On the wall of Mrs Jean Ackroyd’s home is a large photograph of the Bradford Nomads, the wandering rugby union amateurs whom we featured on October 16, so called because they didn’t have their own ground.

Mrs Ackroyd’s late husband Jack was one of the first members of the team, which played in the 1950s and 1960s.

She said: “They played wherever they could get a game. Other team members were my late brother Jack Scruton, Dennis Delaney (a regular writer to your letters page), Sonny Coates, Ron Appleby, Pete Austin, Peter Holroyd, Raymond Helm, Edwin Coe and Dennis Coe (brothers) Ronnie Craven and Brian O’Grady.”

Mr Delaney called us to offer other names – Desmond O’Brien, brother of the club captain Leo; Stan Ferdinand and Charlie Metcalfe.

“Originally, the Nomads were a break away from Bradford Salem,” Mr Delaney said. “I am guessing that. We played at Eccleshill for some of the time. For away games we met at The Junction, on the corner of Vicar Lane and Leeds Road. It’s not there now.

“We once went as far as Bridlington. We had a badge in gold wire with a camel on it.” It was a symbol of the team’s nomadic way of life.

When they started playing at Cross Flatts the obvious disadvantage was the absence of what may be called facilities. Jack Ackroyd came up with an answer, according to Mr Delaney.

“We changed in a barn. Jack, who was an agricultural engineer, installed a bath for the teams to wash in afterwards. It was a boiler with a wall round it really. It was primitive but better than we’d had before. We didn’t really have anything.”

Post-match refreshments consisted of an urn of tea from Cross Flatts. This was in the days before the Nomads made a few improvements.

Derek Kendall was a Nomad for a couple of seasons in the 1950s confirms the pre-match meetings at the junction pub.

He said: “Almost anyone who turned up got a game. Some of the stalwarts of the team I can remember were Barry Haxby, the abrasive Coe brothers, the gentle Appleby brothers, John Middleton, who was very quick, Stan Ferdinand, who was big.

“The lad who got me playing was Ronnie Lovatt, who was a good friend and I lost contact after we both got married. He looked after me as I was only a little scrum-half.

“He actually went on to play with Bradford Northern but never made the big time. The ground at Crossflatts was at the bottom of the cricket field parallel with the new by-pass and we changed in a big barn at the top.

“With a ground of our own we even started training. Then along to the Royal which sort of became our headquarters. I lost touch when I sustained a leg injury and had to retire but I always had a soft spot for the Nomads.”

Peter Holroyd, who played between 1958 and 1965 – the last year of the Nomads’ existence – recalls taking post-match refreshments in the Crossflatts Cricket Club clubhouse.

He said: “The midweek gathering was held at the Thorpe Edge Hotel in the last few years of the club’s existence as the landlord’s daughter was married to one of the players.

“There was no league system in those days so the club match secretary had to arrange fixtures as best he could. You might play some teams every year or, occasionally, a new club would appear.

“The Yorkshire Rugby Union had a system where clubs without a fixture for a weekend could often find a club in the same position and a match would be arranged at short notice.

“One unusual fixture we had was against Wetherby Camp (the young offenders institution) who we played both home and away, entertaining them at Crossflatts on a spring evening.

“We were essentially a team of friends who enjoyed playing together and socialising after the game. I can still recall 20 or so names of players from my time at the club, unfortunately not all are alive today.”

Robert Blythe, writing from Malvern in Worcestershire, played for the Nomads from 1958 to 1961. He takes issue with the idea that they were makeshift.

He said: “They were running a first and second team with full fixture lists. They played at Crossflatts, sharing the clubhouse with the local cricket team, and from there organised discos, sweeps and formal dances.

“The first team played in black shirts and white shorts and the second in black and gold hoops and we were a very conglomerate bunch. At a time when rugby union was still mostly a preserve of public schools, universities and superior grammar schools, we were a mixture of engineers, builders, plumbers, clerks, woolmen, a doctor and a dentist, and a sprinkling of ex-rugby league professionals all playing as ‘J Smith’.

“The stalwart of the club as chairman, secretary and first team captain was a man by the name of Evans (I believe his first name was Peter). He energetically ran all aspects of the club. Sadly after all these years I cannot recall the full names of my team-mates.

“We played and often beat teams from Morley, Harrogate, Otley, Leeds University, Leeds Chirons, Upper Wharfedale, Bradford City Police, St Helens, Wakefield and many others including the dreaded Yorkshire Copperworks (who we never beat).

“We were not the most successful club in the West Riding, but we played the game in a good spirit and were a happy and united club and our social side outshone that of many other clubs.”