Sport

An Oulton and Woodlesford A.F.C. team from the 1961-62 season. Back row: Ernie Freeman (sponge man), John Walsh, Unknown, Brian Cooper, Keith Walker, Jim Butterick, Ken Gosney, Charlie Cornish (coach). Front row: George Whincup, David Walsh, Clive Bowie, Barry Wagstaff, Brian Taylor.

Jim Butterick recalls: “As a teenager I used to go to the Oulton-with-Woodlesford Youth Club which was situated in a Nissan hut just lower down from the Oulton-with-Woodlesford Miners’ Welfare. The club was held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and we paid 6d a time to go. We played table tennis and pool as well as danced to the latest rock and roll sounds from the record player. The club leader was a chap called Bob Bajic who I believe worked at Water Haigh pit. He lived with his wife and son on the Coal Board estate so was handily placed to run the youth club. Bob organised us as a football team from the late 1950’s. The pitch ran parallel with Aberford Road but is now mostly covered by the Rothwell Sports Centre car park. We did quite well playing other local youth clubs and joined the Red Triangle League Division 1E as we outgrew the youth club. Charlie Cornish looked after us and we had a very rude awakening in our first open-age encounter where we were soundly thrashed by Great Preston 10-0 on their ground. Eventually we changed our name to Woodlesford United and played in the West Yorkshire League on the a new pitch behind the Midland Hotel.”

Oulton Tennis Club first team in 1971. Dean Hartley, Joyce Weightman, John Weightman, Dora Taylor, John Mitchell, Joan Hudson, Derek Hudson. They were First Division Champions of the Wakefield and District Tennis League for five consecutive years.
Woodlesford All Saints Church football team in 1922. Back row: H. Moore, G. Bettany, Reg Penn, T. Couleton, S. Hopkinson, E. Anderson, William Kilmister (coach). Front row: W. Gallagher, J. Wiseman, W. Birkin, Harry Benson, Roly Parkes. William Kilmister’s father, Henry Charles, came from Shirehampton in Gloucestershire. He was a labourer at Bentley’s where William also worked as a lorry driver until he left to join “Soapy Joe’s” in Leeds. After serving as a soldier in the First World War he married Dorothy May Denton from Northamptonshire on Boxing Day 1921.