From schoolyard sports pages to Stadium press boxes

Martin Crowson tells Lara Alsaid about his journey with journalism and how he went from writing schoolyard sports pages to Stadium press boxes

Martin Crowson and his mates are at school, handing out copies of the latest edition of their homemade sports paper where they covered nearly every sport in Leicestershire. Little does he know that in a few years, he will be sitting at the Mattioli Woods stadium, stomach full after the free lunch they provide him at every game. His friends from school are in the crowd, they paid 60 quid for their tickets, but Martin is getting paid for watching and writing about the Rugby. Something he used to spend his time doing as a child, completely for free.

Martin attended the University of Derby doing a mixed media degree and focused on Written Journalism in his final year. He was also a part of the first group to do media GCSC’s in the country. Derby enhanced his interest, he enjoyed the course and graduated with a 2:1.

He was dedicated to the sports pages, always with the paper in his hand. Martin loved sports so that is what he started writing about, he tried to do everything to be at the matches. Martin’s passion for reporting was evident when he and his mate Arlo White, who is now a sports presenter and commentator, started to go to the Leicester City games with a radio recorder, trying to cover as much of the game as possible. They produced a publication called Sports Weekly which included reports of the Leicester sports. They printed out 50 odd copies of two A4 papers and handed them out in school for free.

He was eager to start working however the recession struck early 90s, and once he graduated, he was faced with 20 rejection letters.

“It was demoralising, I was frustrated with myself that I never did work experience,” he says.

Martin was worried, his dad encouraged him to do something else to earn money, so he did. Martins’ journalism dreams were thought about while picking and packing in a wine warehouse for 12-hour night shifts. He started the job in the beginning of autumn, so by March when the sun went down on a Sunday, he knew he wouldn’t see the light for a week.

“I thought to myself; how the hell am I in this position? That is the moment I started thinking I need to do something else.”

That is when he signed up for a two-module course at London School of Journalism where he submitted his assignments by post. One of the assignments was to study his local paper, which was the Hinckley Times, and then write a piece in their style. He sent the piece to the Hinckley Times, shocked when he opened just another paper but spotted his name in the by-line. The next day he received a call from the editor asking for an interview. Martin showed up to the interview in his father’s suit. Although he was young and not so experienced, in an all too big suit, he got the job and started the following week.

“I was that type of lad at 17-18 who asked my dad to call the car insurance company to sort it out, I dreaded talking on the phone.” He explains.

His first two years were spent learning the ropes until he passed his shorthand and became a senior reporter. He even got an insight at Leicester Tigers and wrote match reports and interviewed players he had seen on TV since he was a little boy. It was thrilling and nerve-wracking at the same time.

“At that time, I had done several death knocks, so I thought to myself I’ll be fine.” He says.

He spent five years covering all kinds of sports at the Hinckley Times until one day when he was playing cricket, he got an offer of new adventures at the Leicester Mercury.

The Mercury was a paper of record, producing 180,000 copies per week, it was a paper that meant something in Leicestershire. All the guys he sat next to at the desk were journalists whom Martin had read their articles before. He wrote for the Sporting Blue, which was a part of the Mercury which provided 36 pages of only sports pieces. But they soon raised the price by 66% and moved the print slot forwards which meant that if City or Tigers played Friday evening the match reports wouldn’t be out. It ended up with City fans cutting out the sports page to confetti and throwing it every Saturday when the players entered the pitch. Later Sporting Blue died out due to mismanagement. Martin’s urge to write for the Mercury died in the last two years as well due to him being allocated stories that he felt anyone could write.

In 2007 Martin got offered a job as a full-time writer for Leicester Tigers and as a Tigers fan and sports journalist, he jumped at that opportunity. He covered the Tigers and due to England having a fair number of Tigers players on the team, Martin got the chance to cover international Rugby both home and away.

He travelled around Europe and New Zealand with the Tigers and the British Lions, writing match reports, and covering press conferences and player interviews. He spent a whole summer travelling in France covering the Rugby World Cup for seven weeks.

Martin experienced the difference between reporting Rugby and Football. While the football players walked past the reporters to avoid the interviews, the Rugby players sat down and were happy to stay with him for 25 minutes talking. Martin and the players had a good relationship, however, that never got in the way of him being honest about the looks of each game.

“Fans see through the writers, the worst thing I could hear from a fan is that I am in the club’s pocket.” He says.

Martin was the Tigers correspondent for 10 years, the best job in the world until he left in 2017.

“The job was absolutely amazing, I loved every single minute of it.” He concludes.

It was a place full of characters which allowed him to be the person that went up to anyone on the street with any life paths. He grew to become more opinionated and talkative.

The lad who asked his father to call the car company had been challenged with everything from death knocks to interviewing his favourite athletes and that is when he realised that they were all just people.