Alan Hoby

Alan John Fraser Hoby (1914 – 15 October 2008) was an English sports journalist, broadcaster and author, who was best known for his regular columns from 1949 to 1986 in the Sunday Express, where he became chief sportswriter. During his career he covered seven Olympic Games, six World Cups and 31 Wimbledon championships.

Early life and career Alan Hoby was born in London in 1914, the son of John Charles James Hoby, Bandmaster of the Royal Marines. He started in journalism at the age of 16 reading proofs in a basement before becoming a junior reporter at the Richmond and Twickenham Times. He moved to The People in the early 1930s and served as a Royal Marine in World War II.

Hoby became close friends with a number of notable sporting figures such as Stanley Matthews and Matt Busby.

Later life and death Twice married, Hoby was a lifelong lover of jazz and was still attending jazz festivals at the age of eighty-nine. He died on 15 October 2008 at a retirement home in Hove, Sussex and was cremated at Mortlake Crematorium in West London.