Behind the Lines: Josh Bartholomew

In the first edition of HSC’s new series, Editor-in-Chief Josh Bartholomew goes Behind the Lines and reveals some of his favourite articles from over the year.

Favourite HSC article (written by another writer)

This is a difficult one – there are so many to pick from. I’d probably go for Josh Hood’s interview with Hampton alumnus, Calogero Scannella, from last year’s edition. It offered a really powerful insight into events at a non-league club and was especially revealing as to the group of OH owners’ mindsets.

Special mentions to Paul Wilkinson’s interview with Louis Lynagh in 2018, as well as Vishal Saha’s OH Athletes in America series from last Spring. Both were very enjoyable to read.

Favourite HSC article (written by yourself)

Again, this is quite tricky. I’ll pick my interview with Zafar Ansari from 2019 – it was an absolute privilege to talk to such a high-achieving, intelligent, esteemed Old Hamptonian. He made the process of writing the article very easy with his considered answers!

I’m probably cheating by including special mentions, but I don’t want to leave out the following two pieces. First, my match report of the ESFA Cup final in 2019. Not so much for its written quality (it was written on a rowdy coach back from Shrewsbury), but solely for the occasion. Reporting on Hampton’s first ever ESFA Cup title live was incredible. Also, I didn’t want to fail to mention our Hampton’s Greatest Sporting Moments series from last Summer. It occupied a huge amount of my time in lockdown, but the results were quite pleasing (I thought!).

Favourite sporting article

I’ll probably go for Jonathan Liew’s match report of the Nigeria v Argentina match at the 2018 World Cup. Anything written by Liew is a joy to read, and this is no exception. His prose is often poetic, and he manages to evoke matches in a way that nobody else can.