Ian Wooldridge

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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

Born in

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

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

Wooldridge was an anti-

His opposition dated from his first cricket tour to South Africa. During the

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

Wooldridge died from cancer. His memorial service was at the

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

External links

• Appreciation of Wooldridge's career by the Sports Journalists' Association
• Report on Wooldridge's funeral
• Obituary from the BBC