D.O.B. 6.12.1951
My affiliation with the Bideford Grammar School Old Boys Association began before I was even old enough to attend the school – as ‘official’ scorer for the cricket team. A lasting memory from that time was my father, Phil Day, telling me that whatever I heard in the changing room stayed in the changing room.
Those were the days when wives made the teas, so it was a real family affair and I began playing for the team at around the age of 11, making up the numbers.
I recall that, somehow, I even managed to get through to the final of the BGSOB single wicket competition as a callow teenager. By the time I left school, however, the cricket team was on its last legs and I joined Littleham, which in turn merged with Bideford, playing down at Westward Ho! I finished my local cricket with Bideford Casuals, before moving away to work.
As Dad had been a past President, it was a natural progression to join the Old Boys Association – the only disappointment has been that not many former pupils from my ‘era’ make the trip back to Bideford for the annual dinner.
Not surprising though, when you consider we were the generation who began to truly spread its wings and move away to University and careers in diverse parts of the world.
I followed my father’s footsteps into journalism, starting at the Express and Echo in Exeter before becoming a sports-writer at the Evening Echo in Bournemouth. From there it was up to Bristol and the Western Daily Press – that was in 1976 and I’ve lived there ever since.
I worked for nearly 15 years at HTV West, alongside another BGS old boy, Bruce Hockin. He had worked closely with my father in his formative years, so it was a closing of the circle.
I launched a PR and marketing agency in 1991. Bruce joined me in 1995 and we continued until 2011, when I joined a former client, WDM Limited, as their marketing manager.
WDM manufactured equipment which delivered road friction survey services the length and breadth of the UK and internationally, and I’m still enjoying it, despite having passed standard retirement age.
During the last decade I have been lucky enough to travel extensively, to India, New Zealand, Australia, Europe and the US, where I helped set up a subsidiary company. I’ve also been heavily involved in running international safer roads conferences and my plan is to retire after the next conference, in America, in 2023.
I have been married to Liz since 2001 and have two sons from a first marriage, and four grandchildren, with a fifth due in September 2021. I gave up playing cricket at the age of 55 and now focus on trying to play the odd frame of snooker and maintaining a 12 handicap on the golf course.
