Almost 20 years ago, there was a smoking room on the editorial floor of The Star, a hardboard and glass fishbowl where I spent many mornings with Andrew Walker, the legendary newsman who passed away this week.
Andy was the day editor, I was the deputy chief sub. We updated the paper for the afternoon editions, redesigning page one, changing page three, updating page two and four, and maybe a few others.
I’d talk, Andy would listen, then he would talk and I would do what he said. Andy always got it right. He made getting to work at 5.30am fun.
Tim Cohen, editor of Business Day, wrote after Andy had lost his long battle with cancer on Tuesday: “He was just so perfectly straight; friendly without being gushing, calm in the heaviest storm, deeply principled without being overbearing, meticulous without being pedantic and imaginative without being haughty.”
I can’t remember drinking with Andy at The Liz. but I certainly drank with Mike Cohen, another legend, with whom he had once formed a formidable partnership on the news desk.
Cohen was one of my first bosses at The Star when I joined on February 1, 1995, as a sub-editor.
I had four or five different jobs in my first three years at the Independent Group, settling for a spell as sports editor of the Sunday Independent and Saturday Star.
Andy was one of the constants, always around with that half smile, dry wit and ready advice.
We had fun at the Sindy and the Saturday Star.
We worked with little restraint, spent ages fighting over headlines, redesigning pages, telling editors they didn’t know what they were doing but in such a way that they agreed with us.
But, I wanted to write.
I wanted to be Peter Robinson, another legend taken too soon.
I snaffled a ticket to the 2000 Paralympics, and fell head-over-heels for the rush of telling stories on the run.
When I came home from Sydney I was asked to be chief sports writer for The Star.
I was given a column every Friday. There was no brief, no restrictions. Just have fun. And I did.
For over 16 years, through three Rugby World Cups, three Olympics, five Paralympic Games, three Commonwealth Games, two Cricket World Cups, two football World Cups and more Tests, matches and cycling races than I ever bothered to count.
And when I would come home from being away from the office for a time, I would usually bump into Andy and he would stop and tell me: “Well done.”
That was it. That was all I needed.
Much at The Star has changed. There are empty desks. Friends have died or moved on. That smoking room is gone.
From next week, I, too, will be gone. I will no longer write for The Star.
This will be my last Friday column for this newspaper. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have.
The Star