John Morris, the former general secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control and now back in Northampton as a freelance sports writer, decided to search around for some of the “old guard” of the town’s newspaper, the Chronicle & Echo, where his career began.
To his astonishment, 23 past news reporters, sports editors, sub-editors and photographers turned up for a reunion lunch earlier this month.
“I needed to do a bit of chasing and research, but once I got into contact with people there was another four or five they knew,” said Morris.
Morris wrote on Northampton Cobblers under the pen-name Flag Kick before departing for Fleet Street to work for the Evening Standard and United Newspapers.
Two other former sportswriters at Northampton are Michael Green, who wrote on rugby and went on to become a prolific author of books on “coarse rugby” and “coarse golf”, and SJA chairman Barry Newcombe who, like Green, wrote on rugby under the byline of The Scout.