Archive for the ‘Bermuda’ Category

Tommy Aitchison, RIP

Posted: May 4, 2011 in Bermuda, media, sports
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Tommy Aitchison (right), reminiscing with Austin (Cheesey) Hughes in 2005.

I was very sad to hear of Tommy Aitchison’s passing last night. Although as a lifelong cricket lover and historian of the local game, he would be the first to admit that at 95, he’d had a “good innings”.

I will forever be indebted to Tommy because when I first came to Bermuda as a sports journalist in 1982 he was a generous and invaluable source and guide to Bermuda cricket at a time when the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control was a complete shambles in terms of results and statistics. In a pre-internet age and little written history of Bermuda sports available then, Tommy was a godsend to an expat reporter.

Were it not for his painstaking – and voluntary – efforts, many of the Cup Match and County Cup records would simply never have been recorded or preserved.  Incredibly, he compiled these from scratch twice because his original stats, left with a colleague for safe-keeping when Tommy moved to the US for 20 years, were thrown away.

It was through Tommy’s enthusiastic recollections that I first learned about the exploits of Bermudian cricketing legends like Alma (Champ) Hunt, Nigel (Chopper) Hazel, and Clarence (Tuppence) Parfitt, that formed the basis of many articles I wrote over the years as sports editor of the Mid-Ocean News (Tommy had also been its sports editor, back in the days when it was an afternoon daily).

We worked on many cricket annuals and projects together over the years and remained good friends. In 2005 I was privileged to edit and produce the publication he said he was most proud of, A True Bermudian Champion, a tribute to the great all-rounder Austin (Cheesy) Hughes.

Tommy’s journalism was sometimes criticised, with some justification, because he rarely wrote anything bad about anyone – even if they deserved it. But that was just Tommy. Whether he was writing about cricket, his beloved late wife Lois, or his former wartime army colleagues, whose obituaries he would diligently produce for The Royal Gazette, he always looked for the positive in everything. And he never asked for a cent. I remember him being taken aback when I first asked him to write an article for RG Magazine and insisted that he got paid for it!

Tommy’s writing and gentlemanly good humour may now seem from another era but that’s what made him so beloved. And I for one shall miss him dearly.

Read on for a short biography of Tommy I wrote to accompany the Austin Hughes book:

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Heads you win …

Posted: March 29, 2011 in Bermuda, media
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I was rather amused to read the headline in yesterday’s Royal Gazette that “Shooting outbreak causes fear and injury”. Not because of the tragic subject matter, of course, but because it was one of those meaningless headlines that states the obvious – like “Cancer is a bit nasty” or “Women have babies” – and tells you nothing about the story.

When I was working on the Mid-Ocean News in the 1980s we had a “wall of shame” on which we gleefully posted the worst/funniest headlines produced by our Gazette colleagues across the office. And we had plenty to choose from. Compared to the punchy, pun-laden that many of us UK-trained sub-editors took pride in, The Gazette heads were far more tortuous affairs.

My favourite was the one that topped an inquest report and read: “Doctor put patient’s leg injury above chest cavity bleeding”. In 72 point type. Over two decks. Across six columns!

Another was about the end to a rogue owl’s reign of terror among the island’s small animals. “It’s all over for the snowy owl as one shot blows its head off”. You couldn’t make it up.

Mind you many of our heads were lost in translation. I once wrote a headline about a local soccer coach being fired – I think it was “Bascome axed”. A puzzled Bermudian colleague told me he didn’t understand the headline. “It didn’t say what you axed him about,” he said.

Fortunately at the Mid-O we had deputy editor Ivan Clifford who was a master of the art. His finest line adorned a travel piece about hotels in Ireland’s Mourne Mountains: “Top of the Mourne inns.” A classic.

My efforts were rarely as clever but I was proud of one that headed a rather pompous letter from a local actor taking our theatre critic to task for a less than flattering review of his performance in the lead role of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. There was only one headline I could put of course … The Self-Importance of Being Earnest.

A tale of two papers

Posted: December 15, 2010 in Bermuda, internet, iPad, media, Technology
Tags: ,
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It’s been interesting week for online news junkies.  Here in Bermuda, The Royal Gazette gave its website a much-needed makeover on Tusday while in London, The Sunday Times launched what is arguably the most impressive iPad version yet of a major newspaper.

Of course we’re comparing apples and oranges here in terms of resources and readership but I think it’s interesting to see how two newspapers, both established in the 1820s, are trying to figure how how to stay viable and relevant in a rapidly-changing media landscape.

The Gazette site really couldn’t have got any worse – although at the time of writing a poll on the site embarrassingly showed that 38% thought the new version was either “worse” or “much worse” (57% said it was improved or much improved).

At first glance, the site certainly looks cleaner, more readable and better organised but it doesn’t take long to realise that the changes are little more than cosmetic and that the Gazette still doesn’t really get the internet, digital publishing and just how disruptive and game-changing the technology will continue to be to the media business as a whole. (more…)

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