Category Archives: News

Dan Neil is NE FWA Young Player of the Year

Posted on by
Reply
Sunderland’s Dan Neil has been named North East Football Writers’ Association’s young player of the year 2021.
The Sunderland-born midfielder capped a brilliant year by becoming the fourth academy player from the club to win the 13-year-old award, following Jack Colback and England keeper Jordan Pickford, who won it twice.
Last week Newcastle United winger Allan Saint-Maximin was named the 2020 NEFWA Player of the year and Durham’s Sarah Robson won the women’s award. All three will be presented with their awards at a ceremony in Durham in March.   
Neil was a key member of Sunderland’s Wembley-winning Football League Trophy team and has established himself in the Sunderland first team under Lee Johnson this season. As well as impressing home fans, his performances have already attracted attention from Premier League and Championship clubs.
Neil, 20, has scored three goals in his 33 appearances for Sunderland and he has also earned a call-up to the England Under-20 squad, making his debut against Portugal in November. In December he was named EFL Young Player of the Month.
Towards the end of last year, Academy of Light graduate Neil signed a new contract, keeping him at the Stadium of Light until 2025.
Neil said: “I am honoured to win this award because I know how big it is within the North East, but it was a surprise became this is my first real season playing first team football and I know the players who have won it in the past.
“Of course, it means more because it is a local award and there is a lot of top talent within the region, so to be recognised as one of the best is a real privilege.”
Saint-Maximin, Neil and Robson will be presented with their awards at the North East Football Writers’ Association annual awards dinner on Sunday March 6 at the Ramside Hall Hotel and Spa in Durham. Last year’s winners Middlesbrough pair Jonny Howson and Marcus Tavernier will also collect their awards.
Neil’s Sunderland team-mate Luke O’Nien will be presented with last year’s Sir Bobby Robson Foundation’s personality of the year award and an announcement on this year’s recipient will be made shortly.   
Tickets are available for the awards dinner at the Ramside Hall Hotel, Golf and Spa in Durham on Sunday March 6, and further details are available from Claire Stephen on 0191 375 3080
Previous winners of the young player award
2008 Steven Taylor (Newcastle)
2009 David Wheater (Middlesbrough)
2010 Andy Carroll (Newcastle)
2011 Joe Bennett (Middlesbrough)
2012 Jason Steele (Middlesbrough)
2013 Jack Colback (Sunderland)
2014 Ben Gibson (Middlesbrough
2015 Ayoze Perez (Newcastle)
2016 Jordan Pickford (Sunderland)
2017 Jordan Pickford (Sunderland)
2019 Sean Longstaff (Newcastle)
2020 Marcus Tavernier (Middlesbrough)
2021 Dan Neil (Sunderland)

Tribute Night postponed

Posted on by
Reply

We are sorry to say that the Tribute Night planned to honour Pep Guardiola on January 16th has had to be postponed in the light of the current Covid situation.  We will look to rearrange the event as soon as is feasibly possible.

Below is the note Paul McCarthy, our executive secretary, sent out earlier. FWA Members and others who had paid for tickets and/or tables should contact Paul regarding refunds or rearrangements.

“Dear All,
It is with a heavy heart that I have to inform you of our decision to postpone the Tribute Dinner in honour of Pep Guardiola which was scheduled for Sunday January 16.
A combination of factors have led to this decision, primarily the Government’s demand for caution in the face of the current Covid spike. The National Committee is hugely uncomfortable at the thought of staging a 500-person event when the transmission and infection rates are so high and show no immediate signs of decreasing. For an FWA event to have the potential to become a ‘super spreader’ is beyond palatable.
There are also the current restrictions covering football clubs and their managers, players, staff and employees. While there are no in-person press conferences or media access, it would be foolish to expect Pep or anybody at Manchester City to put themselves in a situation which might impact their health and, as a knock-on effect, potentially force the cancellation of matches.
We have held hugely positive talks with City and The Landmark Hotel and our intention is to rearrange the dinner at the earliest possible available date in the calendar. Of course, we are at the whim of fixtures and hotel availability without even mentioning the ongoing health situation, so please bear with us as we attempt to fashion a solution.
Pep has also asked that we pass on his best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year and how he’s looking forward to being with us whenever we can find a new date. We thank him for that.”

Ed Barry – Funeral Details

Posted on by
Reply

UPDATE

Ed Barry’s funeral will be on Tuesday 21st December at 3.00.p.m. in the Cypress Chapel, Stockport Crematorium, Buxton Road, Heaviley, Stockport, SK2 6LS and afterwards at The Bamford Arms. Buxton Road, Stockport, SK2 6NB.

************************************************************

We lost another good friend and colleague last week when Ed Barry passed away at the age of 72.  Ed was former sports editor of The People, having been a newspaperman all his working life, and his good friend John Dillon has written this tribute:

“ED BARRY left us this week but his voice will never fade.

He had a lot to say for himself, did Ed. About a hell of a lot of things.

He was a great newspaperman. But his sharp, lively London Irish mind was interested in so very much more about life. And he always knew what he was talking about, as often as not with a pint of London Pride in his hand and more than sometimes, with a healthily blunt expletive on the way, too.

That is what made him such a good and passionate journalist and such a fine Sports Editor of The People between 1994 and 2000 – as well as such a great friend and lively, irascible companion.

He passed away last Monday at the age of 72 (December 6) after a short illness followed by a heart attack.

Truly, it was one of the greatest privileges of my career to operate alongside a friend and a soul who was so profoundly talented, decent, hard-working, energetic, committed and, often, so wonderfully grumpy, too.

It was just as much a privilege to share the bar-room with him, which we did often because he was a man born to thrive and in social company and the warm glow of the pub.

The tributes to him this week have been coloured with immense respect for a great professional and love for a good friend.

Andy Dunn, Chief Sports Writer of the Daily and Sunday Mirror was employed by Ed at The People and recalled: “Ed and his number two, Ray Ansboro, formed a formidable partnership at the helm of People Sport. The key was healthy debate. Ed was always up for a debate about most things, not just sport. And while it could get heated, it would usually remain good-natured. Passionate but good-natured.

“He was very supportive of writers and it is easy to forget just how good The People sports section was. It is no exaggeration to say it was a go-to paper for footballers.

“At one point in Ed’s time as sports editor, the People was selling two million copies … and the sport had a lot to do with that.

“Most importantly, though, Ed was simply good company, great to share a pint with, and a great bloke.”

Another colleague Stuart James, former Editor of the Daily Star Sunday, captured him beautifully by recalling his love of football and the Arsenal in this poetic way. “Ed gave me my first staff job on Fleet Street when he was Sports Editor of The People in 1995 and was a bit of a mentor as well as a friend to me. He was always great company and full of brilliant stories about football and sport in general but also about the old days of national newspapers in London and Manchester.

“I swear he had a photographic memory and could not only describe goals from decades past but also the half a dozen passes that led to them, as well as the strength of the breeze across the Clock End on the given day.”

Ed was also a great family man and our condolences go to his beloved wife Gail – with whom he recently celebrated his 52nd wedding anniversary –  his sons Kieron and Neil and  his four grandchildren, Joshua 17, Kallan 12, Olivia, 11, and Noah, 7.

His career began at the Hornsey Journal and in 1968 and finished at the Sunday Express in 2011.

In that 43-year stint, he became a stalwart of the both the Manchester and London national newspaper sports scenes while also encompassing spells at three of the country’s leading regional outfits.

I worked with him at The People from the day he joined the sports desk in 1990 until I left for the Daily Mirror in 1998.

And it was a significant honour to count him as a work-mate and a pal.

Ed was a dyed-in-the-wool, classic newspaperman, having been immersed in the old school at papers such as the Birmingham Mail, the Manchester Evening News and the Mirror’s rumbustious Manchester operation.

He could be very warm and he could be very blunt, and there was nothing wrong with that.

It meant that he knew what the readers wanted and how they thought and how they felt about football and the rest of sport.

As an Islington-born son of Irish parents, he loved the Gunners. But he was as besotted with the glories of all of the game, in particular men like George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton whom he idolised.

He was fiercely proud of his Irish roots and he was as fiercely interested in so much of life, be it history, politics or The Beatles and so very much more.

But he also loved the newspaper trade with a deep passion which fuelled his love of spinning out his myriad tales of the old days of the game.

After starting out at the Hornsey Journal, he moved to the Nottingham Evening Post in 1972.

Then from 1974 until 1976, he was at the Birmingham Evening Mail.

After that came seven happy years at the Manchester Evening News. And I’m sure, by now, you’re getting an idea of the kind of grand old style of newspaperman he was.

He worked at the Mirror in Manchester between 1983 and 1988.

Then, following the closure of the Mirror operation there, he freelanced for two years while also being involved in Eddie Shah’s short-lived Warrington operation at The Post.

He joined The People in 1990 and was Sports Editor between 1994 and 2000.

But eventually, the weekly commute to London from his beloved Manchester meant another change – and from 2000 until 2003 he again free-lanced.

In 2003, he became Deputy Sports Editor at the Sunday Express operation in

Preston where he remained until his retirement in 2011.

It was a great career and he was a great force of life who will be sorely missed.

The next pint of Pride is for him . . .”

40th NORTHERN MANAGERS AWARDS DINNER – Feb 6th

Posted on by
Reply

PEP GUARDIOLA will again be our leading guest of honour at the 40th Northern Managers Awards Dinner, on Sunday February 6th 2022, at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Manchester.

Pep will be honoured for leading Manchester City to the Premier League title in May 2021, and will be joined by other managers from northern clubs to have won honours last season.

They include: GRANT McCANN (Hull City), NEIL CRITCHLEY (Blackpool), LEE JOHNSON (Sunderland), IAN EVATT (Bolton Wanderers), DEREK ADAMS (Morecambe) now Bradford City. DAVE CHALLINOR (Hartlepool United, now Stockport County) , DAVID McNABB (Warrington Rylands).

The dinner, organised in conjunction with our title sponsors William Hill, is always one of the highlights of the FWA social calendar and sells out quickly.

Tickets are £70 for FWA members, £75 for non-members and guests. You can book now for Tables of 10/11, smaller groups or individuals by contacting FWA North secretary RICHARD BOTT or vice chairman PAUL HETHERINGTON.

We also have reserved a discounted rate for rooms at the Edwardian Hotel. Ask Richard or Paul or details.

Adrian Curtis – Funeral details

Posted on by
2

UPDATE

The funeral of Adrian Curtis will be held next Thursday, Dec 30th at Peterborough Crematorium, starting at 12.30. No dress code.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Tributes have flowed for our friend, colleague and FWA member Adrian Curtis, who has passed away suddenly at the age of 63.

Dippa, as he was known to his many friends and colleagues, was one of the finest story-getters of his generation, creating scoop after scoop for a wide range of publications in his long and varied career.

He was also helped to launch and develop the careers of a number of top journalists with his advice, guidance and by passing on tips, stories and exclusives. He often broke back-page leads without a credit or byline.

Adrian started his career at the Scunthorpe Star before moving on to Angling Times to write about fishing, a lifelong passion. His big break came when he moved to Match magazine and then Shoot in their 90s heyday, when they were selling over a quarter of a million copies a week.

As features editor and deputy editor, he began compiling an enviable contacts book with some of the biggest names in English football among his confidantes. Regularly breaking big stories for the nationals, often under ‘cod’ bylines, he moved into newspapers first with Hayters Teamwork, and then the Mail on Sunday.

He became Tottenham correspondent for the Evening Standard in the late 1990s, and then covered Chelsea for the Press Association until 2010, when he quit football reporting to return north and start his own publishing company specialising in another of his great interests, railways.

The lure of newspapers was never far away and he returned to writing with the Lincolnshire Echo, where his eldest son Leigh was working. “My dad was an inspiration and to be able to work alongside such a top operator and a fantastic journalist at the Echo was an honour and a privilege. He was my idol.”

Adrian was a member of launch team for the Cambridge Independent, and continued to write about the subjects he loved most – football, fishing and railways. He loved Lincoln City as much as Tottenham Hotspur.

On the morning of December 8, Adrian was taken to hospital  for emergency surgery but unfortunately passed away in the evening.

He is survived by Leigh and Sarah from his first marriage, and son Samuel from his marriage to Christine. They recently celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.

Dippa will be much missed, not only by his heartbroken family, but by the many friends and colleagues he made on the way.

Gerry Cox, former Chairman of the FWA, knew him for over 30 years and writes:

“When I first met Dippa, I had no idea what lay under the bonnet. His lugubrious manner, hangdog face and grunted greeting disguised a razor-sharp wit, brilliant mind and most importantly, such a fun-loving and friendly demeanour that me, and dozens of others, were in his debt forever.

He was an old school hack in appearance, lacking only the trenchcoat and trilby of caricature, and he was old-fashioned in the way he went about his work, which was exactly why he was so good at it.

I quickly learned why he had a contacts book that was the envy of so many of our peers – he’d built rock-solid relationships with some of the biggest names in football by sticking to the fundamental journalistic principles of trust, honest and integrity. Those virtues, learned on local papers and then in magazine and agency work, enabled him to break back page leads for national newspapers time and time again, though he rarely got full credit, choosing to pass them on to his favoured proteges, some of whom went on to have fine careers.

But none of them – and few of us – can claim to have quite as varied a career as Dippa. We all knew he loved fishing and railways (diesels rather than steam). But we didn’t know quite how well-regarded as a writer he was in those fields. He loved music – we both grew up in the glam-rock era of Slade, T Rex and David Bowie – so he became adept at blues guitar and bass, rather more successfully than I had managed in my short-lived musical career many years earlier.

He also tried his hand at stand-up comedy in his later years, which still surprised me even though he could have you in stitches with his gags and stories, down the pub or on long away trips.

I was surprised, however, when he lasted barely a week with us at Hayters Teamwork after we had cracked a bottle of bubbly to celebrate his appointment as our Midlands man. It took only a few days for the Midlands pack to start ringing their desks and us to complain that this new guy on the block was ruffling their feathers, going ‘rogue’ by digging out his own stories and genuine exclusives that were making them look a little complacent by comparison. He was too good for his own good, and resigned with much regret a week later, fearing he would damage our reputation with the nationals.

It did not affect his career trajectory, though. He went on staff at the Mail on Sunday, for whom he had broken dozens of exclusives, and then moved on to cover Tottenham for the Evening Standard. He did not allow the fact that he had grown up a Spurs supporter to cloud his judgement, and wrote a justifiable and scathing piece after they had collapsed to defeat from 3-0 up against 10-man Manchester City in the cup. Some of the players would not speak to him for a long time, but that did not deter him from telling it like it was, just as his readers demanded. He was never one to sugar-coat the truth.

His final stint in top-flight football was covering Chelsea for the Press Association from 2004 to 2010, and again he helped a number of young journalists along the way. Although he went to World Cups and the big Champions League and Premier League games, he he was getting tired of the increasing barriers between players and reporters, and hated the new vogue of trawling websites for stories. “It is not the game it once was from a reporting point of view and sitting by a computer re-writing stuff from websites was not my idea of football reporting,” he said back in 2011, as he was setting up a railway publishing company.

“The move to multi-media platforms, while I can see they are the way forward, was not the reason I came into the profession. I wanted to write not point a video camera at proceedings and upload.”

After he moved back north, we only got to meet occasionally. Sometimes he would pop into the press room on a trip down to watch Tottenham with his second son Samuel, or we would catch up at FWA dinners. Another time was more sombre, at the funeral of our great mate Dave Smith, the former Shoot editor who also died far too young.

I was shocked to take the call on Thursday morning to hear he had died, having assumed he’d got over the worst of some ill-health in the past year or so. I’m devastated we did not have one last chance to talk about Martin Chivers, Noddy Holder or our other shared favourites from the early 70s, nor reminisce again about some of the great times we had together.

But I have only good memories of a great journalist and wonderful man, and I’ll look forward to raising a glass to one of the best guys I have come across in this business.”

ADRIAN CURTIS 1958-2021

Adrian ‘Dippa’ Curtis with his sons Leigh (left) and Samuel (right)

Pep Guardiola to receive FWA Tribute

Posted on by
Reply

We at the FWA are delighted to announce that we will be honouring Pep Guardiola at our Tribute Night dinner, on Sunday January 16th.

The Manchester City manager has accepted the invitation to be our special guest of honour at the Landmark Hotel London.

FWA members can book tables or individual tickets by contacting our executive secretary Paul McCarthy.

More details to follow in due course.

David Lacey’s funeral on December 10

Posted on by
1

DAVID LACEY’S FUNERAL

David Lacey’s funeral will be on Friday December 10, 1.30pm at Cambridge Crematorium East Chapel. David’s brother Roger said: “We hope to have an informal reception at a nearby hostelry afterwards, depending on availability. I will let you know the details when we’ve booked a venue.

“By all means forward the details to any of David’s old colleagues, although as numbers are limited, could anyone wishing to attend contact me at rogerlaceyupnorth@gmail.com.”

                     —————————————————————

We at the FWA were incredibly sad to learn of the passing of David Lacey, one of the greats of football writing.  As a Guardian sub-editor and then football correspondent for more than 30 years, David established himself as a writer of authority, style and wit.  He was also one of the most liked and respected men among his fellow journalists.

Paddy Barclay, former FWA Chairman, was David’s colleague and one-time understudy at the Guardian and has written this heartfelt tribute to the man who passed away at the age of 83.

“To be ‘’on the road’’ with David Lacey, following the English national team or clubs abroad, was a joy, rich in humour (when he was in the mood) and light wisdom. To have been his underling on The Guardian was a privilege, albeit dubious in the sense that our sub-editors’ daily practice was to shovel into the page however much Lacey had written, uncut and rightly unaltered to even the slightest degree, and only then to allot the space left towards the bottom of the page to be shared among the rest of us.

“Perhaps only Hugh McIlvanney inspired such reverence among those charged with presenting his efforts to the public. There was a reason for this: only Lacey, McIlvanney and the great Brian Glanville could be guaranteed to entertain and educate a football audience with a combination of style, resonance and authority unmatched, perhaps, by any such triumvirate before or since. To be working alongside – or, to be more realistic, under – Lacey was to be shown a dazzling standard, and to be in no doubt that striving to follow every habit and principle of his writing style would be worthwhile.

“When eventually an offer from the infant Today newspaper in early 1986 enabled me to dart from under his shadow, David happened to be in the group that heard my breathless announcement. He had also been within earshot of many passionate outbursts about football, clearly, because he adopted a grave expression and extended a hand, which I shook. ‘’This is the end,’’ he said, ‘’of an earache.’’ It was typical Lacey: succinct, meaningful and very funny. His football writing was those things and much more because no quip was ever at the expense of the truth about the game.

“Indeed he had everything. Except one thing. For such an erudite man, he betrayed not a hint of pompousness (let alone pretension). Not a line of his could ever have merited an entry in Pseuds’ Corner. Although Lacey was very much in the tradition of the great Manchester Guardian specialists Donny Davies and Neville Cardus, his allusions would be more often inspired by a popular film than obscure literature or Greek mythology. And he never explained a joke. If it puzzled you, you looked it up. It is often said of the great football managers that their methods would not work today. If the same could be said of the generation of broadsheet football writers that Lacey led, maybe we should look at the methods of today.”

Student Football Writer Award winners honoured

Posted on by
Reply

We at the FWA were delighted to present our inaugural Student Football Writer award winners Ella Graunia Cook and Jacob Tanswell with their prizes in person this week.

FWA Chair Carrie Brown hosted a lunch at the Soho Townhouse on Tuesday Oct 6 at which Ella and Jacob were presented with their trophies, respectively the Vikki Orvice award and the Hugh McIlvanney award, named in honour of two of our most prominent late members.

Ian Ridley, who was married to Vikki, presented Ella with her award, and Hugh’s widow Caroline presented Jacob with his trophy.  Also in attendance were the Telegraph’s Jim White, who oversaw the award on behalf of the FWA, our executive secretary Paul McCarthy and FWA media manager Gerry Cox.

The two winners, who came first in a field of 536 entries, also each received the five shortlisted titles in our latest Football Book of the Year, free membership of the FWA and a cheque for £500.

Jacob is now working for Reach as AFC Bournemouth correspondent for Dorset Live, and Ella is working as a content writer, having graduated from Roehampton with a First-Class Honours degree in Creative Writing.

Ella said: “When I found out I’d won the Vikki Orvice Student Football Writer of the Year award, it was a pivotal moment for me. After a year of uncertainty, in which football had played such a big part in keeping me sane, it ignited my excitement for the future and re-affirmed that writing was really what I wanted to do with my life.

“I was particularly proud when hearing professional sports journalists speak about why they liked my work. It got rid of any remnants of imposter syndrome I felt about being a ‘proper fan’ and instead left me gratified that my emotional connection to the game shone through. It was a privilege hearing Ian’s feedback and the way he felt Vikki would have received my piece.
“Since receiving the award, I have graduated from Roehampton with a First Class Honours in Creative Writing. Our ceremony was delayed until September but it was well worth the wait as I got the chance to walk across the stage with my daughter Isabel by my side.
“I’ve also dived into full-time work as a Content Writer because it allows me to fit  around her school hours. However, I’m looking into getting a Masters and have been tempted by courses focused on Football Communications, Digital Marketing and Journalism.
“I’m very pleased to be back watching Sunday League and as Isabel grows up, I can’t wait to travel further afield with her to see sports. She already shows remarkable concentration when watching Man United on TV and her grandad is pleased that the love of football has endured.
I’m very excited by the idea of reading future entries for this wonderful competition. It certainly gave me the push I needed to have my say on football and got rid of any lingering self-consciousness I felt as a female sports writer. If you’re thinking of giving it a go next year, don’t hesitate. We should all take the chance to walk down the path that Vikki paved for us, establishing women’s right to write about sport.”

Jacob said: “”Congratulations to Ella Graunia Cook for receiving the Vikki Orvice award, a worthy winner.

“I feel incredibly honoured to have been presented with the Hugh McIIvanney award from his wife, Caroline. Thank you to everyone associated with the FWA, including the voting panel, for their continued support, advice and organising such a great event.

“Since winning the award in May, I’ve been fortunate enough to have received interest and offers from a number of outlets, largely due to the high esteem Hugh and the award are held in. In July, I began working for Reach plc as the full time AFC Bournemouth correspondent, leading the sports coverage on their new regional title, Dorset Live.
“The FWA has provided a perfect springboard for my career in the industry, which I fully intend to continue using in the future.”
 

Jimmy Greaves 1940-2021

Posted on by
3

Jimmy Greaves, one of England’s greatest-ever goalscorers, passed away today.  His record of 466 goals in 661 games will take some beating, and the former Chelsea, Tottenham, West Ham and England forward was widely regarded as the deadliest finisher in the game.

For those of us lucky to see him play, and later work with him in his colourful media career afterwards, Jimmy was a delight, never to be forgotten.  Norman Giller first met him as a teenage reporter when Jimmy was making a name for himself at Chelsea and the two Essex boys became friends for life.   Here is Norman’s tribute to his mate…

“Football writers everywhere will today mourn the passing of Jimmy Greaves, greatest of all British-born goal scorers and, more important, a wonderful human being who brightened millions of lives with his humour and in-your-face personality.

“Only Jimmy could have chosen today, Sunday September 19, 2021, for his departure, just a few hours before his favourite old clubs Tottenham and Chelsea met in the first carbon-free match. I can hear Jim right now: “WTF?”

“He was the greatest of all friends to football journalists. Big or small, he never used to refuse an interview and would always leave the reporters walking on air at the pleasure and privilege of sharing the great man’s company.

“Jimmy did not have an ounce of arrogance, yet had so much to shout about. Anybody from my generation who saw him burst on the scene with a wonder goal for Chelsea against Spurs at White Hart Lane in August 1957, were treated to scores (ha ha) of some of the greatest goals ever conjured over the next 14 years.

“There will be many who will argue that he was at his best in the blue of Chelsea, when with the innocence of youth he continually tricked and teased defenders before finding the net with his trademark ‘passing’ shots. But it was at Tottenham where he was acclaimed as a world master with a procession of mind-blowing performances in that ‘Super Spurs’ side of the 1960s. His partnership with skilled Scot Alan Gilzean – the G Men – was one of the most potent in the history of British football.

“He climbed off the football express at the ridiculously young age of 31 after an unhappy wind-down season at West Ham to concentrate on business and boozing. As I kept telling him while waiting for him to sober up, his only business should have been football.

“A load of nonsense was talked about him missing the World Cup final in 1966 turning him into an alcoholic. Jim had a chemical imbalance that meant he could not handle the booze he was pouring down his throat as a substitute for the football that he played better than almost anybody else on earth.

“It was nothing to do with the World Cup. He just could not handle the alcohol. Geoff Hurst, the man who replaced him in the England side and scored a famous hat-trick in the final, told me today: “Jimmy was the greatest goal scorer I ever saw, and I loved the bloke. We were good friends and he never once showed any envy that I had stolen his glory. We will all miss him terribly, What a character!”

“He had the discipline to finally beat his demons and reinvented himself as a television celebrity, best known for his wit, wisdom and irreverence alongside Ian St John in the popular Saint and Greavsie show.

“Later, when television decided his face no longer fitted (the idiots), he went for his third career, this time as a stand-up comedian and road show star with his long-time agent Terry Baker, touring the country and getting standing ovations for his hilarious performances.

“Then, at the age of 75, came the paralysing stroke that confined him to a wheelchair and relays of carers having to look after him for what were six abysmal years when only the company of his ever-loving Irene kept him sane. He had lost the ability to express himself, and so the wittiest person ever to cross my path was frustratingly unable to deliver his punchlines.

“He was like a great classical pianist trying to play with the lid closed. As we had known each other since we were both 17 and had produced 20 books together, it was heartbreaking for me in visits to Jimmy to have him pleading for somebody to take a shotgun to him.

“So his passing today is something of a relief. But all of us – family, friends, supporters, TV viewers – will miss him desperately. He was a one-off.

“Stats (that Jimmy hated, he was an action man): a record 357 old First Division goals, a then club record 124 League goals for Chelsea, 9 goals in a brief flirtation with AC Milan, 266 for Tottenham (a record that Harry Kane is desperately chasing), 44 goals in 57 England matches and 491 his career total. But it was not the numbers game that thrilled as much as the way he scored the goals, many of them gems after leaving a procession of defenders behind him on the floor. Sheer genius.

“A precious delight for reporters to write about. We shall not see his like again.”

Martin Leach RIP

Posted on by
Reply

The FWA is saddened to learn that Martin Leach, a stalwart of the News of the World in the North West for many years, has passed away.  Martin was a friend, colleague and even mentor for many of our members, and below is a wonderful tribute written by his son Matt.

Martin Leach (12 Feb 1938 – 03 September 2021) by his son Matthew Leach

Martin Leach, my father, friend, and national newspaper journalist for over 30 years, sadly passed away on September 3.

As a boy, I used to lie in bed listening to the sounds of his typewriter clacking away downstairs and my dad’s rich, warm tones ask various football players or managers on the other end of the phone, ‘What’s news?’, ‘How’s the injury?’, ‘Will you have time for lunch and a catch-up next week?’

He always had a great knack of putting people at ease and getting them to talk. This was the early Eighties when he was covering Liverpool and Everton and writing the Mersey column for the News of the World.

Occasionally he took me on his rounds. Imagine a football-mad lad of 12 sitting there as his father casually chatted over lunch with former Everton, Liverpool and England midfielder Steve McMahon. That was followed by a meeting with legendary Everton manager Howard Kendall in his office and, to top it off, a kickabout on the Toffees’ Bellefield training pitch. What a day! My dad was always a larger-than-life character, and hero in my eyes, but, as you can imagine after that, this adulation was taken to new levels.

After serving in the RAF, a young Martin started his journalism career on the local Salisbury paper, before going to Stoke, then down to London where he worked for the Daily Sketch (which folded in 1971 – although it was nothing to do with my dad apparently) and Reg Hayter’s agency.

From there, the ambitious young thruster joined the Sheffield Morning Telegraph, before breaking into the nationals working for the Daily Mail for a couple of years.

Former colleague and friend Dino Allsop said: ”What I remember about Martin was how thorough and meticulous he was. He used to keep records of teams’ results throughout the season with the tiniest writing.

“He was so on top of everything and that was why he had the admiration and respect of people in the game. He had a genuine love of football, cricket, all sports really – and an encyclopaedic knowledge of boxing.

“There were three writer/subs at the Sheffield Morning Telegraph, myself, Martin and Bill Thornton. And within a year we had all moved to the Mail.

“But Martin wasn’t just a beautiful writer but also a great sub, he had a sharp eye for detail, there was never any sloppiness about his work. He never took shortcuts.

“Sometimes I’d see my match report had been slightly tweaked and check who it was and it was Martin and, invariably, he would be bang on.

“But he wrote and talked a better game than he played. We’d sometimes come over and have football matches against Hope Hospital or whoever and he’d stand there and in his Southern accent, which we’d take the mickey out of, shout: ‘Allsopo, is there any chance of you passing me the ball today you typical greedy Italian inside forward?’ And I would reply in my exaggerated Italian accent: ‘What is the point Martino, when you are only going to lose the ball?’

“But whatever the sport, the game had to be played the right way. He was a purist and didn’t like the hackers. I was talking to him about the recent Euros and he said: ‘Allsopo, I just can’t understand the hype about England. They have all these ball players, yet they play with two holding midfielders. They are too cautious.’

“He had a wonderful respect from his fellow journalists and people within the game because he was highly principled. If you had to ask the hard question in a press conference, he would ask it. If someone like Fergie didn’t like it, tough! Players or managers wouldn’t like it at the time but they would go away and have a grudging respect for Martin because he had the guts to ask what needed to be asked.

“He never allowed his standards to drop, you could trust him, he would never betray anyone and had a lovely soft sense of humour. But above all he was a great pal.”

He spent 25 years at the News of the World, where he became ‘Chief Northern Football Writer’. Paul Hetherington, my dad’s News of the World colleague in Manchester from 1988 to 1994, said: “Martin and I immediately hit it off when we teamed up on my arrival from the north east.

“He was more than a colleague – he became a friend, too. We worked hard and played hard – and that was probably my fault, as I liked to discuss the job over a pint or two in true journalistic style!

“Sports Editor Bill Bateson once asked me: ‘What have you done to Martin? He seems to have changed since you arrived in Manchester. But I’m not complaining, because the pair of you are working well together.’

“We did gel and I always had great respect for Martin’s diligence and principles. When he left the NoW, press boxes in the north west were never the same without him.”

He was sent to the 1990 World Cup to report on Jack Charlton’s Republic of Ireland, enjoyed the glitz and glamour of world championship boxing in Las Vegas (Riddick Bowe versus Evander Holyfield in 1992), had the odd run-in with Sir Alex Ferguson (as all self-respecting journalists should) and ghosted former Everton and Wales skipper Kevin Ratcliffe’s autobiography. I remember the neighbourhood children, who were kicking a ball about outside our house, were flabbergasted when ‘Rats’ turned up one day to talk to dad about his book.

John Richardson, who worked for News of the World’s sister paper The Sun, said: “Sad to hear of the passing of Martin. He was always prepared to pass on any advice or help if you needed it.

“The Sun and News of the World sports desks were in adjoining rooms in 111 Piccadilly. It was a tradition as Peter Fitton and I went home on a Thursday or Friday evening to bang on the window shouting ‘wakey, wakey it’s almost time for you to work’. Martin always took it in good heart and would smile back and then get his own back on the Sunday with a great exclusive or insightful interview.

“Sorry to say we’re losing too many of a fantastic generation of sports journos.”

After leaving the News of the World he went freelance, still doing football matches at the weekend but also writing about Manchester Storm and the ice hockey Super League, which was growing in popularity.

When he finally laid down his pen, he became very active at Romiley cricket club where he coached every age group from Under-11s to the first team.

He loved coaching and the players loved him right back, spending hours at the club offering advice on technique and throwing down practice balls to players long after the session was supposed to have finished.

A big fan of jazz, he also enjoyed travelling with his beloved wife Sheila and family – visiting the US, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Tenerife – and to read, not just sports books which he had a lot of, but also, heavy, intellectual literature.

He was, by all accounts, a talented journalist but more importantly he was a fantastic husband and father and will be sorely missed by his wife Sheila and children Joanne, Matthew, Daniel and four grandchildren.

The funeral will take place at Our Lady and St Christopher’s RC Church, Romiley, Stockport, SK6 3BA on Tuesday, September 28 at 12.45 and the reception will be held at Romiley Cricket Club, Birchvale Dr, Romiley, Stockport, SK6 4LD at 2.30pm.