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Tributes are being paid to renowned Liverpool sports journalist Dave Horridge who has died at the age of 78.
Liverpool-born Dave, who died in his sleep after a long battle against debilitating illness, had worked for the Liverpool Echo, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror in a long and distinguised career.
After his stint at the Echo, Dave joined the Daily Mail sports sub-editing team in Manchester before switching to a similar role at the Daily Mirror.
His talent was quickly spotted, and Dave was offered the chance of being the Mirror's soccer reporter in Liverpool.
He was thrilled and delighted to have secured the job at a time when Liverpool and Everton ruled the roost, and he considered it a privilege to have travelled on numerous occasions to Wembley to many other great stadia in Europe, to watch and report on some of the most triumphant moments in the history of both clubs.
Dave Horridge was one of the original Three Mersey Musketeers of national newspaper sports journalism in 1963, together with the late Derek Potter of the Daily Express and the Daily Mail’s Colin Wood.
That trio, with Dave representing the Daily Mirror, were the first sportswriters specifically appointed by national daily newspapers to cover Merseyside football, a situation that has continued down the journalistic generations.
"Dave had that priceless quality of any journalist - the ability to sense a story," said Colin Wood.
"He was always a lively character and was hugely respected by players, managers and directors in football.
"That applied both on Merseyside, which he covered for the Mirror for more than a decade, and then when he moved for the paper to the Midlands.
"He was trusted by people in the game and, consequently, had a terrific contacts book."
Another of Dave’s colleagues, Mike Ellis, also joined the Mersey football beat in the early 1960s, first for the Daily Herald and, later, The Sun.
He said of Dave: "He was a typical Scouser, always cracking jokes, full of ideas and there was never a dull moment when Dave was around.
"But he was a great news gatherer and was always thinking about the next story.
"Everyone who knew him will miss him and would want to send deepest condolences to his wife and family."
Liverpool FC’s former secretary and chief executive Peter Robinson said: "I’m very saddened to hear the news of Dave’s passing.
"He was not only a trusted journalist but a friend of mine and, also, very highly respected by Bill Shankly.
"When I was appointed secretary at Liverpool in 1965 Dave was very helpful during my settling-in period at the club and, later, he was involved for a while in the writing and production of the club programme.
"Dave was a very sociable guy and on Fridays we would often go together to watch Southport play and then go for a meal or a drink after the match.
"Like many other people did, I enjoyed Dave’s company and he’ll be greatly missed."
An acknowledged soccer expert with a phenomenal memory, he became friends with a list of Merseyside soccer icons, who included Bill Shankly, Ian St John, Roger Hunt and Ian Rush, at Anfield, and Howard Kendall, Colin Harvey, and Alan Ball at Goodison Park.
Wanting a change of scene, Dave later left Merseyside to become the Mirror soccer reporter in the Midlands, a hugely busy soccer 'hotbed' where he saw Nottingham Forest twice win the European Cup.
Although Dave grew up as an Evertonian, his Liverpool supporter father - also Dave - took him as a boy to watch the legendary Billy Liddell’s League debut for Liverpool.
It was a 7-4 home win over Chelsea in September 1946 at the start of a weather-ravaged season which Liverpool ended as League champions.
Dave said: "Shortly after that I entered a competition and won a prize of an autographed picture of Billy Liddell in a heading duel with the great Wolves and England centre half Billy Wright.
"Little did I know then that I would become friends with both of them and, sadly, attend both their funerals."
Dave’s first links with newspapers were forged as a Liverpool Echo photographic messenger.
He sat on the grass behind the goal when Liverpool scored the opening goal of their 2-0 win over Everton in the 1950 FA Cup semi final at Maine Road.
And he saw what the press box missed, as Dave revealed: "They were the days decades before TV playbacks and when Bob Paisley lobbed the ball towards goal the Everton keeper George Burnett went up for it, challenged by Billy Liddell.
"The ball ended up in the net and the reporters assumed that Liddell had beaten Burnett and headed it in.
"But we could see quite clearly that neither of them had touched it and, later, corrections had to be sent out on the wires to say that the goal was Paisley’s."
Dave graduated to become an Echo sports sub editor and among of his tasks - or what he called "labours of love" - was subbing the weekly Football Echo columns for Billy Liddell and the celebrated Everton captain Peter Farrell.
Dave recalled: "Both of them wrote the columns themselves.
"The articles were so well composed they went into the paper virtually as they were written.
"All I had to do was mark them up for type-setting and write headlines for them. Billy’s arrived in long hand on a big sheet of writing paper.
"When I did my National Service I got a letter from Billy in Egypt.
"I think he wrote to take the mickey out of me because within 12 months of enlisting in the Army I was promoted to sergeant.
"When Billy found out he got my military address from the Echo and wrote to me, saying: ‘Do I now have to refer to you as sergeant?’ He just signed the letter ‘Bill'.
"He was such a big star that the other lads didn’t believe it was from him. So I told him and the next time he wrote to me he signed the letter ‘Billy Liddell’."
Dave wrote one of his most most fondly remembered match report intros in April 1964 which read : "I saw Dixie Dean kick off again for Everton last night ......"
The occasion was Dixie’s testimonial match at Goodison Park, some 26 years after the iconic centre forward’s Everton career had ended shortly before the Second World War.
Dave said: "I’d been brought up hearing about Dixie’s fabulous feats so I felt privileged to be there to see him back in the Goodison centre circle setting the ball rolling again."
One of Dave’s Daily Mirror stories is accepted as being instrumental in former Everton player Billy Bingham being appointed Goodison manager in succession to Harry Catterick in 1973.
He reported that Athens-based Bingham, having completed his contract as Greece national manager, was contemplating an offer to return to club management with AEK Athens.
That story prompted an Everton director to bring it to the attention of chairman John Moores and the outcome was an offer to Bingham to become Everton boss.
The rest is history, and Dave Horridge’s niche in the annals of Merseyside football is also an enduring one.
His friend and former colleague Frank Corless said: "Dave was a great man and a much-respected journalist.
"He will be long-remembered for his honesty and skilful reporting, and for his great pride in being an ordinary Scouser who counted himself lucky to get paid to watch soccer history unfold."
Dave, who lived in Greasby, Wirral, with his wife Betty, leaves a son and a daughter.
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