Peter Whiteley is the new President of Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s Players’ Association.
The Otley-born former off-spinner was handed his chain of office from the retiring president, Barrie Leadbeater, at the Association’s annual meeting at Headingley on April 30.
Peter, 67, played for Yorkshire from 1978-1982, taking seven wickets against Glamorgan on his Championship debut at Abbeydale Park, Sheffield, and going on to capture 70 first class victims.
For three consecutive seasons he was the leading wicket-taker for Yorkshire’s Second X1 and he also enjoyed a long and successful career with Harrogate Cricket Club.
Peter told the meeting: “It is a great honour to take on the President’s role and I do so with the greatest of pleasure.
“If my mother and father could see me now, they would be chuffed to bits. They were both huge cricket fans and very proud of being from Yorkshire.
“I have had rather more time to get used to the idea of taking over the presidency of this great club’s Players’ Association than I did before making my first class debut. I got a call one Friday afternoon telling me to be at Headingley the next day as I was playing against the New Zealanders.
“My parents and wife were watching from in front of the old pavilion and were honoured to be joined by a true gentleman, Geoff Cope [now Yorkshire CCC President and Players’ Association secretary] whose place I had taken on the field.
“I’d like to thank all those who have been responsible for setting up the Association and for running it since its formation in 2005. When I was a player there was little in the way of support and when Raymond Illingworth came back to play at the age of 50 and I got cricket chairman Ronnie Burnet’s vote of confidence I knew that my days were numbered!”
“It has been great, though, to be able to meet former team-mates, play golf and reminisce and I hope, as your President, we can engage with more players, past and present, to share our memories and hopes for Yorkshire cricket.”
Peter paid tribute to Barrie at the end of his term of presidency and thanked him for persevering through one of the most difficult times with a positive outlook, and he concluded: “Thank-you for asking me to be your President and I hope I can do as good a job as those who have come before me.”
Yorkshire CCC cricket secretary, Cecilia Allen, was elected to the Association’s management committee, filling the vacancy resulting from Richard Blakey retiring by rotation and not seeking re-election. Cecilia will help to stimulate interest in the Association among Yorkshire’s current men’s and women’s team members.
Re-elected for a further year were; secretary, Geoff Cope; treasurer, David Ryder; press officer, David Warner; auditor, Richard Hutton.
