My colleague and friend Nick Mason, who has died aged 81, became deputy sports editor of the Guardian after the demise of Robert Maxwell’s ill-fated 24-hour
London Daily News in the summer of 1987.
Like Nick, I had worked on the sports desk of the LDN, which survived barely six months. I began working as a freelance subeditor at the Guardian and the then sports editor, Mike Averis, asked me if he should take on Nick as his deputy.