SPORTSMEN and women throughout Wiltshire who knew Mike Bristow are being invited to celebrate his life at Trowbridge Cricket Club next month.

The celebration for the former sports editor of the Wiltshire Times and its sister paper the Gazette and Herald will take place from 2pm on Saturday, September 4.

Mr Bristow, who died on Friday, January 22, was a truly traditional journalist, who joined the Wiltshire Times after leaving school as a teenager, and never worked anywhere else.

He moved from news reporting to covering sport as soon as possible and later took over as the paper’s sports editor.

However, he continued to report on news from Trowbridge for some time, covering Trowbridge Town Council well into the 1980s.

For many years Mike, as he was known to sportsmen and women across the western half of the county, was the Times’ sole sportswriter, covering football, cricket and rugby as well as editing reports from angling to cribbage with aplomb.

Cricket was his greatest love, and he spent many hours watching the game, either professionally or for fun, including making frequent trips by train to Taunton with friends to see his beloved Somerset play.

He had a great sense of humour and was delighted when, in 1994, a friend of his watching England play the West Indies in the Caribbean witnessed Brian Lara’s then record-breaking 375 score: he sent Mike a postcard reading simply 375.

Happily, he later conquered his fear of flying to make his own trip to see the Windies play at home.

He was a regular at Trowbridge Cricket Club and supported Wiltshire Cricket’s efforts to attract top class games to the county, helping steward major games involving international touring sides at the County Ground.

Later in his career, the sports department was expanded and he was responsible for selecting and training reporters, who without exception remember him as a first class mentor, sharp-eyed at spotting ‘mistrakes’, as he called them, and always ready with valuable words of advice.

Mike knew everyone in the sporting world in Wiltshire, with enviable contacts across many sports.

Neil Shardlow, former Wiltshire county wicketkeeper, who Mike persuaded to write a column for the papers for several years, said: “I formed a sporting bond with Mike when he was working as sports editor for the Wiltshire Times and got to know him well throughout my cricket career covering both Corsham and Wiltshire cricket and also local football.”

Mike left the Wiltshire Times with deep regret in 2009, following a merger between the Times and the Gazette editorial departments.

Mr Bristow was married twice, firstly to Celia, which ended in divorce, and then to Christine.

For much of his working life he lived in Hilperton Marsh, Trowbridge, later moving to Devizes.