ROGER CRUTCHLEY
Former sports editor and current sports and PostScript columnist
n joining the newspaper in 1969, I was unaware the Bang
kok Post and I shared the same age — 23. We were both “established in 1946”, just a few weeks apart. And here we are celebrating our 70th anniversaries, although I suspect the Post is in considerably better shape than me. How time has flown.
Those early days at the office on Ratchadamnoen Avenue were a far cry from our present modern headquarters in Klong Toey. There were no computers for a start. I loved hearing the clatter of typewriters and the intermittent shouts of “copy!” from the news editors. It always felt like something was happening, and it usually was. It was a small, smoky office with reporters, editors, sub-editors and paste-up men virtually on top of one another. You got to know everybody pretty quickly and it felt almost like a family business.
The sub-editors were seated around a horseshoe-shaped newsdesk and there was plenty of lively banter. At Christmas and New Year, fortified by a few glasses of Mekhong whisky, we would dance the ramwong around that same desk.
It was an exciting time for me, as I was also experiencing life in a country that was both culturally and physically so different from my home in England. I was learning something new every day and that’s still the case, 47 years later.
The first really big story I experienced was the tumultuous event of Oct 14, 1973. Our offices had moved only a few months earlier to the U-Chu Liang Building, opposite Lumpini Park. It was my day off, but I went down to Ratchadamnoen Avenue to get a taste of the demonstrations against Gen Thanom Kittikachorn, the prime minister, and his associates. Things turned ugly and after a few hours the bullets started flying far too close for comfort and I got out of there. I ended up writing an eyewitness report for a special Bangkok World edition that afternoon.
Little did I know that I would go on to experience nine attempted coups, not all successful, and several serious periods of serious social unrest.
Perhaps the most bizarre time on the newsdesk came in 1981 when, in the space of a few hours, we had commandos storming a hijacked plane at Don Mueang airport and President Ronald Reagan being shot. This was followed immediately by the April Fools’ Day coup. Life has never been boring at the Bangkok Post.
Later, during 14 enjoyable years as sports editor, I was given the opportunity to meet many famous names in the world of sport, including childhood hero Sir Bobby Charlton. Little did I know as a teenager watching Bobby on TV in the 1966 World Cup, that I would enjoy a long chat with him in Bangkok.
There have been sad times too. We lost Kuang, a popular photographer who was shot dead, caught in the crossfire in a mindless student gang street shooting in the mid-1970s. And several fine Thai colleagues have passed away through illness.
The most important experience from these past 47 years has been the friendships made with colleagues of so many different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds. I have also learned so much from Thai friends — and I still enjoy those lovely Thai smiles.