A memorial clock has been unveiled at Marown Playing Fields in honour of a former commissioner and long-standing Marown football club chairman.

Tim O’Hanlon sadly passed away in May 2021, and was well-known as a timekeeper for Manx Radio on the TT and Manx Grand Prix, originally out on the course but latterly in the pit lane with Geoff Cannell and Chris Kinley.

But it’s in Marown that Tim left a lasting legacy, being club chairman at Marown AFC for 25 years up until his death, aged 73.

A large crowd gathered at the pitch in Crosby on Saturday for a presentation with the O’Hanlon family, members of the public and those associated with Marown AFC and the parish commissioners.

The clock is an appropriate memorial given Tim’s links to timekeeping in the road races, but also for the stopwatch he’d have round his neck at Marown football club matches, informing the manager and players how much time was left as well as keeping tabs on how much extra time the ref had added on.

Nicknamed Cocker, the club thought the name ‘Cocker’s Clock’ had a nice ring to it and it was installed last week by Arden and Druggan.

Current club chairman Neil Withers hosted the presentation and said a few words before the maroon and gold clock was unveiled to a chorus of claps and cheers.

Tim's children, Stephanie Hollis and Chris O'Hanlon pulled down an Isle of Man flag to unveil the memorial clock.

He said: ‘It has been something that we’ve been thinking of at the club for a while.

‘Tim was part of the club from the mid 80’s on the committee and took over as chairman in the mid 90’s when George Corkill became president.

‘So for almost 30 years they sat on the committee running the club, and it was a really sad time when Tim passed away.

‘We sat down at the next meeting following his death and someone proposed me to be chairman and I was really proud to take over from Tim.

‘In lieu of flowers people made donations and some of that money came to the club, and what we thought we’d do is purpose it for something special and something we can all remember Tim by and it be a symbol down at Marown Football Club.

‘As in normal Marown style it’s been on the agenda at the top for 18 months, and every time we have a committee meeting we have a little laugh and a joke because when Tim was chairman we had a flag post on the agenda for a long time!

‘Me and Helen [Club secretary] would scour the internet for something and bring ideas back and say that’s not quite right, we wanted to get it spot on.

‘Hopefully we’ve hit the nail on the head with this, we were looking for something that would be perfect both for Tim and the family to remember Tim by, and also the football club to look back and remember what a good chairman we had over the years.’

To round off a great day in Crosby, both Marown AFC first team and combination side won their games against Braddan on Saturday, dedicating the victories to their long-standing chairman who'll never be forgotten in the parish of Marown.