Farewell to sports editor Mel
EXAMINER STALWART PUTS DOWN HIS PEN AFTER 35 YEARS
SPORTS Editor Mel Booth retires this week from the Huddersfield Daily Examiner and YorkshireLive website.
Mel, 61, has spent 35 years as part of the Examiner sports team, moving from the Morning Telegraph in Sheffield to become Chief Football Writer in 1985.
He became Sports Editor following the retirement, after 45 years, of John Gledhill in January 2006, handing over Huddersfield Town coverage to Doug Thomson.
Mel started his career in journalism at the weekly Holme Valley Express in Holmfirth, as a general reporter, before moving into sport at the Barnsley Chronicle.
At the Examiner, he met and learned from predecessors such as Lewis Firth, who covered Town in the 1920s, Alan Driscoll (Longfellow), Martin Hardy and Paul Clark.
He has covered Town in all four divisions, in play-off finals at Wembley, Cardiff’s Millennium
Stadium and Old Trafford, and been at the forefront of breaking stories on the club’s move to the John Smith’s Stadium and slide into administration.
Carlos Corberan is the 30th Town manager or head coach permanent and caretaker - Mel has worked with over the years, Mick Buxton being the first, and he was twice invited onto the bench for matches when Neil Warnock was boss.
Mel has been part of Huddersfield sport himself, too, playing with Wooldale Wanderers in the District League as a teenager before work commitments curtailed his involvement, but he has continued to be involved in cricket with Scholes CC, near Holmfirth.
Having played for the club as a junior, he became captain of the first team in the Huddersfield Central League, also led them in their first Drakes Huddersfield League match and later became part of a successful second team.
In 2006 he was awarded the
Drakes League’s Lady Sykes Candlesticks for services to his club and the game of cricket and he became chairman of Scholes two years later, a club where he’s now been involved 45 years.
Before moving back onto Town coverage for the website and newspaper, Mel enhanced the coverage of local sports such as cricket, crown green bowling and golf, maintained close links with the Huddersfield Giants, Huddersfield Rugby Union Club and YMCA and built up a network of contacts in boxing, tennis, martial arts, athletics, cycling, table tennis and motorsport - ensuring events at all levels were reflected in the newspaper.
He has also written about travel - Mel and his wife Carol carried out two relief projects in Sri Lanka following the tsunami in 2004, with the help of money raised by themselves and friends in Huddersfield - and he plans to continue visiting new countries when the current pandemic allows.