FORMER Keighley Rugby League Football Club hooker Derek Feather has died aged 73 after a long illness.

A quiet man off the pitch, Worth Village stalwart Derek was a different animal when he crossed the whitewash.

"He was frighteningly hard," said former Village player Graeme Sheffield, who was coached by him, while Derek's son Micky was not aware of his dad's ferocious reputation until he was much older.

"I used to hear stories about him when I was around town," said Micky, "and people couldn't understand someone who was an accountant and loved gardening and was so meek and mild mannered off the pitch, yet, without being the biggest player, was the enforcer on it.

"I have several pieces of paperwork of my dad's from Keighley RLFC from the mid-1970s when he asked for his release to go back to Worth Village as skipper and player-coach.

"One is of Keighley refusing to release him and another of them agreeing to release him but saying that if they needed him back he was to return.

"His reputation was such at Worth Village that it is fair to say that he got the best out of his players, and they won several cups under him in one of their most successful periods.

"He played until his mid-40s and didn't want to grow old."

Derek was heavily involved in Keighley Rugby Union Football Club in later life.

Micky's involvement as a player there from the age of 16 meant that Derek got involved as a coach of the under-17s and the colts and was later first-team manager, touch judge and chairman of rugby – a span of service for the town's club that reached almost 25 years.

Derek's funeral will be at Skipton Crematorium next Wednesday (June 29) at 1.20pm, with a celebration of his life afterwards at Keighley Rugby Union Club from about 2pm onwards.