In addition to that he played in the 1991 Suburban league side and over the last few weeks has spent Friday evenings between the sticks for one of the over 35 sides.

A total of 276 of those 300 games have been in the top side making him the most capped first grade player.

Rod Luxford, with 338 games, is the only one to have played more grade games (that is Northern NSW divisional games and sanctioned knock outs).

Gillespie arrived in Singleton in the early eighties as an ‘army boy’ when his father was posted to town.

After a period at Coffs Harbour, the family returned to Singleton where Warren established himself as a very talented young goal keeper.

When his family ‘retired’ back to Adelaide he stayed in Singleton and has called it home, apart from a short spell working at Gunnedah.

In 1989, the Singleton under 16 team became the first country based team to be crowned NSW Champion of Champions when they beat Lilli Pilli in the final.

As team captain, Gillespie received the trophy from Australia’s only soccer superstar at the time, Liverpool’s Craig Johnston.

He was also representing in State Titles and was a member of the Hunter Schools side.

In 1991, he stepped up to the senior club and was part of the Suburban league side (the third team) and was chosen for the youth grade squad the following year when the Strikers were elevated to the restructured NNSW Second Division.

The next year he stepped up to the first grade job and has been number one, apart from the spell at Gunnedah and a few early season games when he was contesting cricket finals.

Over the years he has been named Player of the Year, Best and Fairest and Players Player (three times) on Presentation Night.

Warren has been involved in running the club for many years and in 2001, when the incumbent secretary went overseas during the season, he put his hand up for that job.

He has held the thankless task since then.

Recently he admitted that if a quality young keeper came along he would not mind taking things a bit easier and maybe looking forward to celebrating his 300th over 35 game in 2028 (that is a long time away).