TRIBUTES have been paid to a 'real character' of Wharfedale's sports scene.

Cricketer Francis Quinn from Otley, who has died aged 74 after suffering a heart attack, was a bowler who became a key player for several local clubs.

He played for Menston and Lofthouse but it was with the now-defunct Otley Town Cricket Club, where he spent much of his sporting career, that he became best known.

Friend and former team-mate Bernard Thornton said Mr Quinn, who was also an avid Leeds United fan, was a 'fine bowler who might well have played at a significantly higher standard'.

He added: "He formed productive bowling partnerships with other Otley Town luminaries of the 1970s, such as Bill Mason and Derek Hawley, when the club dominated the Dales Council league before progressing to the Leeds League, where Frank also enjoyed many seasons.

"He played on towards his fifties and, after eventual retirement, spent much of his summer travelling the area by bus watching cricket with his old compatriots.

"In addition to his cricketing prowess he was an accomplished darts player, honing his skills in the White Swan and the Summercross pubs in days when the Otley and District Darts and Dominoes league was a major part of life for many in the local area."

Mr Quinn spent much of his working life at Garnett’s paper mill and for some time lived in a caravan on the Stephen H Smith's garden centre site, giving him easy access to Otley Town Cricket Club's Pool Road ground.

Mr Thornton recalled: "He had a tendency to treat the club changing rooms as his personal boudoir.

"Every September, his ancient boots and other meagre items of kit would be stowed away in the box-benches, to reappear the following April for another season’s duty.

"Noted for his cautious spending, Frank was at his most animated when he inadvertently threw a pair of his old trousers onto a club bonfire - realising immediately afterwards that several folding notes had been left in the pocket!

"Unfailingly courteous to women and his elders, he was quick with a withering put-down of any youngster he thought to be getting ahead of themselves.

"Whilst his methods may have been unorthodox, Frank will be remembered with great affection by his many friends in the cricketing and wider worlds.

"The local cricket world has lost one of its best known characters."

A graveside funeral service for Mr Quinn will be held at Otley Cemetery at 9.30am on Monday, October 23.