Following the success of the town council’s Sporting Lyme summer festival, Mayor Philip Evans recalls how sport has shaped his business and private life.
FROM captaining the football team at my primary school to running an international sports publishing firm based in London, sport has always been a key factor in my life.
I was football crazy as a kid, made the first X1 at grammar school as a second-former and won the Dorset schools’ Under 15 tennis doubles partnered by the headmaster’s daughter who reported me to her father for excessive swearing!
I was also selected for the Dorset Schools’ cricket team but did not cover myself in glory having dropped two catches and failing to trouble the scorers with a first-ball duck.
Alongside my life-long friends in sports, Dave Reed and Stuart Broom (alas not with us now) we were selected for the East Devon Youth side and Stuart and I also played for West Dorset schools, a team which included Bridport’s Billy Balson who went on to play for Exeter City before emigrating to the USA where he became a much respected coach.
I distinctly remember my first game for Lyme. Alongside Stuart, we had both been selected for Lyme Reserves in a Perry Street League game against Donyatt. We changed in a chicken run behind the village pub.
Stuart and I both gained our first team place but my days with Lyme FC were interrupted when I started my first job as a trainee reporter on the Exeter-based Express & Echo. This entailed me working every Saturday on the sports desk but I turned out regularly for the Exeter Press X1 with games held on a Sunday morning.
After moving companies to launch the Axminster News, I spent two seasons with the Tigers (Lyme’s old enemy) before returning to Lyme to manage the Reserves under the guidance of club’s first manager, journalist Dave Cozens, who was also my boss at the time.
The following season I managed to hold down the right-back spot in the First team, despite being the oldest member of the squad, alongside fellow defenders Graham Golesworthy, Rodney Rowe and Howard Williams. It was the start of a three-decade period in which Lyme won all before it. Unfortunately, my playing days came to an abrupt end when I broke an ankle in the Axminster Hospital Cup.
Cricket also played a huge part in my life, especially after Dennis Applebee, who played in a higher standard in North London, arrived in Lyme to breathe life into Uplyme Cricket Club which was very close to disbanding. Although I played the occasional game for the First X1, I was more at home as wicket keeper-cum-opening bat for the Second X1.
We had so much fun at the Kind George V playing field in Uplyme with some memorable occasions led by Dennis including a fixture at Lords, the home of cricket, for our 100th anniversary. An unforgettable experience with Mike Denham scoring a century at the home of cricket. We also organised a month-long festival of sport which made enough money to build a new clubhouse.
My serious cricketing days came to a close when I moved to London to take over the running of a group of newspapers in the East End in the late 1980s, although I turned out for the office side. My patch was right in the middle of West Ham country, and I set about building a better relationship with the Hammers in a bid to improve newspaper sales.
With support from the club we launched a monthly Hammers News publication which led to the company forming a sporting division with similar arrangements with Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs, Leeds United and Manchester City. We also acquired a American football magazine and we also published regular cricket and rugby union publications, based in plus new offices in the West End.
As one of the top sponsors I was made a vice-president at Spurs during the Terry Venables era, which entitled me to a seat and lunch in the Directors Box, and after the game we often ended up at El Tel’s nightclub, “Scribes” in West Kensington until the early hours of the morning.
During this period I was sent to Australia by my ultimate boss, former British Lion rugby star Tony O’Reilly, one of the world’s most charismatic businessman, to lecture on the British Press. I also co-wrote Rob Andrews’ World Cup Diary in South Africa in 1995.
I kept in contact with all my sporting mates in Lyme during my years in London and was able to entertain them occasionally in one of the hospitality boxes at Spurs and West Ham, outings that usually ended up in one of the West End’s notorious night clubs!
Family issues brought me back to Lyme and I was very sorry to leave London but was chuffed that my going-away party was held in Tony O’Reilly’s hospitality box at Twickenham. I soon got back in the groove in Lyme, being elected as chairman of the Football Club, a role I held for ten years before succeeding the late Barbara Austin as President.
During that time Lyme won all before on the field of play and I was able to use my contacts in London to bring a number of ex-pro players to the town as well as organising two games against the Arsenal Charity X1. With fantastic support from the Town Council, we also completed a three-year development programme at the Davey Fort which has provided with some of the best playing and social facilities in the area.
Sport has been the dominant factor in my life and having gained a seat back on the Town Council, and being elected mayor for two years I was delighted with the success of the Sporting Lyme festival and hope this might become a regular event.