“I’m lucky I’ve got a very understanding wife.”

So says football and bowls enthusiast Peter Langley, who will have been married to Hazel for 49 years in April.

The couple live in Cheltenham and 72-year-old Langley, who is well known in the football and bowls communities around the county, admitted: “I do a lot, I’m always on the computer making sure that everything runs smoothly.”

He’s chairman of the Gloucestershire County Football League, after previously serving as vice-chairman, and he’s also taken on a number of administrative roles in bowls.

His football playing days are long gone, of course, but he still plays bowls for Pineholt Bowls Club.

He has been made a life member of the club, but while he thoroughly enjoys his bowls, football was his first love.

“I received a long service in football award in June last year,” he said. “It was from the FA for 50 years of service to football.”

And his hard work has been recognised closer to home, too, because he’s a life member of the Gloucestershire FA.

Langley was born in Brighton – he moved to this part of the world in the mid-1970s – and played for Worthing Reserves back in the day.

“I used to play on the left wing and later as a goalkeeper,” said the dad-of-three.

He went on to become a referee, taking charge of games in the Gloucestershire County League, and was secretary of the Cheltenham Sunday League back in the day.

His bowls journey started around the turn of the century and, typically, it was something he threw himself into.

As well as still being a keen player, he was secretary of the Gloucestershire Bowls Association for six years and is now secretary of the Gloucestershire Bowls Sunday League and secretary of the Glevum Bowls League.

Langley also runs the websites for the Gloucester Ladies’ Bowls League and the Glevum League, which is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year.

“The bowls season starts in April and continues all the way through until October,” he said. “The football ticks over through the season and beyond, so I’m doing something all year round.

“I do it because I enjoy it, but the clubs are the most important thing, the clubs are what make a league in any sport.”