British sports journalist
Ian Edmund Wooldridge,
OBE
(14 January 1932 ? 4 March 2007) was a British
sports journalist
. He was with the
Daily Mail
for nearly 50 years.
Biography
[
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Born in
New Milton
, Hampshire, Wooldridge left
Brockenhurst Grammar School
with two
school certificates
, for English and art.
[1]
After
National Service
and an apprenticeship on newspapers in New Milton and
Bournemouth
, he became a reporter on the
News Chronicle
in 1956. After a spell with the
Sunday Dispatch
, he moved to the
Daily Mail
, which absorbed the
News Chronicle
in 1960.
Early Fleet Street career
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Initially a
cricket
correspondent at the
Mail
, from 1972 Wooldridge wrote a weekly column which spread to other sports. He covered 10
Olympic Games
, including the
Sarajevo Winter Olympics
in 1984. Writing before those games, he predicted a tragedy, but changed his mind after being there, saying they were amongst the best he had ever seen. He covered the
Munich Olympics
in 1972, and caused resentment among British runners with a brutish and insensitive attack on
David Bedford
; it emerged that he had had to take some ribbing from foreign journalists over Bedford's failure in the
10,000 metres
. As well as the Olympics, Wooldridge covered
Wimbledon
tennis championships,
heavyweight boxing
world title bouts,
football World Cups
,
Open
and
US Masters
golf championships and
America's Cups
for the paper. His America's Cup reporting opened the sport to a wide audience beyond sailing enthusiasts. He was assisted by PR and friend David Redfern, of whom he said "with his help, the eyes of
Coronation Street
as well as the Squadron are on the Cup", but in reality it was Wooldridge's writing and interest that was the key. The last Olympics he covered was in
Sydney in 2000
.
He branched into other areas, writing on a
revolution in Portugal
, flying with the
RAF
's
Red Arrows
, riding the
Cresta Run
, sparring with Ugandan dictator
Idi Amin
, and
running the bulls
at Pamplona. Wooldridge was newspaper columnist of the year twice, sportswriter of the year five times and sports feature writer of the year four times. His first job had been on the
New Milton Advertiser
, covering the funeral of a coal merchant; he intercepted every mourner to write down his or her name ? holding up the interment by more than half an hour. According to his obituary in
The Daily Telegraph
, Wooldridge was sent to Alaska to cover the 1,100-mile
dog sled race
from
Anchorage
to
Nome
, travelling with a photographer in a one-engine aircraft steered by an old bush pilot. "You slept where you could", Wooldridge later recalled. "In trappers' huts with bare wire bedsteads to sleep on, cooking up horsemeat over a fire... We stayed with Eskimo families, Indian families ? there were no hotels."
[
citation needed
]
Wooldridge ghosted a syndicated column for golfer
Max Faulkner
. Once, needing a good anecdote about Faulkner's Open success, he invented a story about the golfer just before he had teed off in the final round: Faulkner, he wrote, had scrawled "Open Champion 1949" on a ball which he handed to a young autograph hunter. Years later Wooldridge met American writer
George Plimpton
, who had come across the story. "Great tale", said Plimpton admiringly. "Total nonsense", Wooldridge replied.
Television career
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Wooldridge made over 120 documentaries for various broadcasters, including the BBC. Titles of these include:
Wooldridge on Whiskey
;
In the Highest Tradition
;
The Great Fishing Race
;
Behind the Lines
;
Trooping the Colour
; and
The British Challenge for the America's Cup 1983
. His heyday was during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He also did a lot of voiceovers, most memorably for the British Gas advert that involved a baby swimming under water.
[
citation needed
]
Opposition to apartheid
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]
Wooldridge was an anti-
apartheid
advocate, supporting sportswriter
John Arlott
at the
Cambridge Union
in 1969 in speaking against sport with South Africa.
His opposition dated from his first cricket tour to South Africa. During the
Port Elizabeth
Test
match, black South Africans were not only refused entry but beaten up by police. Because of problems with telephones, Wooldridge had to contact his London office from the committee room.
Frank Keating
, in
The Guardian
, recalled: "He had written his piece; now he had to read it at the top of his voice in the presence of about 30 hard-faced members of the republic's ruling
broederband
... as all 30 pairs of ears listened in the chilly, unwelcoming atmosphere, he took a deep breath and dictated: 'The wretchedly awful face of apartheid was displayed here today when...'"
Awards
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In the British Press Awards he was Columnist of the Year in 1975 and 1976; and Sportswriter of the Year in 1972, 1974, 1981 and 1989. The
Sports Journalists' Association
made him Sportswriter of the Year for 1986, 1987 and 1995; and it chose him as Sports Feature Writer of the Year in 1990 and 1996.
In May 2006, he won the
London Press Club
's Edgar Wallace award for outstanding reporting. The Press Club's chairman,
Donald Trelford
, described Wooldridge as "more than just a sports writer, he is a journalist of the highest calibre and a master of the written word".
Death and legacy
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Wooldridge died from cancer. His memorial service was at the
Guards Chapel
,
Wellington Barracks, London
on Wednesday 27 July 2007.
[2]
Hugh McIlvanney
, in
The Sunday Times
, wrote:
It is an honour to have worked in the same era as Ian Wooldridge, a precious privilege to have known him as a friend for more than 40 years. Though he would have snorted at the suggestion, he repeatedly pulled off the minor miracle of making our way of getting a living seem like a proper job for a grown-up person.
Wooldridge's youngest son, Max, is a UK-based travel writer.
References
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External links
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