Del called me to tell me of his decision to retire. I was sorry to hear it, but not surprised, this ageing business sucks! I last saw him play at Breezy's club in Storbans a few months back, and he was in great form, but access to the upstairs room in the uneponymous Comfort Inn obviously gave him momentary problems.

The first time I met Del was in 1966, when we booked him for the club I helped run in Clacton, and we have been mates ever since. He was always a source of long-suffering encouragement, watching him play improved my clawhammer technique, and we have had many a laugh over the years. In return, I was glad to be able to help him to rescue the first volume of his autobiography from a non-standard word processor package when the computer it was on gave up the ghost.

I'm lucky, he lives not far away from me, so I will still be able to see him, hopefully both socially and on his occasional forays into local folk clubs. There is also a reasonable chance that I may be able to tempt him up to Ashwell (which is only a couple of exits up the A1 from Hemel) in November.

Take it easy, Del, old mate, look after Jeannie and have a long and fruitful retirement - you've earned it!

Alan