The deputy chief reporter of The Courier and Evening Telegraph in Dundee, Ron Skelton, has retired after almost 48 years' service with DC Thomson & Co.

His reports of events local and national have appeared in all of the firm's newspapers.

He began his career as a trainee sub-editor on The Weekly News.

But his involvement in covering the tragic loss of the Broughty lifeboat the Mona persuaded him that his future lay in hard news.

He transferred to the reporting staff of the firm's daily newspapers, also serving in its Perth office.

He also had a spell as a features writer, covering Angus for the People's Journal, before he returned to reporting duties.

He was appointed golf correspondent of The Courier and the Evening Telegraph in 1969, the year Tony Jacklin won the Open.

Ron said: "It was such a privilege to have lived through that era and to actually get paid to be present at some of the most memorable moments in sport."

His golfing days were followed by time as news editor of the Evening Telegraph before a return to front-line news coverage including the tragedies of Dunblane and 9/11.

In his retirement Roy plans to try to return to a respectable golf handicap and hopes to kindle a liking for what Nicklaus called "the greatest game of all" in his four young grandchildren.