BRADFORD Mutual Sunday School League chairman Nick Spachis had handed out all of the awards bar one at their annual prize presentation at the Dubrovnik Hotel.

Then he was told to sit down by trophy steward Brian Green, only to have to stand up again to receive the league's most prestigious award – the Leslie B Briggs Trophy.

Green said of Spachis: "He is a true stalwart of Cambing Cricket Club, having been secretary, treasurer, vice-captain and assistant groundsman, as well as chairman of the Mutual Sunday School League.

"Nick batted No 3 for Cambing and you could always rely on him to bat according to the situation but he was prone to the occasional rush of blood and lost his middle wicket. 'It was there to be hit,' he explained to his skipper.

"His finest moment were the two catches he took in the H Broadbent Trophy semi-final of 2002, and Cambing (formed out of a merger between Cambridge Place and Bingley Road in 1996) won it both that year and in 2005 with Nick in the team.

"Nick was always committed and was the first to arrive and the last to leave."

In response, 53-year-old Spachis, who came to Bradford when he was 18 to study textiles and is now married with a family, said: "It is not very often that I am speechless and emotional but I am now.

"I was not expecting this as I was going to announce that we had forgotten to do something about the trophy, so it was a very pleasant surprise.

"It shows what a multi-cultural league we are when you appoint a Greek as chairman, and we are the only inner-city league in Bradford.

"When I lived in Heraklion in Crete, cricket meant the noisy things outside your bedroom window, but I was told to turn up for practice one Tuesday when I was 29 and Cambridge Place were short with a view to playing the following Saturday, and I have now given them (and Cambing) almost 25 years' service."

Interlink won the Bradford Mutual Sunday School Cricket League Umpires' Association Spirit of Cricket award.

Guest speaker was the Yorkshire Cricket Board's disciplinary officer Ian Livesey, who explained their procedure regarding suspensions and appeals, and is delighted that the league are adopting the YCB's Code of Conduct and Spirit of Cricket.