Jeff Powell of the Daily Mail — six words that for 57 years and counting mark the life’s work of our friend and colleague as the most enduringly brilliant sportswriter of his generation.
Today at the paper he has served longer than any reporter at a single Fleet Street title ever, back pages or front, there are loud hosannas as our own master craftsman, king of the big exclusives, is made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to journalism.
But delight at the royal distinction — all the more remarkable for Jeff having to fight his way out of East London’s streets of post-War poverty — will not be confined to this office, but will ring like a peel of bells through countless homes where the Daily Mail is taken.