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Sports editor retires after 40 years at the Times

Hereford Times sports editor Jeremy Finney has retired after a 40-year association with the paper.

He began his journalism career in the days of hot metal printing and finished by being responsible for producing ten sports pages of the Hereford Times by computer each week.

He said: “Times have changed greatly in newspaper production, but the spirit remains the same in local journalism.

“There is the urge to present all the county news to the people of Herefordshire in an accurate and attractive way and I hope this has been achieved on the sports pages of our paper.”

Jeremy has been sports editor for the past 16 years and, during the last five of those and with Liz Griffin as editor, the number of sports pages has doubled with a wider coverage than ever.

He began work as a news reporter on the Leominster News in 1961 and transferred to full-time sport in 1967 when he moved to the Hereford Evening News and Hereford Times.

He also trained as a sub-editor and became deputy sports editor to the late Ted Woodriffe.

Jeremy took over as sports editor on Ted’s retirement in 1991.

To mark the end of Jeremy’s 46-year career in journalism he was presented with a variety of gifts by his colleagues at the Hereford Times.

Editor Liz Griffin also presented a bouquet of flowers to his wife Celia who retired from her job as a hairdresser on the same day.

Richard Prime, who joined the Times in 2003 as a writer and sub-editor, has succeeded Jeremy as sports editor.