It is with much regret that the club has heard of the untimely death, last week, of its popular and friendly volunteer and chief gateman, Keith Kitson.

Keith was introduced to the club some 20 years ago through his friendship with Phil Rogerson, who was then Chairman of Guiseley AFC and Keith quickly took to the role of running his turnstile and some four years later expanded that role to take on the responsibility of organising and co-ordinating the other turnstile volunteers and making sure it all ran smoothly and professionally.

Keith was a well known and much respected member of the West Yorkshire Insurance community in which he worked all his life.

Keith enjoyed the good things in life, good company, real ale, fine wines, rock music and, whisper it, watching Bradford City when he wasn’t working or on duty at Guiseley. Known amongst the volunteers for his dry wit and deadpan delivery, Keith was a fabulous asset for the club and will be very sadly missed.

He leaves a wife, Janice and two children Jamie and Lucy and their children to whom the Club would like to express its sincere condolences.

Due to the current Covid-19 restrictions the funeral will be a family affair limited to ten people but the family plan to have some sort of memorial and / or get together once things return to normal.

Prior to this sad news it had been decided that Keith should be honoured as the Club’s volunteer of the year for 2019/20 so for all the above reasons:

We are delighted to announce that the Volunteer of The Year, 2019/20 has been awarded to Keith Kitson.

On learning that he had received the award Keith had said “this was not expected, and I am really quite surprised. I would like to thank all of the other gate staff for their hard work”.