Four Hundred Words at Five-Thirty with 'Nannies'

Peter Bills

Description

Peter Bills has spent the past 40 years writing about rugby for newspapers in Britain and around the world. He now shares his extraordinary experiences from a career blessed with an indecent amount of fun, unleashing a barrage of anecdotes and lifting the lid on the hidden world of sportswriting - on the characters, stars and their amazing stories. As a leading freelance writer, Peter learned the wiliest tricks of his trade. Whether conning French police, dashing between airports or collecting crazy interviews, his life has been an incredible series of escapades. The 70s, 80s and 90s were the halcyon days of sports journalism, when reporters could rove worldwide with a typewriter and a licence to set the sporting agenda. Peter Bills has been an ever-present observer throughout rugby's greatest era, collaborating on the autobiographies of many of its greatest stars. His own behind-the-scenes memoir is informative, irreverent and hugely entertaining.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Reino Unido
• Memoir
• United Kingdom
• Rugby football
• Great Britain
• Royaume-Uni
• Media

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 21 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781785310942
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

For Averil, who has shared so much of the journey with me, and through kindness and generosity made so much of it possible.
And for Serge, who has redefined for me the real meaning of friendship.
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400 words at 5.30pm was a standard order from a newspaper for someone covering a Saturday soccer or rugby match. With nannies was cockney rhyming slang - nanny goats = quotes (from managers and/or players)
First published by Pitch Publishing, 2015
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Peter Bills, 2015
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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781785310324
eBook ISBN: 9781785310942
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Sir Gareth Edwards
Introduction
Prologue
Part 1
Part 2
England
Australia
New Zealand
South Africa
Ireland
France
Part 3
Around and about
Part 4
Index
Photographs
Other books by Peter Bills:
Sports viewers Guide: Skiing (1983)
Sports viewers Guide: Darts (1983)
Sports viewers Guide: Wrestling (1983)
Sports viewers Guide: Snooker (1983)
Jean-Pierre Rives: A Modern Corinthian (1986)
An excellent biography Karl Johnston, Irish Press
A Peep at the Poms: Allan Border with Peter Bills (1987)
On a Wing a Prayer: David Campese with Peter Bills (1991)
Will Carling: A Man Apart (1993)
2nd revised edition 1996
An elegant, well-researched probe. The Guardian
Revealing insight into the Carling behind the carefully carved mask.
Yorkshire Post
Deano: Dean Richards with Peter Bills (1995)
Passion in Exile: The Official History of London Irish RFC , by Peter Bills (1998)
This is truly an excellent production Louis Magee, President, Bective Rangers RFC.
Quite a magnificent effort Colin Gibson, ex-London Irish
Gareth Edwards: The Autobiography , with Peter Bills (1999)
Combines charm with forthright views on rugby Daily Express
Tackling Rugby: The changing world of professional rugby .
Gareth Edwards with Peter Bills (2002)
There is a lot here to make rugby administrators sit up and take notice, but will they? Sunday Times
Willie John McBride: The story of my life , with Peter Bills (2004) Re-printed 2005
Bill McLaren: My Autobiography , with Peter Bills (2005)
The right place at the wrong time: The autobiography of Corne Krige with Peter Bills (2005)
Rucking Rolling: 60 years of international rugby by Peter Bills (2007) Updated editions 2011 and 2015.
Peter Bills has succeeded, probably because of his own standing in the game, to elicit strong views from players. He has done the game and its players proud in a work that zips along. He has straddled the difficult divide of writing a history full of scholarship that remains entertaining. George Hook, Irish rugby analyst for Irish Independent RTE TV
Sporting Great Britain: The 100 Most Famous Photos (Getty) 2015 Captions by Peter Bills
Awards for the author:
Peter Bills was highly commended in the 1992 British Sports Journalism Awards for the clarity and authority of his writing on rugby union. He then won the 1993 Magazine Sports Writer of the Year award
Acknowledgements
A LOT of people helped me with this book, in a variety of ways. Some read particular sections of it for critical comment on that part of the book, others offered general advice and some helped with a few specific details.
It is impossible to name every single one of them here, but I want to mention a few while thanking everyone who played a part. Your time and efforts have been greatly appreciated.
In no particular order, Michael Lynagh helped with the Australian section, David Mayhew, a true Kiwi, with the New Zealand chapter. Martin Lindsay was an enormous help and encouragement to me in Northern Ireland and in the south, Tony Ward gave valuable assistance and encouragement. Likewise in South Africa, Stephen Nel contributed to the process.
In France, Serge Manificat gave me much worthy advice and helpful comments.
Others read individual sections and gave their own opinions, like Joan Reason, a wonderfully vibrant lady with extensive Fleet Street knowledge and experience, Norman Howell, who worked for many years for the Sunday Times , Mark Baldwin who is a regular contributor to the sporting pages of The Times in London and Tim Arlott.
Paul Camillin, Jane Camillin, Graham Hales, Duncan Olner and Dean Rockett, all of whom were instrumental in putting this book together. My grateful thanks to all of them.
Thanks, too, to Tom Clarke, the best, most motivational and professional sports editor I ever came across during my days working for Fleet Street. Non-journalistic comments came from Kris and Erle Kelly, Grahame Thorne and assorted others.
Finally, thanks also to Sir Gareth Edwards for contributing the foreword.
When you become immersed in a project such as this, it can become increasingly difficult to remain objective in certain areas. That is why I have so valued the views and comments of all those listed here and others unmentioned.
Foreword by Sir Gareth Edwards
I KNOW from personal experience, a rugby dressing room can contain a wonderful mix of characters and personalities. I imagine the same thing can be said of a newspaper office s reporters room.
In the dressing rooms I knew, admittedly a long time ago now, there were people who could make you laugh, cry, tear your hair out in frustration or encourage you to great deeds. To see this amazing collection of people thrust together with the same purpose in mind could be a very inspiring experience.
I assume the same goes for newspaper offices, although they too have changed considerably over the years. Whenever I am in Cardiff these days and I pass the site in the heart of the city where the famous Western Mail was faithfully produced every night at Thomson House, I feel a little twinge of sadness that it is no longer there.
As kids, we used to scan the pages of our local paper to find the latest news about our favourite players and when matches would be played. We were like kids all over the world, keen to follow the fortunes of our local team and country through the pages of the newspapers.
When, as a young man, I began to play rugby, certainly at international level, we would be hugely interested in the views of leading writers such as J.B.G. Thomas of the Western Mail .
If you discover a writer you particularly like and who can inspire you, then he is worth reading at regular intervals. There were some great stalwarts of the game writing in newspapers in those days, the likes of Cliff Morgan, Bleddyn Williams and Vivian Jenkins. Those guys were synonymous with the game. You felt if you had been complimented by them it was a real badge of honour. Any criticism you took as a statement of fact. And if you didn t get mentioned at all, you took that as a little criticism!
Of course, the big difference today in media terms is the march of technology. Social media has arrived and that has transformed the way everything is reported.
But whenever we toured, in the late 1960s and through most of the 1970s, with Wales and the Lions, the reporters were welcome members of the touring party. In fact, such was the trust on those tours, especially with the Lions, that some journalists were invited into the team room, the inner sanctum. But as the game expanded and the media mouth needed more feeding, things started being written which spoilt that. And the thing that used to annoy players most of all was when things were written which were just not true.
But in my day just as much as today, there were some writers you knew you could trust implicitly, while you had to be guarded with others.
Too many people think that journalism is about criticism. It is not, it is about writing the facts of a certain situation. Some people may be good writers but they don t have the emotion of the game to find a way of saying it. Sometimes their words are too clinical and calculating and that leaves you cold reading it.
But overall, I always felt I had a good working relationship with the media. I understood they had a job to do and if I could help with some thoughts or opinions, I was only too pleased to try. I am proud, too, that many of those relationships have stood the test of time.
It is, of course, a great bonus if you get on really well with a writer. That can be the basis for a thoroughly valuable working relationship.
I have now worked with Peter Bills for a considerable period of time. We wrote two very successful books together and what has stood out for me is his understanding of the game. In my view, it is not necessarily important to have played the game at the highest level. But what is vital for anyone writing about the game and wanting to be respected is that they have a real understanding of the sport and an appreciation of its spirit. Peter certainly has that.
I enjoy working with him because he puts a huge amount of time into a project. He is not only very knowledgeable about rugby but much involved with the game, not just in writing. Others have perhaps not got the same emotion, that same feel for rugby. He cares for the game and what he writes about it, and that is a sign of a good journalist in my opinion.
Things have got to be said but there is a way of putting them. Players always have time for a writer of that kind and t