FASCINATED by Looking Back's glimpse earlier this month of the workshops of old-time Blackburn motor dealers J and S Leaver in the early years of the last century, Darwen reader Ray Kemp sends this photograph of the firm's football team in 1949.

Ray, who worked for Leavers as an apprentice motor mechanic before joining the Royal Air Force in 1951, cannot recall the names of all the players.

But the ones he does remember are (left to right): Back -- Jim Hoyle (trainer), Slater, Joe Walter, goalie Fred Clarke and, next to him, Len Bibby who played cricket for Rishton; Front -- Frank Lamb, Fred Milligan, Jos Clegg and Jack Chatburn.

Ray, now 69, also recalls that among the many local firms which used Bedford commercial vehicles supplied by Leavers were Blackburn brewers Dutton's and Daniel Thwaites as well as Brinscall timber merchants Alfred Hulme and the famous Baxenden pie makers, Holland's.

"Due to the bodies being built by Leavers, only the chassis and cab were supplied by Bedford, with most of the vehicles being driven up from their factory in Luton by Jack Seed. This was before car transporters and the maximum running speed was 30mph," says Ray, of Westland Avenue, Darwen.

He also recalls often working on the old Austin taxis operated by veteran cabman Syd Smith from his Station Garage next to the old Star and Garter Hotel -- the present-day, but-closed Boulevard pub -- in Railway Road.

Syd, pictured inset, wearing his 'trademark' bowler hat, was a familiar figure on the Boulevard for almost 50 years, working seven days a week from early morning until late at night until 1963 when the roof of his garage collapsed and it had to be pulled down. He died in 1978 aged 92.

"When he came to collect a taxi after it had been repaired, he would give me a tip of one penny," Ray remembers. "Mind you, my wage then would have been only in the region of fifty bob -- £2.50 now."