Phil Rostron
Sports journalist
PHIL ROSTRON, who has died at 70, was an award-winning former Fleet Street journalist and sports author who also served as sports editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Having begun his career at 16 on the Oldham Chronicle and the Rochdale Observer, he shipped out to Australia to work on the Sydney Morning Herald . He returned to the UK two years later, to the Blackpool Evening Gazette, where he met Caroline, his wife of 45 years.
He moved from the Gazette to the tabloids, working shifts in Manchester on the Mirror, Sun and Daily Star before relocating with his family to London, where he worked for 20 years.
Phil loved newspapers; his writing was razor-sharp and his ability to network and charm everyone was magical.
He met and interviewed Prime Ministers, and sporting greats from George Best to Paul Gascoigne; Phil Tufnell to Lennox Lewis, and socialised with footballers, cricketers and racing legends. He negotiated headline sponsorship of some of the biggest events in the sporting calendar – boxing fights in Las Vegas, races in Nashville, cricket at Lords and Tests in Australia. He lived and breathed sport.
As sports editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post, he won awards and cultivated a special relationship with Leeds United, which led to him write the books Leeds United: Trials and Tribulations and We are the Damned United. They added to his collection of biographies about the former footballer and manager Barry Fry and racing trainer Henry Cecil.
He also became close to legendary footballers such as Leeds and Scotland’s Peter Lorimer.
Phil’s final job was as Sports Editor at the Carlisle News & Star and Cumberland News, where he worked for 10 years before retiring in 2018.
He is survived by Caroline, their three children Jo, Gary and Hollie, and two grandchildren.