It was with much sadness last week that Prestwich Heys learned of the death of their legendary striker Tommy Kaye.

Tommy was a star in Heys legendary team of the sixties which swept all before them in winning 18 trophies as they rose from the South East Lancashire League to become the Kings of Lancashire in 1971 when they became the only side to win the Lancashire Combination, the League Cup, Challenge Cup and George Watson Trophy in the same season.

It was also a period in which Heys rose to National prominence as they flew the flag for the North West with lengthy runs in the FA Amateur Cup with crowds flocking to Heys old Grimshaws home to see them play the likes of Sutton United, Finchley and Highgate United, the latter in front of a record 4,000 crowd.

It was Tommy’s goals that propelled Heys through this golden age. In total he scored 263 goals for the club. 259 of those came in a 9 year period up to 1972 after scoring his first in a 2-1 defeat at Dukinfield Victoria on the 17th February 1963.

His scoring feats were phenomenal. He hit 17 hat-tricks in his career, scored four goals in a game on six occasions, twice hit five and amazingly scored six goals in a match five times.

One of those six goal hauls came in a 13-0 home win over Oldham Hulmeians in the Lancashire Amateur Cup on the 2nd October 1965, a victory that remains the clubs biggest ever win in competitive football.

Tommy revelled in the Lancashire Amateur Cup and his 14 goals in the 1967 campaign were key to Heys lifting the trophy with a 2-1 victory in the Final against Aintree Villa at Maine Road.

Once his career had finished Tommy remained with the club for a time as a team manager and he fulfilled at various times the roles of Secretary, Groundsman and ran the club bar which was christened Tommy’s Bar.

In between this he still played the odd game when required, scoring his final goal for the club on 8th April 1978 in a 2-2 home draw with New Mills.

Away from the pitch Tommy ran a fishmongers on Whittaker Lane for many years before spending his later life in the Isle of Man.

In passing on their condolences to his family the club will hold a minute’s silence ahead of this Saturdays home game with Old Alts, at Grimshaw Park (Sandgate Road), in tribute to a man whose feats are unlikely ever to be matched.