THE technology of the Web reaches into the most remote corners of the world.
This is good news for Examiner reader and fervent Town fan Richard Fox who in the past has had to wait months for word from Huddersfield.
Richard has been living for nearly a year now in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.
He works as an accountant but has turned his hand to teaching English and wouldn’t have been unhappy if sport – golf, cricket or football – had offered a professional post.
Richard was born in Huddersfield in 1956 to Ken and Celia Fox, lived on Wakefield Road, Lepton, for almost 10 years and attended Lepton County Primary School.
His family emigrated to South Africa in July, 1966, half way into the World Cup.
“I followed the remaining matches including that epic final win on the ship’s daily news updates,” said Richard.
“My dad watched hundreds of Town, Fartown and Lascelles Hall games from 1944 onwards and instilled a great love of all sports in me.
“I played three games for Lascelles Hall juniors in 1966 and still have the membership card.
“I was next to the touchline watching Billy Boston play for Wigan against Huddersfield at Fartown in 1963.
“Naturally, I am a Town nutcase, watching them for the first time with my dad in the 1964/5 season beating Coventry City 2-1 at Leeds Road and also remember Tony Leighton scoring in a 1-1 draw against Wolves not long before we left for South Africa.”
In South Africa Richard was fortunate enough to receive a university education.
In that balmy climate he found it possible to indulge in a variety of sports too – including cricket, tennis, football, rugby, squash and golf.
“One of my great ambitions was to play cricket for Yorkshire in the days when being born in Yorkshire was a prerequisite, but was never good enough. However, I did catch Mark Benson on the boundary, was hit for an enormous six by Ashley Harvey-Walker, was a Graham McKenzie victim and even bowled to Willie Watson in League cricket matches I played in Johannesburg.
“What a remarkable game cricket is when you can have the privilege to play against players who played internationally in such different eras.”
After graduating with a B.Com degree from Wits University in Johannesburg in 1978, Richard joined AECI Ltd (part of the ICI Group) and worked as an internal auditor in his new home town of Sasolburg in the Free State, SA.
Five years later he became a management accountant at the AECI Modderfontein Factory in Johannesburg where he met his wife, Namibian-born Lizette.