Mike Carey, former Telegraph cricket correspondent with a gift for reportage – obituary

Mike Carey, who has died aged 87, was The Daily Telegraph’s cricket correspondent from 1982 to 1986, a period of upheaval when the game was riven by leading players defecting to play in South Africa.

News stories were becoming increasingly prevalent in the sport and Carey’s gift for reportage, in addition to his understanding of what was going on in the middle of the pitch made him, it seemed, the ideal person for the role.

His knowledge of the game had been gleaned from reporting for an agency in his home city of Derby. His family believed his love of cricket stemmed from his father being a Yorkshireman, and indeed he empathised with players, admired their skills and enjoyed drinking with them in an era when there was much imbibing at close of play and no drunken tales were ever reported.

The difficulty experienced by any successor to EW Swanton, the Telegraph’s formidable cricket correspondent for 30 years, was whether to write in a similar pontifical style or, in changing times, introduce more levity. Carey was a humorous man and had reported for the newspaper under the jokey pseudonym of “Henry Bevington” – a play on the “bevvies” which followed the drawing of stumps – for some years. He wrote wittily and well. Yet in his new position he eschewed humour, telling colleagues that he was writing for “a retired Colonel in Cheltenham”.

Swanton had been succeeded for seven years by his long-serving deputy, Michael Melford, and would have favoured someone from their joint background to take on what was regarded as the plum position in the cricket media. Carey, by contrast, was a trained news journalist from a grammar-school background who wore a cloth cap rather than a pinstriped suit to Lord’s and who did not enter MCC’s committee room. He had, however, established himself in the role when he left the newspaper and went freelance.

Michael John Carey was born in Derby on January 25 1936 – the year, he liked to say, when Derbyshire were county champions for the first time. Alas for him, this was not to be repeated during his lifetime. He was the son of Reginald Carey, a cricket enthusiast who worked in Rolls-Royce’s clerical department as well as compering boxing tournaments, and his wife, Edna.

Carey was educated at Bemrose School in Derby, and after National Service in the Army joined the Derby Evening Telegraph, where he was soon displaying his wit as a writer and his verve at the wheel of his sports car.

He would cast his eye over the scorecard before a match commenced to find ideas for wordplay from among the cricketers listed. He memorably contrasted a Cockney being someone born within the sound of Bow Bells to a Yorkshireman being a person born within the sound of Bill Bowes (the fast bowler). On overseas tours Carey would contribute to the BBC’s Test Match Special commentary team.

Carey was a stubborn man. He loved dogs, especially Labradors, and would take them into press boxes. This was not always appreciated by colleagues, particularly if the dogs had been for a dip in the River Trent. On one occasion at Northampton, an unwary reporter left his lunch tray, provided by the match sponsors, on his chair. Carey’s dog wolfed it down and not long afterwards threw it up.

The Cricket Writers Club soon banned dogs from press boxes. None the less, Carey, who also acted at one stage as Derbyshire’s press officer, was a respected presence on the county circuit on behalf of The Independent after leaving the Telegraph. He was encouraging to young journalists and his match reports, written in a clawed left hand, his fingers vertical to the page in his notebook, dissected a day’s play as well as anybody. In retirement he umpired league matches and for nearly 20 years he was a popular presenter of big-band music for Radio Derby.

Mike Carey, who was unmarried and whose eyesight had markedly deteriorated, died after apparently falling into the River Derwent near his home.

Mike Carey, born January 25 1936, died May 20 2023