The swashbuckling Khalid Ansari, columnist, sports enthusiast and the man who thirty five years ago founded the very paper you are reading, epitomises a certain kind of rugged individual, a man of letters and of the outdoors, someone who is as comfortable in a library as on a squash court.

And like the best of men, he is a loyal friend, has many, and loves nothing better than to spend time in their company.