Roger Stead in action for Lightcliffe's first team against Bowling Old Lane Picture: Mike Baker ©JCT600 Bradford League

Lightcliffe's Roger Stead reached another landmark in his long career last Sunday when he was called up for the Division Two match with Great Horton.

He didn't bat or bowl - just as he didn't on his debut on July 20, 1968, but it enabled him to claim the distinction of playing Bradford League first team cricket is six successive decases.

On the club's website http://www.lightcliffecricketclub.co.uk/ another club stalwart Bob Horne has told the story of 59-year-old Stead's feat.

Horne wrote: "On 20 July 1968 a slim, dark-haired teenager called Roger Stead made his debut for the Lightcliffe first team, in a Division One game at home to Bowling Old Lane.

"He was deputising for myself, on holiday in Scotland with my girlfriend. His colleagues that day were Martin Radcliffe, Alan Warren, Bruce Deadman, Stuart Nichols, Brian Whitham, Donald Garside, Dennis Schofield, Gordon Ormondroyd, Rodney Heywood and Chris Pickles.

£In the Old Lane team were former England opening bowler Harold Rhodes and Brian Clough, the latter already a veteran. When rain stopped play Lightcliffe were 120-6, chasing 164 for victory.

"Roger didn’t bat, and wasn’t given the chance to bowl. In those days he was a bit sharp, especially down the hill from the tennis court end (now the Wakefield Road end).

"On June 26, 2011, 43 years later, this same player played for the first team against Great Horton.

"Again, he didn’t bat, and wasn’t given an over, despite the boundary advice offered to his captain by the Brains Trust down at Critics Corner.

"Silver-haired, perhaps carrying slightly more weight than he did in that swinging decade, he showed enough pace in the field to remind everyone of the fine athlete he has always been, one diving stop at third man, from his son Alex’s bowling, being especially memorable.

"It is an astonishing achievement to play Bradford League first team cricket in each of six decades; not even Cloughie managed that.

"The only other father and son to play in the same Lightcliffe first team were Eric and Richard Whiteoak in the final game of the 1982 season.

"Roger and Alex have played together before, in 1995 when Roger was captain. However, can anyone have ever played in the same team as both his son and his son-in-law, with Chris Taylor another member of the table-topping team? And has any Lightcliffe first team player ever kissed his granddaughter goodnight while he was fielding? "