GAVIN Lance, a well known figure in junior football in the Wycombe area, has died aged 58 after a long battle with cancer.

He was former chairman of Penn and Tylers Green Football Club and over the years coached hundreds of youngsters in both football and cricket.

Gavin was born in High Wycombe - his grandfather was mayor of the town in the two years after the second world war - and he worked in the furniture industry as a buyer, salesman and then project manager.

Always an enthusiastic footballer - he played for Flackwell Heath, Prestwood, Lacey Green and Penn and Tylers Green and was player/manager of the Wycombe Young Adult Centre Sunday team - he took to coaching eight year olds when his eldest son Matt began playing. He developed the side into the most successful in the village club's history.

He went on to help form and then chair the Penn and Tylers Green Sports and Social Club - bringing the village's football, cricket and tennis clubs together socially - and organised junior six-a-side football and cricket tournaments, which today attract teams from throughout the Wycombe district.

He lived in Taplin Way, Tylers Green and leaves a wife Jan and three children, Matt, Olly and Kate and his mother June. A service to celebrate Gavin's life is being held at Chilterns Crematorium on Friday, 22 February at 2.30. Donations, if desired, for Cancer Research UK and Iain Rennie Hospice via Arnold Funeral Services.