FORMER Sentinel sports journalist Peter Hewitt has died at the age of 76.

He was the newspaper's Stoke City reporter for more than 20 years and then had a spell covering Crewe Alexandra towards the end of his career.

Hewitt, who lived in Alsager, was also a familiar figure on the local cricket scene and was reporting on matches up to last season before poor health forced him into retirement.

Born in the Birmingham area of Harborne, Hewitt started work with an insurance company, but walked out after one day.

Long-standing friend Bryan Palser, from Birmingham, said: "Peter always wanted to be a reporter, even though he was unlike a typical journalist.

"He was the strong, silent type, full of grit, but his writing was excellent."

Hewitt was handed his break by the Birmingham Mail, and he worked on their football papers before becoming a freelance.

He joined The Sentinel in 1967, but was nearly fired – although through no fault of his own – after his first Stoke City match, a 2-0 defeat at Arsenal.

Hewitt was unaware that Jackie Marsh was making his Stoke debut, believing the right-back to be Eric Skeels.

But he had become the unwitting victim of a row between the then Sentinel sports editor, Peter Buxton, and Stoke City manager Tony Waddington, who was not co-operating with the paper at the time.

Buxton told Hewitt on the Monday after the match that he had fought to save him from the sack – yet Hewitt claimed the mix-up had been Buxton's fault all along.

Hewitt went on to cover Stoke City until the resignation of Mick Mills as manager in November 1989.

He took in their epic journey to the League Cup final in 1972 and, as a result of their triumph, their adventures into Europe, as well as their two thrilling runs to the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Alan Hudson, who befriended Hewitt almost from the moment he arrived in the Potteries in 1974, said: "It's very sad news.

"Whenever I think of Peter I think of the good times.

"He was probably the first to meet me off the train from London after Tony Waddington and the then Stoke chairman, Albert Henshall.

"He often used to come around my house to write my Sentinel column and would sometimes stay for tea.

"He was a lovely man, and I would hold him in the highest bracket as a journalist. He was a great ambassador for the club because he was the main writer and wrote about the club with pride.

"The Sentinel stood by him and valued him after he retired, which I am thankful for because he had too much knowledge to let him drift into oblivion.

"People like Terry Conroy and Jackie Marsh would rib him a bit, but he knew his football and was nobody's fool.

"He had a wonderful relationship with Tony Waddington, which I liked. I know Tony held him in the highest esteem."

England's World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks added: "We called him 'Scoop' and would often have a laugh with Peter.

"He was a really nice guy and was trusted by the players because he never wrote anything derogatory and would report exactly what you had said to him.

"It is very sad news and my condolences go to his family."

Former Stoke defender Denis Smith said Hewitt was virtually one of the boys because he spent so much time around the players.

"I got on well with Peter," he said, "and he was always there, like one of the players, because he travelled everywhere with us.

"He never stitched anybody up and so he was always trusted. He had his own way and was never pushy. He would just wander in and ask 'anything for me today', and then you'd ask your own questions, but that was his way and it worked. It was impossible to dislike Peter because he never did anything to upset anybody – and that takes some doing for any journalist."

Stoke City chairman Peter Coates, who joined the club's board in 1985, described Hewitt as a decent man.

He added: "I liked Peter. He was a gentle soul. I always thought he was pretty fair and balanced in his reporting on the club."

Lester Meredith, former long-serving secretary and then chairman of the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire Cricket League, referred to Hewitt's technique of introducing silence into conversations.

He said: "I knew when I answered the phone and nobody spoke it was Peter Hewitt.

"You then felt you had to say something. As a result, you often ended up telling him things that perhaps you should not have done, but he was extremely discreet in what he published. He had a slow, drawn-out way about him, but he always managed to get articles in the paper and people did not realise what a good journalist he was.

"For me, he had an enormous talent as a writer and he was such a nice guy."

Former secretary of the North Staffordshire and District Cricket League, Bob Cherry, added his tribute.

He said: "I always found Peter Hewitt extremely dedicated to his work.

"He put hours and hours into his job, which was a great tribute to his enthusiasm for the game.

"His reports were always very complimentary and, in my opinion, he had few equals, if any.

"He was always very courteous and was a charming person who built a worthy reputation for The Sentinel."

Away from the sporting arena – Hewitt also became the paper's boxing correspondent – he was an active member of the National Union of Journalists and was both father of the Sentinel chapel and chairman of the North Staffordshire branch.

Sentinel editor-in-chief, Mike Sassi, said Hewitt would always be remembered as the man who chronicled arguably Stoke City's greatest era.

"He was explicitly trusted by his readers, his peers and those he wrote about ... and you can't pay Peter a much higher compliment than that," he said.

"He may not have been the most vocal of chaps, but his writing ensured his love of the job came through loud and clear."

When Hewitt retired, his farewell presentation was attended by a host of local sporting stars, including Sir Stanley Matthews, Alan Hudson, Dario Gradi and boxing hero Tut Whalley.

He suffered a heart attack a couple of years ago, which curtailed his cricketing activities, and was waiting for a by-pass operation when he died of a brain haemorrhage in Crewe's Leighton Hospital on Monday.

His wife, June, died in November 2004. They had no children.

Peter Hewitt's funeral service will take place on Thursday, January 22 at St Mary's Church, Alsager (1pm), and will be followed by cremation at Bradwell.