Blogs - Newsroom and Reader Blogs from the Times Series

Dennis Signy OBE is bravely entering the blogosphere — he describes himself as a 'dinosaur' when it comes to technology.
He was a former wartime cub reporter on the Hendon and Finchley Times at £4-a-week and became group editor for 17 years in the late Sixties. He served in Intelligence Corps as a Sergeant in Forties and learned to drive up the Khyber Pass.
He was a football writer in national newspapers for five decades, is author of several football books and former general manager of Brentford FC, former chief executive of Queen's Park Rangers FC and former chairman of the Football Writers Association.

Writing a best-seller for glory

When I wrote A Pictorial History of Soccer in 1968, with a foreword by George Best, the publishers rang a few days before the book came out to tell me that the advanced sales were 25,000 copies.

Man bites dog - that's news

Man bites dog is news. That's the ultimate test newspaper folk have used over the decades to justify stories appearing in print.

Dorian Gray going wrong!

Every day I pass this portrait photo hanging in the hallway of our apartment and take note of this pleasant looking middle aged former editor in a smart dark blue suit and a white shirt -- then have a reality check face to face with the updated me in the mirror in the bathroom.

Much ado about nothing-nothing

A renowned football writer of my acquaintance many years ago drew breath at the final whistle of a dire goal-less match and penned what should have been an immortal intro on his report to his daily paper: "Much ado about nothing-nothing".

Sunshine and smiles for Barnet

A foggy day in London Town early on Saturday ended with sunshine and smiles in Cleethorpes at around 4.50pm with Barnet FC winning their first game of the season against Grimsby Town with a solitary goal.

Stiff upper lip time

There's not much to smile about at the moment with Barnet FC having lost six out of seven of their League 2 games this season and already having been eliminated from two Cup competitions.

My 'distinguished' army service

Followers of the Signy Story probably know by heart how I learned to drive on the Khyber Pass and was for some while the sole representative of the British Army on the Afghanistan border — but I have never written or boasted about acquiring the Distinguished Service Medal or the Burma Star.

What's in a name?

The Barnet FC programme for the sell-out pre-season game against Arsenal announced that the PR consultant to the board was Dennis SLIGNY.

Speeding to my own funeral

Those of you who see me poodling along Totteridge Lane in my Toyota at a steady 30 mph — with cars impatiently overtaking and zooming away over the horizon — probably have me marked down as a boring law-abiding senior citizen.

I'm sponsoring the 2012 Olympics

Soon after I got my demob suit in 1948 and slid seamlessly back into my role as a fire engine-chasing young reporter, I was sitting in the Times offices in Church Road wondering where my next scoop was coming from.