Dennis Carney's funeral will take place at 11am on Wednesday 28th May at St Mathew's Church, Lightcliffe. Following that everyone is also welcome to the Brods, from noon onwards, for the wake.

The family has asked that attendees must be wearing rugby shirts or bright colours rather than a black ties please.

Donations for the Alzheimer's Society would also be much appreciated.

Please find a lovely tribute below from a former Brods XV Captain and stalwart.

A Tribute to Dennis
by Harold Smith

"I was very sad to learn of Dennis Carney's death and can well remember Dennis joining the Brods from Rochdale RUFC in the early Sixties. Has a mere youngster in my early Twenties I thought Dennis was a geriatric being in his Thirties. His rugby skills soon proved he was much more than a geriatric and he represented the Brods for many years with his enthusiastic and skilful performances. In fact I was quite relieved when Dennis arrived since it enabled me to move from being a fullback into the forwards. I was never very good at catching a wet slippery leather high ball.

Dennis was always consistent and always arrived to play at least 2 minutes before kick off. In those days players were much fitter and didn't need warm ups. His excuses for being late were always the same, he had been entertaining a customer until 2am the night before, or he had been taking his son John to Ballet lessons. He must have been very proud of John since he later became a ballet dancer of International Acclaim.

Its a pity Dennis couldn't have been Dennis a bit longer since then he might have been able to tell us how to beat Rochdale RUFC."