Ken Oliver, former Guardian racing editor, dies aged 86

Ken Oliver, the Guardian’s former racing editor, has died aged 86, the Guardian reported on 26 August 2026. Tributes have been paid to the Fleet Street veteran and tipster who wrote as "Larry Lynx."

Oliver was the Guardian’s racing editor until his retirement in 2004, concluding a career in racing journalism that included spells at the London Evening News, the Sporting Life, the Sun, the London Daily News and the Sunday People, where he tipped as "Larry Lynx." He also served as editor of Ruff’s Guide to the Turf. The writer of the obituary recalled that Oliver was the racing editor when they joined the Guardian in 2001 and described him as an old-school Fleet Street veteran with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the sport and deep familiarity with the rhythms and traditions of daily papers.

Like many journalists of his generation, Oliver began in the most junior role on a paper; he started out as a teaboy in his teens on the London Evening News, at a time when that title was the biggest-selling evening paper in the world, and subsequently worked his way through the ranks.

"What a great operator he was," Chris Hawkins, a racing writer with the Guardian for nearly 30 years, says. "Nothing ever seemed to faze him. He also loved a pint, a game of snooker and was a great trencherman. I remember one Sunday, we were having the full works for lunch in the Albion. Ken was getting stuck into the roast beef when the landlady shouted out: "Ken, the Dovers are in." He said: "Right, when I finish this, I'll have one. And he did."

"He was the most affable, easy-going person you could ever, ever come across," Dennis Sherriffs, a former Guardian colleague, says. "Ken would never get up or down, it was always smooth as smooth, and then it was: 'Come on Den, let's go for a pint.' As a person, you would not have got a nicer guy. That's how he was with everybody, he was just a nice guy that everybody liked."

Tony Paley, Oliver's successor as the Guardian's racing editor, said: "I owe a lot to Ken and will always be eternally grateful for his faith in me when recommending my application to the sports editor for a place on the racing desk at the Guardian. "What a pleasure it was to be there in the final pre-internet-dominated days when he would always insist on having lunch out when he was on duty. "Totally unflappable, Ken had the most amazing eye for a print edition and could redesign pages in the light of breaking stories faster than anyone I have ever seen. He was kind, had an engaging sense of humour and was always 'the life and soul'. I know he will be very sorely missed by his family, friends and all his ex-colleagues."

In retirement Oliver remained a regular racegoer at West Country tracks, with Wincanton singled out as a particular favourite, and he died a few months after celebrating the 60th anniversary of his wedding to his wife, Sylvia.