Meet the team

Alex Crook (Company Director):

Alex began his career as a trainee sports reporter at the Slough Observer after completing the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) 20-week post graduate newspaper journalism course.

He first started at M&Y as a matchday football reporter while working on the sports desk at the Bournemouth Daily Echo before taking up a full-time position in 2001.

Alex became joint-owner in September 2004 and has helped transform the agency into one of the most respected and successful in the UK.

Football has always been Alex’s first love and during his time at the agency he has built up a reputation as one of the country’s brightest young commentators, working for Premier League Radio, Chelsea FC, Quay Radio and Radio Hampshire among others.

Alex won the Sport Story of the Year category at the 2008 National Association of Press Agencies awards for his exclusive interview with Portsmouth midfielder Pedro Mendes after he was hospitalised by a vicious elbow attack from Manchester City's Ben Thatcher.

Pat Symes (Company Director).

Pat has covered some 1,500 football matches and a couple of years’ worth of days at cricket, county and international, at home and abroad. Pat has also occupied press box seats at rugby, hockey, boxing, badminton, horse racing, dressage, sailing, athletics, tennis, motor racing and, once, a croquet tournament.

In more years than he cares to remember, Pat has covered sport for radio stations up and down the country and has occasionally appeared on television when all else has failed.

In addition he has also worked for many specialist magazines and is Hampshire correspondent for the internationally-famous cricketing ‘bible’, Wisden Cricketers Almanack.

During his many years with M&Y he has seen the agency grow into a broad-based organisation with many contributing facets, making them one of the oldest in the country, and one of the most reliable, respected by all the major news outlets.

James Piercy (News Editor)

James was snapped up by M&Y as a trainee in 2005 and has since developed the news desk to be regarded as one of the most respected and reliable among Fleet Street editors.

A tenacious and passionate journalist, James has broken major stories from the arrest of former Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp to comprehensive court coverage into the deaths at Gosport War Memorial Hospital as well as focusing on the lighter and more human interest side of newspaper reporting.

James is also extremely versatile having also operated as a key part of the sports desk in their ongoing coverage of both football and cricket.

James followed Portsmouth on their maiden UEFA Cup journey around Europe, regularly casts a critical eye over Pompey's ups and downs on local radio as well as documenting the mixed fortunes of the south's other football clubs.

Mike Walker (Chief Photographer)

Mike joined the Portsmouth Evening News in 1966 as a junior photographer

His biggest claims to fame is being chosen as the official photographer for the promoters at the 1969 Isle of Wight Pop Festival that starred Bob Dylan.

Mike also covered the Cod War off the coast of Iceland in 1972 and his pictures were used by British Government at the United Nations
He has been covering his beloved Portsmouth FC for more than 40 years.

Mike joined M and Y in 1979 and started the photographic side of the business. He was joint owner from 1982 to 2004.

Mike has had pictures exhibited at the World Press Picture of the year exhibition in 1968 and 1969

Adam Carroll-Smith (Features Editor)

Adam has been a journalist since 2006, beginning his career reviewing music and films and also supplying features for some of the UK’s biggest golf magazines.

He joined M&Y after graduating from Bath University and more recently Highbury College and has helped transform our features department into one of the most thriving in the country.

Adam’s best features include the girl who is scared of her own kneecaps, which appeared in the Sun and Real People magazine, the 101-year-old who has lived in the same house all his life, taken up by the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph as well as TV stations and magazines all over the world, and the couple who have been married for 80 years, which made a splash in the Daily Express.

© M&Y News Agency 2009-1010 - 023 9282 0311