KEN DAVY and his wife Jennifer have been made honorary presidents of the Huddersfield Giants Supporters Association.
The Super League club’s popular chairman was presented with a certificate to recognise the fact on the night he was the Association’s guest speaker.
The Galpharm chief was the latest top guest for the rapidly-growing organisation, who hold their meetings at Turnbridge WMC on a monthly basis.
Davy was presented with his certificate by Oliver and Georgia Atherton before he took part in a question and answer session.
The first question was put to him by Oliver, who asked him what the best match was that he had seen.
His reply was that it was the Challenge Cup semi-final against Leeds at Odsal in 2006.
He also explained how he was the victim of a friendly hoax after he had joined in the Giants’ fans celebrations at the sight of the Leeds fans leaving early!
Davy then went on to explain how he first started taking an interest in rugby league.
Back in the days when he was a photographer on board cruise ships, he was introduced to Fartown legend Russ Pepperell’s mother-in-law.
After the embarrassing moment when she had to explain who Russ was, Davy became good friends with the Fartown cup-winning captain.
He soon put this contact to good use by announcing to a young rugby-loving lady from Huddersfield called Jennifer that he was a great friend of one Russ Pepperell. What a way to impress a girl!
He then explained how he had become involved with the Giants.
He had been anonymously donating money to the club, but was then made an offer he hadn’t to refuse – become chairman or stop donating! The rest, as they say, is history.
One thing which has impressed Ken over the years is the integrity of rugby League and that, coupled with the fact that it is a family game, continually made him realise he made the right decision.
But he admitted an early mistake was the speed with which the Giants achieved his first objective, that of attaining Super League status.
The infrastructure was not fully in place, resulting in the four dismal years of being the whipping boys of the game.
Whilst the relegation to the lower division was one of his darkest moments, it did give the club the chance to correctly sow the seeds of sound organisation, the benefits of which are being reaped today.
Davy closed the meeting by impressing everyone the need for increasing the attendance at matches.
Whilst a 400% increase in 15 years was a tremendous achievement, he made it clear the club still needs a further 25% to reach the magic 10,000 average mark.
The evening was closed with Association secretary Mick Beevers giving Ken a vote of thanks for both his talk and for saving the club.
