Sid Waddell has bittersweet memories of pit life

Mar 13 2009 by Michael kelly, The Journal

In his new book, miner’s son Sid Waddell pays heartfelt tribute to his parents whose sacrifices made him what he is today and laments the loss of the mining communities devastated after the year-long strike. Mike Kelly reports.

IT’S hard to imagine it, but darts commentator Sid Waddell’s North East accent becomes even more pronounced when he talks about his mining roots and his pride in his parents.

Sid, a Cambridge graduate whose voice is one of the most Ellington Colliery, Northumberland, a dangerous job at the best of times, but he had the most treacherous in the pit, that of coal face driller.

Sid said: “He didn’t dig or shovel the coal. He took the props down and sorted out the roof support. He had to get it right. About two to three people were killed a year by a random fall of stone.”

With the more dangerous job his dad got a higher wageinstantly recognisable on TV, is the first to acknowledge he would not be what he is today without their selfless support.

His father, Bob, worked down the mines at .

Supplemented by mum Martha’s work cleaning at Lynemouth Social Club they were able to put Sid and his brother Derrick through King Edward VI School in Morpeth.

“They didn’t want us to go down the pit. Thanks to their incredible support I have enjoyed a better material life.”

Sid stressed the phrase “material life” as he remembers fondly the sense of community around the Northumberland pit where, it seemed, almost his entire family worked.