SOME of the best-known names in Kent football circles joined family and friends at Barham Crematorium to pay their last respects to former Chislet footballer Graham Heckley who died on New Year¹s Eve. He was 47.

Mr Heckley, born and bred at Hersden, near Canterbury, was a naturally gifted footballer and was a major influence behind Chislet¹s domination of the Sunday soccer scene throughout the 1970s and 80s, during which they won the Herne Bay and Whitstable Sunday League championship with monotonous regularity and also became Kent Sunday champions.

In his youth Mr Heckley soon established a reputation as a powerful and talented footballer, despite a slender physique that earned him the nickname Bone, and he gained representative honours with North East Kent Schools. He also showed talent in the boxing ring, fighting for his school on a number of occasions, and demonstrated a natural ability on horseback that suggested he could even have taken up a career as a jockey.

But football was Mr Heckley¹s main love and although he played for a number of teams on Saturdays, including both Herne Bay and Whitstable in the Kent League, his loyalty on Sundays remained with Chislet. He fought and overcame illness on more than one occasion and returned to play for the Chislet second team in the latter part of his career before hanging up his boots 10 years ago to help manage the club.

Tony Baker, Chislet captain for the majority of their glory years, said Mr Heckley was one of the most skilful players he had seen in junior football. "Graham was quite an amazing footballer," he said. "He wasn¹t big but he was tremendously strong and powerful."

Mr Heckley leaves a widow, Anne, and children, Justin and Joanne.