PEOPLE who have put Huddersfield on the sporting and business map are to be honoured.

They will be among eight people to receive honorary degrees from the University of Huddersfield next month.

Mamas and Papas creators David and Luisa Scacchetti will receive a Doctor of Business Administration award.

And Sonia Benster, the woman behind Huddersfield's first specialist bookshop for children, will get a Master of Arts degree.

From the sporting world, former Olympian Derek Ibbotson and international sportswoman Clare Taylor will be honoured.

When their first child was born in 1979, David and Luisa Scacchetti felt that available nursery products lacked style, quality and value for money.

So they founded Mamas and Papas, a company now famous across the world for nursery products.

The company has more than 900 staff and 20 superstores nationwide with its head office and distribution centre in Huddersfield.

In the early 1970s, when Sonia Benster and her husband Barry moved to Huddersfield with their two small children, specialist children's bookshops were rare.

Mrs Benster had links with the Federation of Children's Bookgroups and it wasn't long before she opened The Children's Bookshop in Lindley.

With the co-operation of Kirklees Arts Council and the Huddersfield Examiner, she also organised children's literary lunches, bringing authors like Rolf Harris and Terry Pratchett to join in the fun.

An excellent cricketer and footballer, Huddersfield-born Clare Taylor has received national honours in both sports. She received the MBE in 2000 for her service to sport.

Her soccer career spans 22 years, with Bronte Ladies, Liverpool Ladies, Huddersfield Town and England. She has 25 England caps and played in the 1995 World Cup in Sweden.

She began playing cricket for Wakefield in 1986 – and still does. She has also played for Yorkshire, winning eight county championship medals, and represented England in 99 one-day internationals, taking over 100 wickets.

For the past three years, she has played state cricket for Otago in New Zealand.

At 10am, on June 15, 1957, Olympic athlete Derek Ibbotson heard of the birth of his first child and, on the spur of the moment, decided to try and break the one mile world record. He ran 3 minutes 58.4 seconds and missed it by just three yards.

A month later, at the White City, he tried again. This time he ran 3 minutes 57.2 seconds to set a new world record.

He ran for Great Britain and England for 11 years, winning a bronze in the 5,000 metres in the Melbourne Olympics.

Mr Ibbotson was born in Berry Brow in 1932 and had already run up a few successes in schoolboy races when he was approached by Longwood Harriers, a local athletics club. The rest is history.

Three other people will receive honorary awards.

Isobel Pollock, the vice-president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, will become a Doctor of Science. She graduated with a BSc (Hons) in mechanical engineering from Imperial College, London, and is an Associate of the City and Guilds, a chartered engineer and Fellow of the IMechE.

Dame Pauline Green, who will become a Doctor of Civil Laws, is the chief executive of Co-operatives UK, a job she took up in 2000 following a successful career as a member of the European Parliament.

Dame Pauline holds a BA from the Open University and an MSc in comparative government from the London School of Economics.

Brian Hill will also become a Doctor of Civil Laws after seven years as chairman of the University Governing Council. Mr Hill, of Halifax, stepped down this autumn.

He is a former managing director of Crosrol Ltd in Halifax.