IN 1980 the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) defied Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and sent a team to the Moscow Olympics, despite her demand for a boycott of the Games.

It fell to the ASA secretary, Durham’s Norman Sarsfield (Echo, July 10), to announce their decision.

As there was no room for a press conference at the ASA’s first floor offices in Loughborough, we journalists had to crowd into the narrow entrance hall to await the outcome.

Norman came halfway down the stairs with the vital piece of paper clutched in his hand. As he started to read the ASA’s official statement (just 18 words long, as I recall) the caretaker came through from the back, jangling his keys.

“You’ll all have to get out, I’m locking up,” he ordered.

So the press conference had to be concluded on the street.

Chris Foote Wood, Darlington.