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‘Brilliant’ journalist loses battle with cancer

A North East journalist who was first on the scene of the 1988 Lockerbie disaster has died a month after being diagnosed with cancer.

Tributes from present and former colleagues have poured in after Clive Crickmer, 71, died in hospital on Tuesday.

Clive began his career on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle in the 1950s and in the years before his death he had covered Westoe Rugby Club for his local paper the Shields Gazette.

The rugby club is now considering a permanent memorial to Clive who spent 30 years as the North-East reporter for the Daily Mirror before retiring in 2000.

Editor of the Shields Gazette, John Szymanski said: “Clive was a brilliant journalist who was highly respected both within and outside the industry.

“He was a lovely man, a real gentleman and an absolute pleasure to work with.”

Gazette features editor Janis Blower added: “Clive was a journalist to his bones and represented everything that was good about the profession.”

Mark Blacklock, former Daily Express reporter, and a close friend, recalled Mr Crickmer’s pride and passion for his work. “You learned at the knee of people like Clive, he had a unique way with words,” he said.

Jeremy Armstrong, Daily Mirror North East writer, said: “Clive is one of my journalistic heroes. He was a larger-than-life character and a brilliant journalist.

“He inspired a great number of people through the job – me being one of them. It was a real privilege to have known him. He’ll be a huge miss.”

Peter Shaw, the former club steward at South Shields and Westoe Club which is home to the cricket club, said: “Clive was a gentleman who always had time for you and never a bad word for anyone else.

“A raconteur with a command of the English language second to none, he always had a story to tell about his reporting days, cricket, rugby or his beloved family.”

Clive leaves behind wife Yvonne, son Gareth, also a journalist, and daughter Amanda.

His contribution to the industry was recognised in 2009 when he was awarded the Graeme Stanton Award for an individual lifetime contribution to journalism at the Tom Cordner North East Press Awards.

Away from the newsroom Clive was also a talented cricketer and a bowler in the South Shields side that won the Durham Senior League in 1958.

He later went on to write an acclaimed history of his hometown cricket club.

5 comments

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  • October 14, 2011 at 12:43 pm
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    sounds like a great guy. despite the “miracles” we report what a curse cancer is to the human race nowadays. please support any cancer charities. I lost a dear colleague only 50 years old to this wretched disease.

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  • October 14, 2011 at 2:35 pm
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    George Town,
    Cayman Islands.

    I knew Clive when I was a cub reporter with the Sunderland News Agency, ran by the legendary Ted Elkins. He was a member of the pack that regularly zoomed into the office in the 60s.
    I owe Clive a lot as he taught me to keep things simple.
    He was a real man-of-the-people newsman and a great story teller.

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  • October 14, 2011 at 4:17 pm
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    Can’t believe this –
    Brilliant journalist, super bloke, great pal.
    Huge loss.

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  • October 14, 2011 at 6:21 pm
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    I worked with Clive in the late 60s early 70s when he was the Mirror’s reporter in Newcastle and I was there with Mike Gay for the Mail. It never failed to amaze me that the gentlest, kindest journalists, like Clive and Mike, were also the best of the breed. Clive was – as he once described my late husband – ‘one of nature’s good guys.’ A lovely person, a brilliant journalist. RIP, lovely Clive. We will never forget you.

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  • October 19, 2011 at 5:33 pm
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    Have just returned from Clive’s funeral, where, together with around half the queuing throng waiting to get in, I was left outside. There must have been around 300 people there – a testament to the popularity of one of the game’s great characters. Has anyone ever heard a bad word said about Crick? And has anyone ever heard him say a bad word about anyone else? A gentleman of the press whose like we shall not see again.

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