A cold March wind scuttled across the pitch and rippled a small pond in the penalty area until it lapped against the goalposts. Throughout the winter the pitch would be covered with either a foot of water or six inches of snow. Football was a summer game in Matlock.
I had arrived one day to find the ground empty and the pitch flooded. The game had been abandoned and I was the only one who didn't know. 'Oh God,' the studio in Derby grumbled when I told them. 'We haven't got a programme - everything's off. Try and get an interview with Peter Swan.'
The Matlock Town manager and ex-England centre-half had long gone and I left the phone and sat on the perimeter wall. As I tried to think of an answer a small duck landed in the penalty area and swam in and out of the goalposts. He bobbed his head under the water and saluted me with his little feathered rear end.
'I can't find Peter Swan - but I'm going to interview a duck!'
'A what?'
He was the perfect professional. I hung my microphone over the edge of the wall and he swam over to me. ' Excuse me - but what do you think of the conditions today?'
'Quack.'
'So you think the game should have been abandoned?'
'Quack.'
'If you had played today, what formation would you have adopted?'
'Quack - quack.'
'Really?'
'Quack.'
He was wonderful. Every time I stuck the microphone under his beak, he came up with a different line in quacks - some were rather thoughtful with academic overtones, others were incisive, and his sparling personality cut through the language barrier like a knife.
I tried to thank him properly, but he was a modest little fellow and he swam away and pretended to examine the penalty spot. They played the interview four times during the afternoon and on each occasion he sounded better.
I don't know what he's doing now, I hope he moved on to better things - maybe he's with Manchester United. He certainly had the talent, but it all depends on the breaks you get in life doesn't it?
Only those who have had meaningful relationships with a duck will understand the spring that came back into my step as I turned over the memories in my mind and walked back to my car.