Jeff Ballard

Posted: March 5th, 2021

JEFFREY BALLARD, who worked as an editorial clerk on The Sporting Life for more than 20 years, died on August 29 [2020]. He was 72.

Universally known as Jeff, he left the company in 1997 following the paper’s earlier trans­fer across to Canary Wharf.

A shy and private man, he carved out his own niche on the Life, and took in good part his nickname “Rigsby”, after the character in TV’s Rising Damp. Office banter on the Life was sharp, funny, and sometimes cruel, but Jeff gave as good as he got.

Jeff liked a modest flutter, was a Crystal Palace nut, and loved going to Seaford in Sussex for his holidays.

Colleagues remember him fondly and as kind, conscientious and reliable. As one former workmate put it: “The Life was his life.”