Return of The Pink as much-missed sports paper makes comeback

The Saturday evening sports paper hung up its boots in the summer of 2002 – but is now making a comeback

Copies of the paper are loaded onto a van for delivery outside the former office building on Market Street

For generations of Edinburgh folk, the mere mention of The Pink sports paper brings back crystal-clear Saturday evening memories.

Queues outside newsagents, chasing delivery vans around town to get hold of a copy, and scanning the match reports and scorelines over a fish supper or Chinese takeaway.

Those living further afield often had copies sent via post. It was an institution; a staple for nearly a century until it hung up its boots in July 2002.

Now, nearly two decades after the last Pink hit the streets of the Capital, the paper is being brought back in your Saturday Evening News as a football nostalgia pull-out, with the first edition this weekend recalling memorable European nights for Hearts and Hibs in the last decade.

Part of the success of The Pink was the incredible effort that went into producing the paper over the course of a Saturday afternoon in an era before computers and mobile telephones.

Reporters would phone in their copy, ringing up the newsroom and dictating the match report in chunks to a copytaker who would take down the words before they were placed on the page.

Come the final whistle, the report would be topped and tailed - given an intro and ending - and the full-time result would be added.

‘What the sports team achieved still amazes me’

John McLellan, former editor of the Evening News during the last edition of The Pink, hailed those responsible for getting the paper out under immense pressure.

He said: "In some ways, Saturday sports finals were ahead of their time by publishing live copy in short takes, like onlin stories and social media today.

"Even a five-minute delay meant lost sales because people wouldn't hang around waiting for papers to arrive, and as most newsagents closed at 7.30 the sales window was very narrow.

"It could be very tense, especially when laptops were first introduced and the whole thing relied on unstable and relatively untried technology.

"As deadlines approached, the language in press boxes could be more industrial than that on the pitch or the terraces.

"What the sports team achieved week in, week out still amazes me."

It wasn't just the professional teams that made the pages of The Pink.

‘You could hear every crunching tackle’

Ice hockey, rugby, racing, bowls, and local football down to primary level were often featured. There will be more than a few men and women out there still hanging onto clippings from old editions featuring their school team, and even more who remember selling copies of The Pink in local pubs or delivering it in their neighbourhood.

Stephen Wilkie, currently Deputy News Editor of the Evening News, had his first brush with The Pink as a 14-year-old, working as a photographer's runner tasked with taking rolls of film back to the office.

"The photographer would deposit a half-dozen rolls of film in your hands after about 20 minutes, and we had to deliver them to one of the darkroom staff so they could make the pages of The Pink in time, and heaven help us if there was anything wrong with the film.

"Our job was simply to ferry it but if there was any damage, or the picture editor wasn't happy with the images we would get the blame.

"The best thing about the job was sitting on the touchline just a few feet from the action.

"You could hear every crunching tackle, the language from the players, and backchat to the referee."

Nothing short of a miracle

Iain Pope, News Editor of the Evening News, first joined the paper in 2000 in the latter years of The Pink.

"The Saturday night sport pinks were nothing short of a miracle,” he said.

"From case room to printing press to the vans, the pinks were often available in the pubs and clubs of the city - no matter which city - before fans had finished their second post-match pint."

Euan McGrory, Editor of the Evening News, said: “Like many readers, I remember The Pink fondly and even have a copy or two from memorable matches tucked away in a cupboard.

“’When are you going to bring back The Pink? is one of the questions I am most often asked as Editor.

“I’m delighted that we are able to do that now, albeit with a nostalgic twist. I hope it brings as many wonderful memories flooding back for you as it has done for all of us who have been working on it.”