A storyteller who loved beautiful game
‘‘He left Lancashire but I’m not sure it ever left him.’’
Ron Palenski on Russell Gray
Leslie Russell Gray, sports writer/ editor, Wellington Phoenix media and kit manager: b May 8, 1943, Manchester, England; m Barbara West; 2s; d April 2, 2018, Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt, aged 74.
Russell Gray was a storyteller. Those who worked with him during the 32 years he wrote and edited at The Dominion newspaper recalled a man who always had a good yarn to tell.
Talking was what made Gray an outstanding journalist, former colleague Kevin Norquay says.
‘‘He could talk to anyone. He could get anyone to spill the beans, to pour out their heart.
‘‘His newspaper stories were about personalities, down to the colour of their eyes, not dull match reports or previews.’’
Russ was the optimist, amongst a largely cynical bunch of journalists, a chuckling Pollyanna among a bunch of gloomy Eeyores, Norquay says.
Before officially becoming a part of The Dominion’s sports department, Gray had been working for it as a stringer writing predominantly about football.
Consequently, he had several good contacts within Wellington and a growing network throughout New Zealand.
In those days, the late 1970s and early 1980s, there wasn’t the distrust of the media among sporting bodies that exists today, Gray recalled in his unfinished autobiography. But you had to be careful when it came to forming friendships with sportsmen and women, he said. They needed to understand there would inevitably come a day when they would open the newspaper and find an article critical of them written by their supposed friend.
‘‘For the most part I was lucky in that regard, with those I came to know well understanding that was how things were,’’ he wrote.
‘‘Whenever someone bristled at criticism they received in print under my byline, the phrase I used most was ‘If you can’t accept my criticism, does my praise mean anything?’’’
Gray was born and raised in Manchester. An only child to Leslie and Francis, he grew up with a love of football. A stint as goalkeeper for Oldham in his lates teens was shortlived when coaches decided he wasn’t good enough to make the grade.
He remained an avid fan of Manchester United his entire life. It was a passion he shared with his future wife, Barbara, who he had lived next door to on the estate where he grew up.
Gray followed his father into the printing trade and in 1970 responded to an advertisement calling for printers and lithographers for the Wellington Publishing Company – publishers of The Dominion and the Sunday Times.
Securing a position, he and Barbara, who he had married in 1969, and their two sons upped sticks and moved to Wellington.
Gray recalled the culture shock of a city that literally blew them away.
He wrote about the ropes along some of Wellington’s streets used to anchor oneself when the wind got up and on one occasion a gust lifting one of his sons clean into the air.
Gray started out as a printer and typesetter but as the ‘‘hot metal’’ printing industry was in its dying phase he made the switch to the newsroom, where he worked until 2002, mentoring a generation of young reporters.
Soccer was the natural round for Gray, who had his tickets in football coaching and refereeing, and a huge knowledge about the game.
It was fortuitous timing for him to make the move into writing football reports. In 1981 the All Whites were playing qualifying games (and winning) around Asia and the Pacific, for the World Cup to be held in Spain the following year.
The keen reporter followed the team, filing his reports along the way, eventually travelling to Spain for the finals.
But Gray was always wrestling for column-inch space with New Zealand’s national obsession for rugby.
‘‘Rugby took precedence in The Dominion’s sports pages and I was envious of the amount of space our rugby writer Ian Gault was given to write about Wellington and the All Blacks,’’ Gray notes in his autobiography.
‘‘It seemed that if an All Black sneezed … then it was worth a back-page lead. Should a soccer player break a leg it might be worth a few paragraphs inside.’’
An exaggeration? Perhaps. Gray was known not only as a good storyteller, but one to amplify a tale for better effect.
Ron Palenski, sports writer and former assistant at The Dominion, first met Gray at The Britannia – the local boozer on Willis St where all the journos used to hang out back in the day.
He recalled Gray as an affable chap who could ‘‘talk the leg off a chair’’.
With his thick Lancashire accent Gray was easy to talk to and was adept at getting his interviewees to talk, he says.
Despite his many years in New Zealand, Gray remained a Lancashire man through and through, Palenski observed.
‘‘He left Lancashire but I’m not sure it ever left him.’’
Gray turned his pen to other sports, specialising also in softball, netball and golf.
He even took up the latter, often playing a full 18 holes at Wainuiomata before coming in to work at The Dominion, where he would regale anyone willing (or unwilling) to listen with a shot-by-shot account of his performance.
One such day occurred on the same day Greg Norman shot a 63 on the first day of the Masters at Augusta. To hear Gray tell it, his effort at Wainui was the better round.
His knowledge of the game led him to score gigs writing biographies for Kiwi golfer Michael Campbell and golf coach Mal Tongue.
He wrote netballer Irene van Dyk’s biography, published in 2009 to positive reviews.
Van Dyk recalled Gray as a man who knew a thing or two about her sport.
‘‘He was involved and invested in netball. He was incredibly knowledgeable about the sport,’’ she says.
‘‘He had the ability to get me to remember things I hadn’t thought of for a long time.
‘‘I remember when he got into the swing of things during an interview he would start grinding his teeth.’’
Most recently, Gray was a member of the Wellington Phoenix staff.
He had been at the club for more than 10 years, since its inception, serving as both media and kit manager until the 2016-17 season.
Former Phoenix and All Whites coach Ricki Herbert had called the semiretired Gray to consult him, and wound up offering him a job.
Gray never referred to his time at the Phoenix as work. He was doing what he loved. Consumed by the beautiful game.
— By Bess Manson
Sources: Barbara Gray, The Dominion Post/Stuff (Kevin Norquay), Joseph Romanos, David Choate, Ron Palenski.