OTLEY Rugby Union Football Club, formed in 1865, now have their own club blazer, bringing them on a par with famous clubs such as Leicester Tigers and Newcastle Falcons.

And, on a more local level, with clubs such as Wharfedale, Cleckheaton, Baildon, Bradford & Bingley, Bradford Salem, Yarnbury and Ilkley, among others.

Otley club chairman Paul Mackie explained: “About four years ago, in Stourbridge, a group of us went out for a couple of days to see Otley play there and we ended up in a Peaky Blinders bar discussing that other clubs had blazers and we didn’t.

“So we started talking about the art of the possible and that seed then grew into Gordon Baines, one of our senior members, trying to search for some suitable cloth.

“He ended up going down to Marton Mills, a local weavers’ factory down Pool Road and found the cloth that ended up being the jackets that we have on today.

“It took about two years to get the cloth and the jackets made for five of us, all committee members, and we have been trying to roll them out to other club members, but when you have bespoke-made jackets the price ends up being about £350.

“We have tried to get them done in China or India and trying to promote it through our website and our monthly magazine, but there hasn’t been the take-up yet to roll it out.

“But the five of us turn up every Saturday, home or away, to showcase the brand of the rugby club and they have been very well received.

“To make it a goer we would probably need an order of about 30 and we need to get the price down to £100-£120, and we can do that by using slightly different cloth and that wouldn’t be provided by Marton Mills, whose cloth is quite expensive.

“There are models out there so we are just trying to find the right cloth to roll out ‘mass production’ in order to get it back into the club, but that might take a few months.”

Mackie added: “They have been very well received as they are high-quality jackets, and Marton Mills have done a great job with this run of cloth.

“They are happy to put another 100 metres through the weaving machine, and we haven’t called that off yet so that is available.

“It has taken since 1865 and there are two badges as well. Gordon has the original and I have the up-to-date one with slightly different colours!

“We are now on a par with Leicester Tigers and Newcastle Falcons!”