A tribute to my life-long pal

By Philip Evans

In a long career in journalism I have written dozens of obituaries and delivered eulogies for many of this area's good and the great. I've shed a good many tears in doing so.

But none has distressed me more than having to report that my life-long friend, Stuart Broom, died in a hospice last week, peacefully and surrounded by his family, aged 74.

I have stared at this blank page for what seems like an age trying to conjure up the words that will do him justice. 

There aren't any. For Stuart - Broomer or Big Stu - was the best friend a man could ask for.

A few shallow words seem so inappropriate. So inadequate. So dreadfully difficult to transfer them into print.

His passing after being diagnosed as having advanced pancreatic cancer came incredibly quickly, devastating his family and friends and all who admired and respected him, especially among the sporting fraternity of West Dorset.

Can it be just four weeks ago he sat next to me at the Davey Fort, as I covered for this newspaper a Lyme Regis match, the club we both played for from the age of 14?

As always, Stuart was detailing each move to make sure my report was accurate. At the time, of course, we had no idea that would be the last time he would see his beloved Seasiders.

Stuart was the youngest son of Gordon and Betty Broom. Gordon was a more gentle soul and Betty a strong character with a heart of gold. They were great friends with my mum and dad and we grew up just ten doors from each other in Anning Road in the days when your front door was never locked and we knew all our neighbours.

Stuart and I both attended St Michael's Infants and Junior School, each gaining the 11-plus somewhat miraculously and moving up to the Grammar which turned into the Woodroffe comprehensive when we were in year three. Neither of us were great scholars but we were good at sport and enjoyed our first success in the Junior School when we won the West Dorset Schools Six-a-Side tournament.

Our first football success - winning the West Dorset Schools Six-a-Side tournament. Back row - Stuart, Andrew Rowe, Michael Case. Front row - Raymond Turner, me, and Malcolm Kennaugh

Stuart was always a big lad but I was a skinny nipper and experienced a good deal of bullying in our first term at big school. It soon stopped, however, when they realised Stuart was my best mate.

Neither of us were great academics and we spent most of the time dodging lessons to get into the gym for a game of five-or-side or working in the school's print shop producing tickets and programmes for school events, a good skive!

Inevitably, we flunked our O-levels and had to go back to school to retake them. They created a new form for us - 6R - and put us up in the roof in Room 16. It was weeks before they came up with a time-table.

We both managed to get the minimum of qualifications to leave school and start a career - me in newspapers and Stuart joining Bridport Gundry. 

Football was our main interest. During school holidays we would spend hours on the Anning Road playing field seeing how long we could keep the ball up by heading it to each other. In a bid to reach our record of 372 we would drift near to the roadside to take advantage of the street light and often one or other of our parents would come out to find us.

We both signed for Lyme at the age of 14 and Stuart got a place in the first team at 15, possibly Lyme's youngest player ever. He went on to captain the first team, play for Dorset boys' club and the Perry Street pick-of-the-league.

We drifted apart as our careers took different trajectories but kept in regular touch. Stuart got married to his childhood sweetheart, Janette (nee Smith) and I was best man at their wedding. Marriage and the arrival of children prompted Stuart to finish his footballing days as family became his principal focus. He was hugely proud of his twins - Dan and Julia - and his grandchildren who dominated his latter years.

When he got a little weary of travelling all over the world for successors to Gundry's, he decided to try his hand at journalism, becoming a very good sports writer. He also worked for me managing my Bridport office.

Although he never forgot his Lyme routes, Bridport became his home and he was highly respected in the community, becoming a Rotarian and helping out Dan in his role of founder of the successful Jurassic Fields music festival.

Stuart's funeral will take place on Monday, December 19 at 1pm in St Mary's Parish Church in South Street, Bridport.