IT has been a bad year for Blackburn, not just Blackburn Rovers.

With the death of Jack Walker, two of the town's and the club's great supporters have now been lost within the space of a few months, the other being Peter White, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph Rovers reporter.

On the few occasions I spoke with Mr Walker, mostly when I was a young reporter on the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, he was always willing to give his time, if not necessarily the story I was chasing. And who could blame him? The secrets of his success were his.

He was wonderfully modest, polite and patient, not always qualities associated with successful, powerful industrialists.

All Blackburn fans of a certain age will, I am sure, remember standing on the tired old terraces of Ewood Park watching as the club struggled in the lower divisions thinking, as I did, that our team could never stand shoulder to shoulder with the Liverpools, Evertons and Manchester Uniteds. It was nothing more than fantasy to suggest otherwise.

Jack Walker converted the dream into reality and, as a by-product, created a great swell of pride within the town and brought unprecedented interest from outside. It is a terrible loss, regardless of the fact he was known to be unwell, but his legacy remains.

RICHARD SLATER, West Park Road, Blackburn.