I was the Sports Editor at the West Herts Post from October 1964 until August 1969, during which my assistants were Bob Brunskell and Martin Tracey. Over that period we managed to move up to six tabloid pages of sport and we introduced various items such as the Scoring Parade (all the local league leading scorers) and the Averages Parade (featuring the bowlers and batsmen).

I recall being somewhat daunted when an OMT player won the award one year and I had to get up and explain how he had won a trophy. The fact it was at Simpsons in The Strand, only added to my trepidation. I never liked making speeches or being at a microphone. I found I had to do it more and more as I grew older. I still did not like it and I was never a natural, but I got used to it.

During the course of my period at the WH Post, Watford drew Liverpool in the FA Cup. As soon as the draw was made I wrote to Bill Shankly, the Liverpool manager, and he was on the phone to me the next day and arranged a meeting. I had to persuade the powers that be to send the photographer and I, up to Liverpool, stay over night and return the next evening.

I arrived at Liverpool’s Anfield ground at the stated time in the morning and Shanks breezed in and said: “So you want five minutes.” My heart sank. We had a special supplement to fill and I hoped to get at least a page out of him. We talked for ten minutes in his office and then he arranged to take us up in a car to the training ground, with Shanks in the front passenger seat. He left us to our own devices but every now and then would call me over and show me players and wax lyrical about them. He was a brilliant character, rich in anecdote and observation. I had more than a page by the time he shook my hand back at Anfield and told me they would probably “bring a few folks down”.

I think the West Herts Post’s circulation was around 13,000 at the time but the week we bought out the supplement, it rocketed to 19,000. It demonstrated that football sells and if Watford could only get their act together, they could draw the crowds.

However, it was a little soul-destroying in one sense because the Watford Observer always had the edge and with a circulation that reached 46,000 during the decade, you were constantly reminded that you worked for the lesser paper. We gave a good account of ourselves however and sport began to make an impression. We used to have the name of the scorer of every goal was kicked and the time in local football: Saturdays and Sundays. We knew we were doing well when the Watford Observer moved to three broadsheet pages for sport to meet the challenge.

I was coming up to 27 and was looking for something more rewarding because the signs were the West Herts Post would not survive now that the Evening Echo had been launched.

One Thursday afternoon on my day off, I was surprised to see the Sports Editor of the Watford Observer turn up in my back garden. He needed an assistant, which meant I would move from being in charge to being number two and on the same money. However, there were plans a foot and while I was told things in a vague way, I decided to make the change, getting out of my comfort zone to a degree.

It worked out well, for I continued to cover Watford, and within a year I was appointed sports editor.

It was quite an amazing experience, going from a set of offices on The Parade, Watford, to Loates Lane and Rickmansworth Road. The number of employees was quite daunting and of course the paper had its own composing room where the pages were made up.

I remember those days and the characters with fondness and the regular Thursday morning battles to get the pages completed. I would always leave the last one open-ended in case there was a development and I had to keep an eye on the Evening Echo to ensure we came out the next day with everything they had and more.

There is a thing in journalism about “tight subbing”. That means the sub-editor gets your copy, as they called the stories you submitted, and cuts it down to the bare bones, getting rid of the waffle. Fortunately, being in charge of three pages, I undertook my own subbing, but I always tended to contend the ultimate result of tight subbing in sport was Watford 2, QPR 0. Every additional word after that would give the reader more information.

If I am honest, there were aspects of the job that did start to pale: worrying about how we are going to fill the paper when it is raining over your weekend and all the cricket will be off. Also I tired of constantly subbing copy and laying out pages. I rather fancied covering Watford, writing a column on anything and everything, and perhaps doing some personality profiles.

By 1990, I was feeling the need to branch out and in this respect I was helped by the editor of the Go Magazine, and I started to write some features and video reviews. One day I pointed out that we only paid lip-service to nostalgia, printing three photos for readers to identify every week, and including a summary of their findings with regards to the previous weeks pictures.

Eventually I made my ideal move, albeit somewhat late in life. I was given the chance to undertake a Nostalgia column, which soon became a broadsheet page as we were swamped with readers’ memories of yesteryear. I think the last ten years were the best at work: writing a column, producing nostalgia supplements and pages, doing personality profiles and covering Watford FC.