TED TEBBUTT, who was chairman of York Rugby League Club when they left Clarence Street and moved to Huntington Stadium, has died aged 80.

Tebbutt, who lived off Bishopthorpe Road, was a rugby league supporter before being asked to join the board.

He had worked for the War Office before going into business with his father, also called Ted Tebbutt, running a betting office in Carey Street, off Fulford Road, from the 1960s to the late 1980s. He later started TJs Newsagency in Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate in York city centre, now called No 1 4 News and run by his daughter-in-law, Beverley.

It was while running Ted Tebbutt Turf Accountant that he joined the rugby club as a director in the late 1970s, replacing Charles Magson as chairman in late 1985, a year after York had memorably reached the Challenge Cup semi-finals, in which they ran mighty Wigan close.

The club, having been promoted to the top division in 1985, were relegated a year later, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s were one of the leading clubs in the second tier.

In 1989, Tebbutt oversaw the controversial switch to what was then called Ryedale Stadium, a move deemed necessary not only for financial reasons but because of the need to modernise stadia in the wake of the Bradford City Valley Parade fire tragedy of 1985.

He stood down as chairman in 1991, to be replaced by John Stabler.

Tebbutt, who died in York Hospital after suffering pneumonia, leaves behind widow Joan, sons Steven and Mark, daughter Samantha, daughter-in-law Beverley, son-in-law Tim, and grandchildren Jessica, Amy, Lois, Thomas, Tessa and Josephine.

All are welcome at his funeral, which will be at St Oswald’s Church, in Fulford, at noon on Thursday, March 14, followed by cremation at York Crematorium.