Frank Keating: a celebration – in pictures

Around 450 people gathered in central London on Tuesday to celebrate the life and work of the legendary Guardian sports writer Frank Keating, who died in January aged 75. Keating first worked for the Guardian in 1963 before a period working in television. He rejoined the Guardian in the mid-1970s and was still writing a column for the Observer up until he was taken ill at the end of last year. Photographer Tom Jenkins was at Senate House in the University of London
Photograph: Jeff Morgan

Paddy Keating kicked off the evening. 'M’dears …' he began, using his father’s style to address the audience of family, friends, colleagues and readers. Paddy said Frank 'would not have wanted us to mope or be sad' and later revealed a life lesson he had learned from his dad: 'It’s more important to be happiest than best'
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

The first of the panel discussions was chaired by Paul Johnson, centre, deputy editor of Guardian News & Media, who recounted a tale Keating wrote in the Spectator in 1991, about a certain CB Fry and an unfortunate misprint. Read the piece here
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Guardian cricket correspondent Mike Selvey, left, said Frank was inspirational in helping him find his voice when he made the transition from cricketer to journalist, and warmly added that 'no one did or does nostalgia better than Frank'. Patrick Collins, chief sports writer of the Mail on Sunday, right, added: 'Some call sport a "glorious irrelevance". Frank accepted the irrelevance but brilliantly did justice to the glorious side of sport too'
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

John Samuel, left, was the Guardian sports editor who brought Frank back to the paper in the 1970s and wrote the Guardian’s obituary of Frank in January. 'Frank was writing in the early era of colour television and we found people started to want more colourful writing,' he said. 'Frank certainly supplied it and built quite a following'
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Actor Christopher Douglas delivered a number of excerpts of Frank’s work during the evening, including this glorious description of 'Blanco's try' at Twickenham in 1991
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Video segments highlighted Frank’s TV work, from documentaries (one about the 'new phenomenon' of corporate hospitality at sporting events) to candid interviews with the likes of Bobby Charlton, Stirling Moss and Mary Peters in their own homes. There was also a surprising appearance on Call My Bluff, in which he foxed the former Watchdog presenter Alice Beer with what was a correct definition of the word 'rype'
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

From the floor Jim Pople and Steve Minchin (with microphone), colleagues from Frank’s TV days, asked: 'Was the pen mightier than the cathode?' They also said 'it was sometimes difficult to find pictures to fit his words' – a tribute to a man who was already writing in pictures
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Observer writer Eddie Butler gave a player’s perspective. Frank had covered matches and interviewed Eddie in his days playing for Pontypool and Wales. 'The players wanted the sport to be the way he described it. The reality is very different – it’s agony out there. But Frank cut through the pain and portrayed sport in a way that was appealing to everybody.' Matthew Engel, left, looked into the audience and said: 'Not every sports journalist gets a gathering like this …' He also drew a comparison with Neville Cardus and said both, in their different ways, 'totally changed the way sports journalism in the "posh papers" was conducted'
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Alastair Hignell, who played rugby for Bristol and England and cricket for Gloucestershire before working for BBC Radio, paid his tribute to a friend and colleague and added drily: 'We were very fond of journalists who took us out for a drink. In those days players were poor and journalists had an expense account. Things have changed rather since then …'
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

Former England captain Graham Gooch, right, said he selected Frank to ghostwrite his autobiography 'not because I wanted him to convey my words, but because I wanted him to tell my story in his words.' His former opening partner for England, Mike Atherton, left, now the Times cricket correspondent, said he always looked out for Frank's writing during and after his playing career. 'It was a wonderful era to be a writer,' he added. 'Frank’s book Another Bloody Day In Paradise!, on the 1981 tour, could not be written now. There is not the same proximity between players and the written press'
Photograph: Tom Jenkins

We plan to bring video highlights of the evening to theguardian.com in due course, while Matthew Engel is editing The Highlights: The Best of Frank Keating for publication by Guardian Books in 2014. Until then you may be interested to read Matthew Engel's tribute to Frank ... and here is Frank remembering his own Guardian career
Photograph: Tom Jenkins