Oliver ‘Oli’ Phillips worked for the Watford Observer for 37 years and a further 14 in a freelance capacity after his retirement. He covered more than 2,000 first team matches, including the golden period in the club’s history when the Hornets rose from the depths of the Fourth Division to the highest reaches of the English game under Taylor and Elton John.

He served as Sports Editor and Assistant Editor, writing the club’s official centenary history, and during his later years with the newspaper spent much of his time covering the history of the area, penning the three-volume series Watford in the 20th Century, as well as other popular supplements.

His achievements have been recognised this year; Oli was named as one of the 100 people who helped shape the town by Watford Borough Council and the media suite at Vicarage Road Stadium is to be named after him.

READ MORE

• Former sports editor Oli Phillips dies aged 81

Oliver was born on May 15, 1941, in a nursing home in Upton Road, Watford. It is possible the founder of Watford FC, Henry Grover, who lived opposite, heard his first lusty cries.

He was educated at Shirley House prep school, in Langley Road, and later at Kings School, Rochester, where his father had attended before him.

Encouraged by his parents to start a career in insurance in London, Oliver finally rebelled. He had always wanted to write so applied for and obtained a post as a junior journalist with the West Herts (Watford) Post. Within a fortnight he was writing a weekly record column under the pen name Discat. He remained with the Post until 1968, having reached the position of sports editor four years into the eight-year spell.

He joined the Watford Observer and was also to freelance for various Fleet Street outlets, but admitted he never overcame the ingrained lack of confidence to apply for a job with a national newspaper.

Ironically, in retirement, he was to discover he was well respected in Fleet Street.

Such was Oli’s reputation for journalistic integrity and accuracy, Graham Taylor once wrote in the club’s programme that fans should doubt any football rumour or story unless it appeared in the Watford Observer.

Oli paying a visit to the printing press. (Image: Watford Observer)

Oliver remained local, covering more than 2,000 Watford matches and branching out to write a weekly column on life in general, as well as launching a highly popular nostalgia page. His output was prodigious for he also produced profiles of local personalities and numerous nostalgia supplements and books, as well as writing the official history of Watford FC and a tome paying homage to the club’s outstanding legends.

“I became something of a workaholic or, as my wife Ellie put it, a heart attack waiting to happen,” he remarked.

He rated his greatest work as unearthing the names and backgrounds of those who died in the Sandringham Road V1 bomb in the Second World War - immersing himself in months of research - but he loved writing in general, particularly his popular Just a Word and Just a Thought columns, which mixed opinion, observation and whimsy.

In 1972, he launched the Watford Observer award for Player of the Season and followed up with the Goal, Display and Supporter of the Season.

At one stage Oliver was instrumental in introducing Elton John to Watford FC after advising the star’s management to make a low-profile approach, as chairman Jim Bonser was wary of well-heeled possible benefactors who might challenge his dictatorship.

Oli, whose favourite all-time Watford players were Cliff Holton, Charlie Livesey and Luther Blissett, was there when the two parties met and smiled when Elton agreed to pay £50 to become a Vice President and was subsequently invited onto the board, which had been their original aim.

He spent years trying and hoping he had effectively held the mirror up to show the supporters what was going on at Watford FC but he admitted in retirement that it was not until fans gave him a 90-second standing ovation at Vicarage Road one night, that he realised he “might have struck a chord”.

His sports department produced several who made it to Fleet Street including former Mail on Sunday sports editor Malcolm Vallerius, Alan Lee and Michael Calvin who at different times were voted national sports writer of the year. Then there is the prodigal Andrew French, another success who has returned to the fold as this newspaper’s current Watford FC correspondent.

Oliver addressing the audience at one of the club's awards nights. (Image: Alan Cozzi / Watford FC)

“Watford - the newspaper, town and club - was a drug for over 50 years and I had to break myself of the habit,” he said, explaining his move to France upon his retirement in 2005. He continued to follow the club, however, watching all their televised matches.

He took on a big landscaping project in what he called Oli’s Folly in France but also wrote two novels and a documentary book on the Sandringham Road bomb. Once asked if they were to be published, he admitted he was “too scared to submit them”.

Married with three daughters, he was also ‘grateful’ to be regarded as ‘dad’ to two stepdaughters, and grandfather to nine grandchildren.

“Having young children was my happiest time,” he said.

His childhood idol was Newcastle United’s Jackie Milburn and it was the forward’s style that captivated Oliver and sparked an unpopular fascination for the game in what was a non-sporting household.

Some 30 years later, in the 1980s, his friend, cartoonist Terry Challis, who he introduced to the Watford Observer’s columns, told him to slide in first upon arrival in the press box at St James’s Park. Oli was amazed and elated to find himself sitting next to Tyneside legend Wor’ Jackie who had become a journalist, and they struck up a passing friendship that lasted until Milburn’s death.

On Milburn’s retirement, Oliver had noted the player’s nephew, Bobby Charlton, was setting off on a career and so he became a distant follower of Manchester United but was to be thrilled when Watford first beat the Reds at Old Trafford.

Throughout his life he retained fond memories of Duncan Edwards and Buddy Holly, both killed in their youth in successive Februarys, and became a devotee of Bob Dylan and Dion, owning every record the three singers ever made.

Oli in conversation with former Watford mayor Dorothy Thornhill at the launch of one of the volumes of Watford in the 20th Century. (Image: Watford Observer)

Oli admitted his interest in a writing style had been fanned by Western writer Will Henry and novelist F Scott Fitzgerald.

“I always sought to leave the reader with a sense of irony, something to reflect upon or perhaps cause the hairs to rise on the back of their head as Will Henry did to me back in 1955,” he said. “He had a knack of ending as he had started. That resonated with me as a young teenager and I adopted a similar approach in my career.”

On his 80th birthday, after opening presents in bed, he took the dog for a walk and was amazed his phone kept beeping. He then discovered 27 former players from John Barnes to John McClelland had texted birthday greetings. Later, he took a near six-hour zoom call from his family, plus the likes of Nigel Callaghan and Steve Harrison, along with Luther Blissett who had helped organise behind the scenes.

The evening culminated with a video message from Sir Elton John.

At the end of the day he was inclined to agree with his wife’s summary when she said: “Contrary to what you thought, you must have done something right.”