Times like these proving tough for local sport

I first met Dave in April 2018, along with Steve Birley and Matt Smart who were responsible for sport content in our Exeter and Barnstaple offices, when plans were put in place to create a new South West sport team involving the three of them.

The thinking was they might be able to share some content and images, with some of their teams crossing into each other’s areas, with myself, as Group Sport Editor, to support them as was already happening in our other offices in London, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

However, later that summer Dave told me he was actually thinking of retiring and, some months after that, he handed in his letter of resignation, leaving the company just before Christmas after what I believe to have been a herculean 48 years of service!

Replacing such a stalwart of local journalism was going to be impossible and it was decided to advertise for two apprentice reporters, in order to grow the team, and place one of them in the Weston office and the other in Exeter, working with Steve Birley.

I made my first trip to Weston in the early part of 2019 to get a handle on how things operated, editing the reports and results that were submitted by the local clubs with whom Dave had dealt over the years, while also laying out the pages.

This generally involved working my way through some emails on a Sunday evening, writing up more content on Monday and Tuesday in the office as it came in from other reliable contributors, while also keeping tabs on the other sports reporters and their progress in London, Herts and Cambs and designing their pages.

Former Times and Mercury editor Tom Wright and news reporter Sam Frost were a great help during those first few months and, after going through a pile of applications for the two apprentice sport reporter posts, interviews were conducted and candidates chosen, so that by late April 2019, we were able to introduce Josh Thomas to the team in the Weston office.

Josh Thomas (back row, second from left) and other member of the Weston Mercury editorial team (Image: Weston Mercury)

Josh had graduated from the University of the West of England (UWE) with a BA in Media, Film & Cultural Studies and got his MSc in Sport Broadcast from Cardiff Met, had bundles of enthusiasm, good ideas and a strong grasp on the digital age and it was great to be able to offer him his first full-time job in journalism.

Sadly neither of us are local to the area, so we both needed to learn the geography and background of where clubs were from and which title - Times or Mercury – would report their news.

But things were made a little bit easier when I relocated to the South West in late June 2019, so Josh and I could work in the office together, and we both began to learn more and more about the local sporting landscape.

It was clear that bowls, cricket, football and rugby were the bigger hitters in terms of club numbers and participation, but also good to see that athletics, hockey and tennis were firmly on the radar, as well as badminton, baseball, rowing, sailing and water polo among others.

With Josh having successfully completed his six-month probationary period towards the end of the year, we were both ready to really step up the pace in 2020 – although I was still making regular trips back to London to check up on the sports reporters in place there and in our Stevenage office.

But then news of a deadly virus in China began to gather pace and the rest is history.

The first national lockdown, which started on March 23, put paid to the end of the non-league and grassroots football season, as well as cutting short the rugby campaign.

Thankfully, our local cricket clubs were able to see some action last summer, as restrictions were eased somewhat, and a new football season also got underway in August.

But that all pretty much ground to a halt in late October before the second national lockdown starting on November 5, with only a handful of fixtures being fulfilled in December ahead of this third lockdown.

Now, with all non-elite football and other sports suspended and people only allowed to exercise once a day due to the ‘stay at home’ order, we are left with a big gaping hole on the local sporting calendar.

The next government review does not take place until February 15, but it’s hard to believe there will be much chance for organised team sport to start up again any time soon after that date.

We wait in hope, but in the meantime, we will endeavour to bring more interesting content to our readers – online and in print – in the coming weeks, having thrashed out a preliminary plan of action to see us through this upcoming period of non-action.

As always, we welcome suggestions from our loyal readers, so please do not hesitate to contact us via email at sportsdesk@westonmercury.co.uk, lee.power@archant.co.uk or joshua.thomas@archant.co.uk.

Yours in sport, Lee.