PADIHAM stalwart Stephen Gee bowed out at the top by collecting his fifth Jennings Ribblesdale League winners' medal.

And he admitted that his last title triumph before hanging up his boots was almost too good to be true.

"I was thrilled to bits. I was talking to our chairman and I said to him if someone had written a script or made a film about last weekend, you would think it doesn't happen. But it did.

"I was on the field at the end of our last home game, even though we lost, and I was there at the death in the championship-winning game. There were a few tears on Saturday and Sunday," confirmed Gee, whose 21 not out helped Padiham beat Barnoldswick on Sunday and retain the league crown which looked to have slipped from their grasp when they were beaten by championship rivals Great Harwood 24 hours earlier.

The 51-year-old accountant therefore became the first Padiham player to win four championship medals, his first coming in 1966 and the last three in the last five years.

He also tasted title glory in 1982, during a happy seven-year stint as professional at Earby, and added a 1973 Ramsbottom Cup winners' medal to his collection with Padiham, where he started playing in the old 'A' team at the age of nine.

His second-team debut came as an 11-year-old when he went to watch his brother play at Blackburn Northern and ended up playing in a one-run defeat, being the not-out batsman without troubling the scorer. His subsequent 40-year career - which took in spells with Lowerhouse and Burnley in the Lancashire League and also with Whalley in the Ribblesdale League - saw him top the Ribblesdale League's batting averages in 1970 and 1983, and the bowling averages in 1986.

Gee, who returned to the Arbories in 1989 after a 14-year gap, also won the league's bowling award in 1996 and last year was second in the bowling averages.

This summer he took 40 league wickets and also represented the league side.

"It's about contributing. I couldn't enjoy it if I wasn't contributing," he added.

"I will certainly miss the dressing room and I will miss playing but there comes a time when you don't want to slip into oblivion.

"I don't want to play second-team cricket because I would be doing a youngster out of a game. If I was playing I would want to bat and bowl.

"I will miss it, but because of the games I have missed, I find I can watch. I do know that from next season that I will be a better player than I ever was!"

Gee's son Marcus was in the side which clinched the championship on Sunday and his two-year-old grandson Ben Gorton is already showing a keen interest in the game.

And Gee senior confirmed that they will be the ones to keep the family flag flying as there will be no comeback.

"The guys were very kind. They said if you're giving up can we have this and that. I took a full coffin and came back with an empty one," said Gee, who will take some replacing if Padiham are to make it a hat-trick of titles next year.

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