FOR more than 50 years he helped make one Hampshire village's Sunday mornings a more relaxing experience.

But now, one of the oldest paperboys on the block has hung up his delivery bag for the last time - at the age of 81.

Since June 1947 Cecil Dunford has been getting up at 5am on Sundays to ensure that residents of Sparsholt, near Winchester, have their favourite read in time for breakfast.

Even after retiring as a gardener for Winchester City Council in 1983 Cecil, of Woodman Close, Sparsholt, continued his weekly round but decided to call it a day on New Year's Eve.

He admitted that his restful Sundays in 2001 have been an odd experience.

He said: "It did not sink in on the first Sunday that I would not be having the papers around or seeing the customers."

"You had to take the good weather with the bad but I really enjoyed doing it over the years.''

He added: "I can't even think of the number of papers that I will have delivered but I must have been one of the oldest paperboys in the world."

When he first began he was delivering 140 papers in Sparsholt, Northwood and Westley, on his motorbike.

However, as the supplements grew thicker and heavier he ditched that for his car in 1950.

After collecting the papers from Winchester station at 6am, his two rounds would normally take him about three hours to complete, with a breakfast stop in between.

Mr Dunford said: "I think I will be missed by the custo-mers and everyone sent me a lot of cards when I retired."