Welcome home, Geoff

ONE of my greatest achievements in a long and interesting career in newspapers was to rescue Geoff Baker from becoming a supersalesman with Cadbury’s.

When the NUJ called a strike of all journalists in the 1980s, Geoff was working on the Express and Echo in Exeter. He refused to go on strike and when his colleagues finally returned to their desks they gave him such a bad time he walked out and got a job selling Mars bars.

I was editor of the Sidmouth Herald at the time and offered him a way back as one of my reporters.

In a very short time I realised he was destined for better things and he was soon snapped up by the Birmingham Post and Mail as their TV editor. Later he went on to work for the Daily Star, became a star in his own right appearing on Saturday morning television, and eventually ended up as PR to Sir Paul McCartney. We always kept in touch and sometimes shared a drink in the Street of Shame.

Geoff always had a rebelleous streak but he was the best reporter I ever employed.

Last week I received a press release, along with the other local papers, written by Geoff himself, saying that he was now down on his luck, having been out of work since leaving McCartney four years ago.

Geoff said he was coming home to live and would be asking the town council if he could earn a few bob by sweeping the streets and giving talks at the same time - “Littery Tours” as he put it.

It arrived a bit late for last week’s issue but since then the nationals have caught up with the story and there was a particularly distressing piece in the Mail On Sunday.

My first thought was that it was all a PR stunt to find a publisher for his book Rock Bottom.

The Mail On Sunday story described how Geoff had hit “rock bottom” himself, having buried his father Ron and seen the break-up of his marraige in recent times.

Many of us in the town will be pleased that Geoff is coming home. When times get tough (and we’ve all been there) being around those who know and love you best is the only place to be.

EVENT OF THE WEEK

ON Sunday I went out to Uplyme to attend the Remembrance service at the village church and to take a photograph of the wreath laying ceremony at the war memorial.

There’s a great community spirit in Uplyme and nowhere is that spirit more evident than at the parish church.

The church was packed to the rafters for the occasion, but that’s nothing new in Uplyme where the 10am Sunday services are so well attended that the it was even suggested in the weekly church News Update that they might have to consider moving to the village hall in the future.

Wing Commander Mike Jenkins, who flew fighter planes in the post-war years, gave an informative and eloquent reflection on the Battle of Britain heroes, and the Rector, the Reverend Gavin Tyte, held the congregation spellbound, especially the children, with his sermon on the importance of Remembrance, revealing that his grandfather was shot dead in Burma in the Second World War when his mother was just three years old.

Wing Commander Jenkins also read the roll of honour listing the 28 Uplyme men who lost their lives in the two great wars, having investigated the circumstances of some of their deaths with local historian Jack Thomas. It added greatly to the solemnity of the occasion.

Despite the driving rain, a large crowd gathered at the war memorial after the service where village organisations laid their wreaths.

I’m not exactly Mr Popularity in Uplyme. Someone representing the Royal British Legion came into my office last week and made that perfectly clear, although it didn’t stop her asking for a free advertisement!

However, it was good to witness first hand something which I have been aware of for many years – Uplyme is a tight-knit, caring community with a spirit second to none, and the church is at the heart of that spirit.

LYME ASIDES

THERE’S nothing I enjoy more than listening to successful newspapermen talk about their experiences. John Bryant was a bit of an icon in my profession, having been editor in chief of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

As well as being an excellent journalist he’s also a talented runner and athletics coach, Zola Budd being one of his protégés.

John is very knowledgeable on the Olympics, having written extensively on the games, and gave a fascinating talk at last week’s U3A gathering at the Woodmead Halls on the subject.

He compared the austerity games held in London in 1948, the “friendly games”, to the staggeringly expensive staging of the Olympics in 2012.

I thoroughly agree with his view that money is ruining sport - not just in athletics. Money has also ruined football and having listened to John I could not help but contrast the obsenity of paying England manager Fabio Capello £6 million a year for doing a part-time job rather badly when Lyme Regis Football Club, the eptiome of the grass roots game, can’t get a penny for their improvements at the Davey Fort from the FA because they are doing the work themselves.

PLENTY of reaction to the old photos published in last week’s View from Lyme Regis. I asked if anyone could name the person on the far right of the picture above and Win Reed was the first of many to call in to identify him. It was, of course, Harry Blanchard, who I should have recognised as he lived opposite me in Anning Road when I was a kid. Mr Blanchard, who worked on the railways, was a much respected borough councillor.

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