This afternoon we not only entertain our good friends from the Steel City of Sheffield but the family and many friends of our late Ellis Aked, committeeman, 200 Club paymaster general and volunteer skilled joiner on the Heffernan Utilities Stadium.

We have named today’s game: The Ellis Aked Celebration Day when we will pay tribute to him following his sterling service to this club and to sport across the town and district. (more of that inside today’s edition).     

Ellis passed away in July aged 75 and everyone who knew him was extremely saddened by the news.

Ellis was a very friendly person and that is why he made so many friends. I was delighted when he said he would join the club’s committee and straight away he rolled up his sleeves. He gave us around nine years of his valuable time and we thank his late wife Ann for allowing him to be with us despite all his years as a footballer and snooker player and she an understanding `Sporting Widow’! 

His support for the club home and away was unstinting apart from when Ann was poorly and when he himself had health issues.

Please put your hands together on the referee’s whistle and think of the passing of this Orange Army warrior and how he will be looking down today to cheer us on and put his views across, which he was renowned for having been such a good footballer himself.
I, Dave Parker, really got to know Ellis through the snooker as I was from around 1988 working on the Brighouse Echo until 2016 when they closed operations in Brighouse. I had a seven day operation with the national press and so my two daughters, Charlotte and Emily assisted and they put in quite a bit of sports copy and all the snooker results sponsored by Mac Financial at Bridge End. So, I knew him and his reliability for 28 years and that is why I wanted him up at Brighouse Town when I knew he was retiring from work. Two good friends of Ellis, Alan Kenyon and Dave Rowland have become, like him great supporters of the club.

Dave informs me Ellis was a very good player and he was one of three who formed the Brighouse Sunday League side, Thornhill Briggs around 1975. He was also playing for Lane Head in the Saturday League and was a midfielder with an eye for goal.

Brighouse Snooker League saw him as both secretary and fixture plus results secretary and that was an enormous job week in and week out from September to the end of April.

The snooker players loved him to bits as they all did at Thornhill Briggs where he played for one of their teams.

He was known for his joinery work with Iredale Brothers of Brighouse and with other companies later in his working life.

Both he and Ann were well travelled and they loved also places nearer home like Scarborough and Jersey. They went to places like Borneo, Greenland, Greece and South Africa and on safari. They saw the Big Five, Tigers, Lions, Elephants. Hippos and Giraffes.

All we need now is for the players to come good this afternoon and register a victory for Ellis and his family watching on who we are delighted could join us this afternoon.

Our chairman Chris Lister will present to the family ahead of kick-off a Town shirt with Ellis Aked on and the No10 on the back.

Finally, could I just thank sister Pam for her support of brother Ellis and getting him to games over the past year and more after he had suffered his first setback.

God Bless  Dave Parker       .