TRIBUTES have been paid to a snooker-loving York tailor who once beat legend Dennis Taylor in a match.

Ray Darley, of Stonegate Tailors, was a well-known face in York and was so respected as a tailor that he used to be called to London to fit suits for barristers.

A keen member of the York Conservative Snooker Club, Mr Darley became something of a local celebrity when he beat former world champion Dennis Taylor in a snooker match in 1981.

His daughter, Gillian Foster, said: “Lots of people knew him, he was very sociable. He was a lovely man and he had the most fabulous sense of humour. He could make you laugh about something that wasn’t even funny.

“When I was younger everybody knew me because they knew my dad. I almost used to feel quite famous.”

Mr Darley, the son of Gladys and Ted Darley, was born in 1928 and was brought up in Bishopthorpe Road with brothers Brian, Barry and Ken.

After joining the Army at the age of 18, he spent three years stationed with the Parachute Regiment in Germany before returning to York.

He met his wife, Eileen, when they were both working in a laundrette in Peasholme Green. The pair married in Osbaldwick Church in 1949.

Mr Darley went to work as a tailor for Simpson-East in Stonegate and eventually set up on his own in 1971, making bespoke suits at Stonegate Tailors.

He stayed there for 30 years before moving to a shop in Coney Street and then working in Fossgate.

Mrs Foster said: “He was a very hard-working man. When I was little he used to work in the tailors in the day and drive a taxi cab in the evening. He worked for a long time and he enjoyed it.”

Eileen died in February this year, not long after the pair marked their 60th wedding anniversary.

Mr Darley, a great-grandfather, died suddenly at home in Bishopthorpe aged 83.

He is survived by his children Gillian and Lesley Dickinson.