When the top sporting speakers came to Huddersfield Town

Feb 18 2010 by Mel Booth, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

TOWN Gentlemen’s Sporting Club has been wound up this week after raising over £350,000 for the Terriers’ cause.

It ran for exactly 28 years and in its heyday attracted some of the biggest names in British sport to be speakers.

The monthly meetings were a blueprint for so many other organisations and the guest list for the sponsored annual dinner, held each November, included world famous stars.

Famous sporting names attracted to Huddersfield included Bobby Charlton, Stanley Matthews, Bill Beaumont and Richard Hadlee.

Established on February 15, 1982, the original committee was Ian Challenger (chairman), Frank Kershaw (secretary), George Binns (treasurer), Jack Farrar, John Kaye and John Morgan.

Former Town secretary Mr Binns remained treasurer throughout and recalled: “The Sporting Club became very popular very quickly.

“In the early days we were rubbing shoulders with the stars of sport in this country – all of them extremely well known – and quite a number of them began their after-dinner speaking careers with us.

“People like Denis Law and Frank Worthington came on a question-and-answer basis to start with, realised their answers were taking 10 minutes and more and then felt much more comfortable about the idea of being guest speakers at functions.

“They both, of course, have been very successful and we had big stars not just from the world of football, but across the sporting spectrum.

“Unfortunately times have changed and all the top people in sport these days are priced out of the market for an organisation like the Sporting Club.

“It became more and more difficult to get people to the monthly meetings and it got to the stage a few years ago where we were keeping the club together without making that much because of the costs, even though the dinner continued to be a success.”

Sir Bobby Charlton attended the first December meeting for just £100 and early guests included Stan Mortensen, Jack Charlton, rugby union’s Bill Beaumont and cricket’s Sir Richard Hadlee.

Legends at the dinner included Sir Stanley Matthews, Bob Paisley, Denis Compton, Billy Wright, Nat Lofthouse, Gordon Banks, Sir Tom Finney, Sir Geoff Hurst, Tom Graveney, Jimmy Greaves, Alan Ball and Dame Mary Peters.

One of the original Sporting Club members was John Waterhouse, a Town supporter since his first match on Boxing Day, 1946, and an all-round amateur sportsman who revelled in listening to and meeting with the leading professionals and legends.