A born storyteller and craftsman, Irvine was a journalist of the old school who reported for the Guardian for over 27 years
Photograph: Unknown/The GuardianPhotograph: Unknown/The Guardianavid Irvine, who has died aged 88 after a long illness, was a born storyteller. He reported for the Guardian for over 27 years, first on northern rugby union and cricket and then, for 20 years, as the tennis correspondent.
Irvine was born in Kendal in 1935, and was 17 when he joined the Kendal office of the Lancashire Evening Post. He learned at the knee of Harry Griffin, who wrote the Guardian’s Lakeland Diary for 50 years, and soon found himself reporting on Donald Campbell and his record-breaking feats on Coniston and Ullswater in his Bluebird K7 hydroplane.
It was in 1976, while on holiday in Spain, that Irvine took a call from the editor Peter Preston offering him the role of tennis correspondent, succeeding David Gray. His first of 20 Wimbledons was Virginia Wade’s triumph in 1977, and he would cover more than 70 grand slam events, revelling in the camaraderie of the tennis circuit and rivalry of great players like Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.