COLLEAGUES at the Mid-Devon Advertiser have said their fond farewells to a key player in the newsroom.

Sam Hall first joined the paper in 2014 for what many at the time might have reckoned to be a thoroughly off-putting stint of work-experience.

But the fresh-faced 16-year-old Coombeshead schoolboy really got stuck into the story-chasing game, eventually being persuaded that journalism was for him.

Just a year after his toe-dipping trial he joined his local rag as a fully-fledged junior reporter, quickly learning his trade under the helpful guidance of cynical and world-weary seniors.

Read full story in this week’s paper.