From taking on the Taliban to delivering young people into the sport's workforce

When you have made life or death decisions in a bloody war and come face to face with the Taliban, readjusting to a somewhat different working day in Doncaster might seem a tad anti-climactic.

Not so if you are Colonel Stephen Padgett.

The man whose 37-year army career included a stint from 2005 to 2006 as commander of Britain's forces in Afghanistan is no longer employed in the military yet much of what he learned representing his country in Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Germany and the USA guides what he does now. Students have become his troops. Staff are his officers. Even the chef who served up chicken pie for lunch was once in the army.