Look who is starring in an unfamiliar role in tomorrow's Financial Times magazine. It's none other than Harry Evans, former Sunday Times editor, playing ping pong. He may be 82, but he looks fit enough while taking on former US and British table tennis champion Marty Reisman, who is a sprightly two years' younger.
Evans reveals that he was a fanatical teenage player and that he once played Reisman in the 1948 English open championships. They started playing together again in Manhattan 45 years later.
Evans was playing his first game since he had his left knee replaced in February. And he is due to have the right one replaced in three weeks.
The sore legs helped the FT's media editor, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, when he took on Evans. But it didn't stop the older man from delivering a crushing smash.
There will undoubtedly be more serious fare to read in the FT's so-called "smart but casual" new-look magazine. But the glimpse of Sir Harold Matthew Evans, editor, historian, newspaper design guru and, of course, still a working journalist, is a pleasure all its own.
