SPORTSjournalism is a rough old game, very competitive and peopled by hard drinkers with questionable morals.

I ought to know - I was one of them!

But there was one exception - John Lukins, the long-serving sports editor of the Western Gazette, who died last week, aged 81.

Simply, John was the nicest, kindest colleague you could wish to meet. Always ready to help aspiring young journos like me and commanding respect from all who came in contact with him.

He was one of life's gentleman reporters.

John speartheaded the sports coverage for theYeovil-based Western Gazette when it was one of the biggest and most respected weekly newspapers in the country.

He was also in charge of the sports content in Pulman's Weekly News when it was the bible in South Somerset and West Dorset. In Axminster, people used to queue outside the newsagents shop on a Monday afternoon waiting to get their copy of Pulman's to read John's coverage of Saturday's local football, wrtitten under the pseudonym of "Clubman". In those days Pulman's was a paid-for newspaper, selling around 14,000 copies a week. John's superb coverage of the local football scene, especially the Perry Street League, was probably responsible for selling most of those copies. I was a reporter covering the Axminster and Lyme Regis areas for Pulman's in the early 1970s. When I joined the company I gingerly asked John why the paper's cricket coverage was not as good as football. With the paper printed on a Monday at Yeovil, John explained to me it was diffcult collating the weekend cricket scores, adding: "But if you think you can do better, why not come up to the office early on a Monday morning and help me write it?" He wasn't at all offended by this young upstart being so bold. So for the next two years I had to get up at 5 am every Monday in the summer to go to the Yeovil office to write the cricket reports. John will be best known for his coverage of Yeovil Town for the Western Gazette and the Sunday Independent and he was so respected by all and sundry, players and managers alike, that they named the press box after him when he retired. John was a great supporter of grassroots football and as a Merriott boy always retained his interest in the Perry Street League, having at one time played in goal for his home village. His passing will be mourned by hundreds of ex-players who were able to follow their teams exploits through John's fair and accurate reporting.