Are the Fixtures Out? - Gerald Mortimer

Gerald Mortimer retired from his job as chief sports correspondent of the Derby Evening Telegraph in 2002, a post which gained him a unique insight into the affairs of Derby County, and those of Derbyshire County Cricket Club. This is his story. On January 12, 1946, nine-year-old Gerald Mortimer was taken to the Baseball Ground for the first time to see Derby County play Millwall in a wartime league game. Angus Morrison scored three times, Raich Carter twice and the Rams won 8-1. By the end of the season they had won the FA Cup and Gerald watched the victory parade from a window on The Spot. It was the start of a love affair that has lasted for well over half a century. Gerald has been on the inside of it all, as Brian Clough s team marched on in the European Cup, to the dark despair of the club s centenary year when the Rams almost went bankrupt and Derby might have been without a first-class football club. And every year Gerald would ask the same question of both football and cricket clubs: Are the fixtures out The playing programme, summer and winter, was what governed his life for over 30 years