Don't think it's all over...

The presence of the sports writer's familiar lean and lofty frame in the Roots Hall press box is a Saturday afternoon institution.

It remains as solid as one of the goal-posts and, given the Blues' sometimes turbulent politics, a lot less likely to shift.

For more than a quarter of a century Howard has been a fixture of the Echo as well, more recently as sports editor. His Southend football reports have been part of the fabric of the paper.

Yet now the final whistle has blown. The Southwood report will no longer appear in this newspaper. "I'll still be reporting for the nationals, and my column is coming out once a week," Howard is quick to point out.

Yet the news still administers a powerful shock to the system. The Echo without Howard Southwood reporting from the Roots Hall press-box! It's the end of football as we know it. They'll be letting footballers balance the ball on their noses next!

Journalism is always a job in a hurry, and those who work in it seldom have much time for personal nostalgia. Now though, at the end of an era, Howard does allow himself to look back a bit.

Active sport is in Howard's blood. His grandad was a Somerset county cricket player and chairman of the County Cricket club (and mayor of Taunton).

As a Rochford schoolboy, Howard looked set for a career as a professional footballer. At 14 he played for Essex and, he remembers, "there was talk that West Ham were interested in me.

"But my dad wanted me to get what he called 'a proper job', and nobody thought football was a proper job then".

Getting into journalism was, if anything, even more of a challenge than playing pro football. "I just got the job through sheer persistence," he says.

The Echo's predecessor the Southend Standard was run by the patriarchal John Burrows. He was an old-time proprietor who held an annual garden party for his staff in his country home at Paglesham. Everybody referred to the boss as Mr John.

Howard recalls: "I found out the garage where Mr John stopped his Rolls-Royce to get petrol. When he pulled up, I stepped out and collared him."

Mr John's advice to the young Howard Southwood was simple: "Get GCE English, learn shorthand and typing. When you've got those skills, come and see me."

Howard duly followed this counsel, studying at Southend College, "about the only male among a lot of girls". Once qualified, Howard "kept burrowing until it got me in".

He served his apprenticeship on the old Southend Standard, then worked on newspapers all over the country: "Those were the days when you moved around. People said: 'What's wrong with you, you've been in the job three weeks already?' "

Then Howard arrived full circle back at the Echo in 1972 and stayed for a lot more than three weeks. "My wife was having a baby, and you've got to settle down some time." The some time turned out to be 27 years.

Howard's stories are some of the best that I've heard from the world of provincial journalism, and you'll be able to read all about them when he publishes his book.

In the style of Garry Nelson's humorous accounts of provincial football management, it will offer a hack's view of provincial pitches.

Along with the chance to reminisce, the sports journalist is finding time to become a sportsman.

His other passion apart from football is golf. Howard is on the committee of Rochford Golf Club, and an ardent player who has achieved a 10-handicap (his son Richard is semi-professional).

"Golf is a fine and fascinating game," he says. "The margin for error is so small. You can be so good one day, so bad the next. It imposes honour, discipline and respect."

Honour, discipline and respect - good old sporting principles. They are also the sort of words that crop up when Howard Southwood is talking about his job.

In particular he took his role as coach to younger sporting journalists with great seriousness: "They have to realise what a responsible job it is," he maintains.

"People say, 'You have a great job, don't you, writing about football?' And you do - for a lot of the time. When a club is successful, everybody loves you. The players love you, the manager loves you, the fans love you.

"It's when things aren't so good for the club, and you still have to print the facts, that it can turn rough. Some of them can't take the pressure. So they turn to the nearest obvious antagonist, the local reporter."

There is no doubt as to the low-point in his career - the notorious period in the early '90s when he was actually banned from Roots Hall by Blues manager Vic Jobson.

Howard is not prone to grudges, however. "In the end we shook hands and made up," he says, and his evaluation of Vic Jobson is now generous and positive.

"I always felt that his heart was in the club. He has certainly travelled on the controversial side of it. But you've got to remember that when he took over 14 years ago the club was in a bad way.

"It was him that persuaded the banks to come up with the money. But for Vic, I don't think there would be a Southend team now."

For a moment Howard's thoughts turn from the team he has followed all those years, to the other half of the equation - the people in the stands.

"The thing is, fans are very immediate people. They don't want to remember. They don't want to talk about what happened in the past. Football is what's happening now."

"All you can do," he concludes, "is just try to be as fair and straight as you can."

He may be best known as a football writer, but the impression that crops up most often comes from cricket - the straight bat. In more ways than one, Howard Southwood is a sportsman in print.

In the blood - Howard Southwood was a footballer for the county at 14 and looked set to follow a professional career in the sport. His father wanted him to have a 'proper' job though, so he set out to become a sports journalist.

Picture: STEPHEN LLOYD

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.