By Norman Giller
Three oaks of the sportswriting world have fallen in the space of a few days. No sooner had news broken of the passing of Frank Keating than we learned of the death of that fine all-rounder Kevin Moseley.
This double blow comes quickly in the wake of the passing last week of Dave Horridge, the Scouser who was for 15 years the Daily Mirror’s football man in the Midlands.
Dave, who died at the age of 78 after a long battle with a debilitating illness, was a huge personality in the “golden days” of the Midlands when the team of reporters read like a who’s who of football writing masters: Alan Williams and Joe Melling of the Express, Hugh Jamieson and Bob Driscoll of The Sun, Jeff Farmer on the Mail and Peter Batt on the People. Also on that busy beat were Colin Malam, Dennis Shaw, Ray Matts, Dave Harrison and John Moxley.
With his Mersey wit sharpened on the Liverpool Echo and then the northern Daily Mirror, Dave was among the most popular of that band of merry men who reported on the glory days of Cloughie’s legendary feats at Derby County and Nottingham Forest, League title and European Cup success at Aston Villa, Big Ron’s adventures at West Bromwich, Bill McGarry’s trophy-winning Wolves and Jimmy Hill’s Coventry.
His good friend Jeff Farmer, who became a powerhouse production man with ITV Sport, said: “Dave was a valued colleague, respected by players, managers, directors and his reporting contemporaries alike. He easily made friends and worked hard at building one of the best contacts books in the business.”
Kevin Moseley, who has died aged 69, was a top-flight freelance before establishing himself as a well-informed and incisive football reporter with the Daily Express in the eighties and through to the nineties.
He then became a respected sports diarist with the Daily Mirror, often getting a beat on the best stories. Among the many stories he broke during his eventful reporting career was the news that Arsenal skipper Tony Adams had become an alcoholic.
Kevin was a likeable and diligent journalist, much respected in press boxes and welcomed in the offices of the top managers.
The SJA sends its sympathies and condolences to the families and friends of Kevin and Dave.
So sorry to see Dave Horridge go. He made a lasting impression on me in a restaurant in Valencia about 1978. Anyway, Forest trip. The table was littered with glasses, containing varying amounts of liquid. Dave grabbed a couple of spoons and started to play them like a xylophone, each glass giving out a different note he managed a recognisable version of White Christmas. I said: “Blimey, Dave, that was brilliant.” To which he replied: “I don’t know where it came from. I’ve never had a lesson.”