Biography
Played soccer - goalkeeper at Thornes House Grammar School. Started playing rugby at 16.
In 1955 played two matches for Yorkshire Amateurs U-18 against Lancashire and Cumbria whilst with Trinity Juniors and signed for Wakefield Trinity in 1956 and remained with Trinity until 1964. Geoff made his first team appearance in 1958 against St Helens together with Harold Poynton and Reg Parker. Played in two winning Wembley finals, two championship finals and one Yorkshire Cup. Chosen as "shadow hooker" for Great Britain.
Signed for Warrington in 1964 and whilst there won a Lancashire Cup winners medal. In 1967 returned to Wakefield and retired in 1968 after breaking a leg against St Helens, missing "water splash" final, having played in all previous rounds.
Geoff's other sporting interest is golf, and he was a former member, and past captain City of Wakefield Golf Club. Served on Leeds and District Golf Union executive committee. Played in many pro-ams around the world, winning 25 events including Monaco, Trinidad and Tobago, Acapulco and Biarritz. Professionals played alongside included Mike Slater (pro at Warringon), Hedley Muscroft, Ronan Rafferty, Paul Carrigill, Bill Ferguson and local professional Adrian Ambler. Best handicap 4.
Also became interested in Horse Riding and took part in one day hunter trials, winning at Heath, Wakefield and hunted several times with Rockwood and Badsworth hunts.
When owning the Quarry Inn, Horbury he improved his cooking skills and continues to do so in retirement!
Read more about this topic: Geoffrey Oakes
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)