More Gearey

Kevin Gearey moved to tv news after time with the sport team at World Service. The core of his job was providing short, sharp summaries over joined-up clips of action, often conditioned by the limit on 'news' access to the coverage of commercial rivals, for the main bulletins on BBC1.  He required five ingredients - a tatty reporter's notebook, a biro, a fag, a pint of lager, and a brain full of potential wordplays. 

Former BBC Director General Mark Byford has told of the time he called in on a Headingley Test Match, when on an official visit to BBC Leeds (as then Director of Nations and Regions). He met Kevin coming out of the beer tent, and told him he'd slipped away for a discreet couple of hours to watch England batting. Kevin's piece on the day's events for that evening's Six O'Clock News included a cutaway of the section of the crowd including Mr Byford. The script line - "so tensely poised was the afternoon session that some people even left their place of work to come and watch the drama unfold."