A FORMER soccer pro from the golden days of Burnley Football Club has celebrated his own 9 carat occasion.

Jackie Chew and his wife, Ivy, who live in Harwood Road, Rishton, clocked up their 50th wedding anniversary yesterday.

Jackie played for Burnley FC from 1945 to 1953 and was in the Wembley squad which lost the 1947 FA Cup Final in extra time to Charlton Athletic.

An all-round sportsman, he also had a distinguished cricketing career.

At 18 he played football with Blackburn Rovers as a youth as well as Cricket for the East Lancashire Cricket Club.

Jackie and Ivy, who are both in their seventies, are originally from Blackburn .

They moved to Rishton around 1950 when Jackie transferred from East Lancashire to Rishton Cricket Club, where he captained the first team, and later the second eleven.

He went on to coach young players and the couple are both still members of the cricket club.

Following a stroke 14 years ago, Jackie retired from his job as a sales representative with the former Charles Baynes hacksaw manufacturers at Intack, where his wife worked in despatch,

Their son, David, who lives with his wife, Jean, in Blacko, is chief executive of Burnley NHS Trust, and also played cricket for Rishton.

Their grandson, Michael, is studying for his A-Levels at Nelson and Colne College, and plays for Nelson second eleven. Granddaughter, Katie, 15, is a pupil at Westholme School in Blackburn.

The couple celebrated with a family party last night at Mytton Fold Farm restaurant, Langho.

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