Jeremy Chapman – a personal tribute from his friend and former colleague Tom Clarke

Jeremy with his wife Christa and the winning trophy at an event organised by our friends
at the Association of Golf Writers in 2024

By Tom Clarke

I’m grateful to the Press Golfing Society for wonderful days in the sun and the rain, on courses from Royal Portrush to Vilamoura – but I’m more than grateful to the PGS for launching a friendship with Jeremy Chapman that lasted half a century and changed the course of my working life.

I joined the PGS in 1975. I was honoured to be captain in 1985 when Jeremy was secretary. We partnered well. It was a year of good golf, good weather, good social occasions (our annual dinner was at The Savoy), and growing membership.

Fast forward to 1993 . . . I was parachuted into The Sporting Life to be editor and to “clean out the stables”. It could have been a reference to the dark and grubby offices at the arse end of the Mirror Building in Holborn Circus. It was, in fact, a call to sort out the chaos of working arrangements that were, to be polite, less than professional.

I knew only three people with Life connections: Charlie Wilson, who had been my editor at The Times, was now deputy managing editor of Mirror Group and appointed me to be editor; Monty Court, a close friend since we met at a PGS day and a former editor of The Life (and he’s still going strong at the age of 97); and Jeremy, who was, whatever his actual title, the deputy editor of The Life.

On the morning of Monday, April 5, 1993, I walked into The Life offices for the first time. I was met by a barrier of stony faces. The previous day the owners of those faces had produced an excellent paper with reports, analysis and pictures of the infamous Grand National which was declared void when 30 of the 39 runners ignored the false-start and carried on racing.

I congratulated them, told them who I was and what I hoped to do (no mention of “clean out if the stables” at this stage). They got on with their work but there was a certain tension in the air.

Then, about 2pm, Jeremy arrived for his shift. He came up to me, shook my hand and wished me well.

That moment wasn’t an ice-breaker in my relationship with the rest of the staff but it showed them that one of the leaders of their team had some high regard for me.

For the next five years we delivered a very good paper, making the most of the writing skill of Alastair Down and David Ashforth and others, the race-reporting of Geoff Lester’s team, and the emerging talent of Bruce Millington, Peter Thomas and Chris McGrath – with Jeremy pulling them together with his page designs – by 1994 in our sparkling new offices at Canary Wharf.

That’s Jeremy the deputy editor. There was also Jeremy the golf betting tipster. His countless hours poring over form, mainly on the American circuit, then bringing the stats alive in a very readable way – and providing readers with a bundle of winners, notably Lee Trevino at 8-1 for the 1972 Open and Stewart Cink at 150-1 for a 2021 PGA Tour event.

I must make mention of Christa, Jeremy’s wife for 57 years. She never played in a PGS day but she was a special part of the society for 30 years or more. She was always there at the check-in table, collecting the money, handing out cards and checking them at the end of the day.

Thank you, Jeremy and Christa.