them, I've even made them for pubs for them to put under beer barrels to stop them rolling about," he said.

And another project he's working on is a marble game that his father used to play.

"It's just something I thought of, it's really a gambling game but I can remember my father telling me about it," he said.

Mavis Procter, market controller, said Reg was a valuable member of the market.

"He's not a full member because he's a man and he can't be, but he is an affiliated member. We have had other men from time to time and one man does come along with his wife to help out, but they've all drifted off."

The market, at Otley Civic Centre, runs every Friday from 9.30am to 11.30am.

In November it will be holding special pre-Christmas events when people will be able to book Christmas cakes and puddings and buy presents and cards.

Anyone interested in becoming a producer at the market should contact Mavis Procter on any Friday at the Civic Centre.