Aubrey Higgs

I joined Reuters via the sports desk in 1970 and in between cups of tea supplied by Horrie Murray spent a lot of time laughing at the interplay between the blazer-wearing Aubrey Higgs and Claude Richardson, with the inevitable roll-up stuck in his mouth, which usually ended with Higgy lending Richie the fiver he needed. Flash forward to sports desk members past and present lining up somberly at the cemetery in Roehampton waiting for Jack Davis’s funeral cortege to arrive. As the hearse pulled up, I heard Aubrey’s distinctive drawl muttering to Ritchie “I told you to put your money in oil, not the 4.30 at Catterick,” followed as quick as a flash by Richie asking to borrow a fiver. They don’t make them like that any more, that’s for sure. ■