From Banbury United to the World Cup: the hazy, crazy life of a local journalist

Peter White, who was born and brought up in Fenny Compton, joined the Banbury Advertiser in 1964, after attending Banbury Grammar School. He moved to the Banbury Guardian a year later, and says that his spell on this newspaper laid the foundations for a truly amazing career. He explained: “I said from an early age that I wanted to be a newspaper reporter, but my careers master at school said I was too shy, and not clever enough, and told me to become an optician.”

Peter ignored that advice, and as the title of his book suggests, he said: “I’m Glad I Did!” He added: “Working on the Banbury Guardian, when the offices were in Parsons Street, taught me such a lot. I covered court cases in Banbury, Chipping Norton and Brackley, as well as the likes of fetes, flower shows, council meetings and Banbury’s famous cattle market. But my first love was sport, and I was fortunate enough to report on Banbury United’s games soon after they changed their name from Banbury Spencer. Who could have imagined that 20 years later I would be sitting in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, witnessing Diego Maradona’s infamous ‘Hand of God Goal’ against England in the 1986 World Cup finals?”

While still on the Guardian, Peter covered live shows by many of the top pop artists of the day that appeared at the Winter Gardens, including The Hollies, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, The Pretty Things and Them, fronted by Van Morrison, and gives away a few secrets about some of them in the book. But he says his most memorable interview for the Guardian was after National Hunt jockey John Buckingham, from Chipping Warden, won the 1967 Grand National on 100-1 outsider Foinavon. He said: “I knew John well and he told me before the race not to have a bet on him, because his horse hadn’t got a chance! Now he is part on Grand National history, and there is even a Foinavon fence on the Aintree course, where the National is staged.”

Peter later worked in Leamington, Coventry, Birmingham and Wolverhampton, before joining the Sun newspaper, and then reported sport on a freelance basis for virtually every other national and Sunday paper.

He added: “I was fortunate enough to cover two Olympics, the ’86 World Cup, 39 seasons of top flight football, motor sport, Test cricket and Wimbledon, and several other sports. After I moved to the Isle of Wight in 1999, I worked for a lifestyle magazine, and interviewed film stars, actors, pop icons, former Government ministers, top British comedians, and even a man who was held prisoner by the Japanese for three years during the Second World War. I’ve tried to make the book about their experiences rather than mine. Profits from every book sold are forwarded to a local chemotherapy unit and breast care nurses’ unit, who showed such kindness and compassion to my late wife Trish, while she was being treated for an incurable form of breast cancer.”

The book is £12.50 plus £2.50 p&p. To buy a copy, visit https://www.paypal.com/instantcommerce/checkout/SWUUTHLCME39C or email Peter at [email protected]