Originally Posted by The Difference:
“Yes, really sad to hear that the Birmingham Mail have made Brian Halford redundant. A regrettable decision but as a Walsall supporter who reads that newspaper from time to time I can't say it comes as a massive surprise. On top of being their cricket correspondent Brian was also their Saddlers reporter and it has been noticeable that the amount of column inches the Mail devotes to my club has gotten progressively fewer over the past 12-15 months. I guess they will just take agency/syndicated copy for Warwickshire and Walsall news and match reports once Brian bows out, with Walsall v Bristol City a week tomorrow being his final game for the newspaper. You might be interested to know that the Birmingham Mail's West Bromwich Albion reporter Chris Lepkowski has also left his post this week.
Hopefully Brian (and Chris for that matter) will continue his sports reporting career on a freelance basis, at least in the short to medium term. We often talk on here about BBC Local Radio commentators who wouldn't sound out of place broadcasting on national radio - with many getting the chance to do just that through Radio 5 Live Sports Extra's County Championship and Football League coverage - and I think we can apply those sentiments to Brian Halford as a written journalist. I've long thought that he's a fantastic writer and for my money his copy wouldn't look out of place on the cricket pages of the national broadsheets, indeed if the national press need a well qualified freelancer on the county cricket circuit next season they could do a lot worse than to call upon Brian - that way, we might hear him back on BBC Radio's county cricket commentaries as well.
Changing tack, on Thursday BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra interrupted their coverage of Lancashire v Middlesex to broadcast the closing stages of Hampshire's Division Two championship clinching match at Glamorgan with two wickets remaining in the home team's second innings. Kevan James, Lizzy Ammon and Edward Bevan were on commentary duty. Upon 5LSE's return to Old Trafford, the veteran former Sky Sports darts commentator John Gwynne was in the middle of an entertaining guest stint alongside David Townsend in the BBC Local Radio commentary box (this was at around 3pm if anyone wants to dig it out on the iPlayer). I know I'm repeating what I said on here the other week Connor, but many thanks for compiling all the details of BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and BBC Local Radio's county cricket coverage throughout the summer. Your contributions are much appreciated.
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“Yes, really sad to hear that the Birmingham Mail have made Brian Halford redundant. A regrettable decision but as a Walsall supporter who reads that newspaper from time to time I can't say it comes as a massive surprise. On top of being their cricket correspondent Brian was also their Saddlers reporter and it has been noticeable that the amount of column inches the Mail devotes to my club has gotten progressively fewer over the past 12-15 months. I guess they will just take agency/syndicated copy for Warwickshire and Walsall news and match reports once Brian bows out, with Walsall v Bristol City a week tomorrow being his final game for the newspaper. You might be interested to know that the Birmingham Mail's West Bromwich Albion reporter Chris Lepkowski has also left his post this week.
Hopefully Brian (and Chris for that matter) will continue his sports reporting career on a freelance basis, at least in the short to medium term. We often talk on here about BBC Local Radio commentators who wouldn't sound out of place broadcasting on national radio - with many getting the chance to do just that through Radio 5 Live Sports Extra's County Championship and Football League coverage - and I think we can apply those sentiments to Brian Halford as a written journalist. I've long thought that he's a fantastic writer and for my money his copy wouldn't look out of place on the cricket pages of the national broadsheets, indeed if the national press need a well qualified freelancer on the county cricket circuit next season they could do a lot worse than to call upon Brian - that way, we might hear him back on BBC Radio's county cricket commentaries as well.
Changing tack, on Thursday BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra interrupted their coverage of Lancashire v Middlesex to broadcast the closing stages of Hampshire's Division Two championship clinching match at Glamorgan with two wickets remaining in the home team's second innings. Kevan James, Lizzy Ammon and Edward Bevan were on commentary duty. Upon 5LSE's return to Old Trafford, the veteran former Sky Sports darts commentator John Gwynne was in the middle of an entertaining guest stint alongside David Townsend in the BBC Local Radio commentary box (this was at around 3pm if anyone wants to dig it out on the iPlayer). I know I'm repeating what I said on here the other week Connor, but many thanks for compiling all the details of BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and BBC Local Radio's county cricket coverage throughout the summer. Your contributions are much appreciated.
”
I would 100% agree your comments on Brian, I have a book that he wrote back in 2012 about Warwickshire on this day. It was very good and Brian most have put a lot of work in.
I did read that next year the Birmingham Mail will only have a reporter on the so called "big matches".
