A true sporting Mr Essex, Peter Edwards, sadly died last week after suffering a heart attack while on a trip to South Africa.

Peter was manager of Essex Cricket Club where he helped steer them out of the doldrums and into a period of great success.

But his interests did not just extend to the leather and willow as he, with his wife, was a keen Southend United supporter.

Peter had a seat just in front of the press box but always put his head in our door for a bit of pre-match banter.

His passing is obviously a severe loss to the County cricket club but I for one will miss his friendly smiling face at Roots Hall where he still attended even after undergoing a foot operation which made it difficult for him to walk.

Essex has lost not only a superb sporting administrator but also a very nice, genuine and charming man.

Why I salute the wizard of the dribble

I have been fortunate, because of my job, to have met a number of soccer big names, but none came bigger in my memory than Sir Stanley Matthews, who died last week aged 85.

It was a true privilege and honour to have chatted to the wizard of the dribble when he came to Southend a few years ago to open a football memorabilia shop.

I went along not only to see Sir Stan, who was my real hero as a schoolboy, but to replace something which I held dear in my youth.

I wrote off to Blackpool, where he was a legend, to ask him for his autograph and could not believe my luck when he sent me a personally-signed photo.

I dashed into school the next day and showed it to my friends, but to my horror my pride and joy was suddenly snatched by an angry teacher who ripped it to shreds as a punishment for talking in his class.

I related this story to Sir Stan when I met him in Southend and he readily gave me a replacement, which I have safely tucked away among my proudest possessions.

For me, and people of my era, this man was a true great of the game but someone who never felt, unlike some of today's "stars", he was too big for the game.

Sir Stan has been described as a man of the people and certainly I found him as someone who seemed almost embarrassed by his fame.

Matthews as a person was as far removed from the likes of David Beckham as Southend United are from Manchester United.

And yet humility was a quality which players of yesteryear seemed to have - they played the game for love instead of being driven by greed and huge sums of money. You always had the impression that the likes of Matthews and Tom Finney would gladly have taken the field for nothing.

It must seem incredible to present day players, who reckon they should not have to play more than 25 games a season, that Sir Stan turned out for England aged 42 and played League football for Stoke City until he was 50 years-old.

I doubt if I will see anyone of his real genius ever again on a football field, Georgie Best came closest to emulating his balance and control, or indeed meet someone who oozed true star quality without realising it!

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