Biography

At 68-years of age, Bill Bayley, secretary of Melksham based Cooper Avon became the oldest ever recipient of the Gordon Blatchford award which is presented by the league each season an individuals or club who the league believe have gone that extra bit to give something back to grass roots football and whom the league recognise for their efforts.

Bayley who moved from London to Wiltshire 39 years ago lives in Melksham and has never played football locally but since the then Avon Mixing side joined the League back in 1984 Bayley has been associated with the club most notably as their linesman but over the years he has been very active behind the scenes and is the only survivor from those who were around in the early days.

Bayley has seen many changes in his time at the club, he has also experienced highs and lows, he has seen them change name from Avon Mixing to Melksham House and then to the present day Cooper Avon, he has seen the team spend time in the top flight as Melksham House and win the WG Parr Trophy he has seen them as Cooper fall all the way down to division four but over the past four years he has been secretary as they have climb back up to the premier division.

Bayley who retired a few years ago after spending almost 28 years working in various jobs in the Avon took over as club secretary in 1998 but gave up the role at the start of the 2002/03 season but a few months into that season Bayley took over the secretarial duties once again and he saved the club from going out of existence and since then he has remained in the thankless post as club secretary.

Away from football his hobbies include skittles, fishing and cricket where he plays on a regular basis for Beanacre as their ever youthful Wicket keeper and has a love for West Ham United.

After 25 years of being involved with Cooper Avon, Bayley shows no signs of slowing down but he had to say a big thank you to his wife Ruth who has been a great assistance to him in his role as club secretary over the years.