Warehouse to World Cup: Martin Crowson's unimaginable journalism journey

Martin Crowson woke up from his slumber on a Thursday evening. He put on his work clothes, got in his car and left for another crushing night shift at a wine packing warehouse in Whetstone. 

He had been working 12 hour shifts for the past 8 months, but it felt like it was much longer. A never-ending cycle that he was so desperate to get out of but it felt like he couldn’t..

He drove to work in the dark night, he drove back home in the dark morning. The then 22-year-old was angry about it, “I was fuming,” says Martin but he didn’t have any other options.

The man from Desford, Leicestershire, would often look back at what he thought his life should have been like after graduating from Derby university. 

Countless days during his younger years of writing match reports at Leicester City and giving out pamphlets to classmates at school all seemed like a waste.  Not to mention the 2:1 media and communications degree that he got which was doing nothing but gathering dust. 

One day Martin finally had enough and decided to write an article about his friend at the Leicestershire Cricket Club. He sent it to the Hinckley Times as he was still desperate at a chance of finding work as a journalist.

The editor phoned up Martin. “We really like your story, we’re going to print it,” was the message that Martin got. He was asked if he could do more stories to be published for the newspaper. It wasn’t a way out of the warehouse yet, but it was something. 

Crowson kept writing, even though he wasn’t getting paid for his articles he got eyes looking at them. “It reinvigorated me,” says Martin as he searched for more sports stories. 

The editor phoned him up once again, but this time it was for a permanent role. It was an opportunity that Martin had been begging for and knew he had one chance to escape from the warehouse. 

He went to the interview dressed in his dad’s suit, a dark green jacket with blue chinos. It was a crime against fashion but it was the best that a wine packer could do. 

Martin walked in with hope and he walked out with a job as a journalist. The chance Martin Crowson had wished for during those late night shifts had been granted.

He started off as a general reporter for the Hinckley Times covering council meetings and being at the local courts. The newspaper was only published once per week so Martin got a slow start to his new career. 

The next six years of his life were spent at the Hinckley Times working his way up to being a senior reporter. “I started thinking, is there any way for me to get into this full time,” says Martin, who had started to write sport content, but wanted to write on a more frequent basis. 

Martin’s next step for his career would arrive during one of his cricket matches as his teammate gave him a copy of the Leicester Mercury’s sports magazine, Sporting Blue. However, he was more focused on the fact that he had just gotten out and ended up throwing the magazine on the floor before picking it up and taking it home after the game. 

He then contacted the editor to see if there were any roles that he could fill and surprisingly to him, there was. He was offered an interview and shortly afterwards got the job. 

However, Martin’s time with the Sporting Blue would soon come to an end as the magazine ended up folding and leaving its employees in a difficult spot. For Martin, he was offered another role at the Leicester Mercury as the number two Leicester Tigers rugby writer. Martin accepted without any hesitation. 

In 2007, he would get a promotion to the main rugby writer after the former writer Chris Goddard left the Mercury to join the Tigers. Martin had finally reached the top of the mountain that he wasn’t sure he was gonna be able to climb. 

Every Leicester Tigers match for the Mercury was covered by Martin,  as well as all of the off the pitch action and more. He was the person anyone would go to for rugby news in Leicestershire.

He was even able to go and cover the Rugby World Cup in France and New Zealand for the Leicester Mercury. “It was amazing,” says Martin, who went to France for seven weeks to cover the England team. 

2017 marked Martin’s final year at the newspaper as he moved onto creating a new company called XPR Communications, where he currently works.

Martin never forgot the image of the warehouse where he first worked. Even though it was only for a short period of his life, it was those months working the night shifts where Martin Crowson found his dream. All it needed to start was some blue chinos and his dad’s green jacket.