Why Terrorists Will Never Destroy our Spirit - Derek Clements' Story

IT WAS the smiles on their faces that struck me the most. As the Kaiser Chiefs brought the BMW PGA Championship to a thunderous conclusion, the rain battered down but all around were a sea of joyous faces, loving every minute of it. Just days earlier a terrorist had brought death to Manchester, ending priceless young lives who had simply been to a concert to watch their idol, Ariana Grande. They would also have watched her with smiles on their faces, joy in their hearts. What sort of an individual can so callously snuff out lives, hopes and dreams in such a shocking manner.

And in Manchester on Sunday night, a crowd of more than 50,000 people smiled their way through a concert organised by Grande to tell the city that nobody will ever forget what happened, that it will never be cowed. It was not an easy night, with Grande and many of the audience spending much of it fighting back the tears. But it was right to hold the concert, and the tone that it struck told the terrorists that this country will never give in and will never be beaten.

And we will not.

Less than 24 hours earlier, seven more people had died as terrorists struck again, this time on and around London Bridge. For me, it was a little too close for comfort. I love writing about golf, but my "proper job" is as Chief Sub-Editor on the sports section of The Sunday Times. The atrocity that unfolded at about 10.20pm on Saturday happened yards from where I work.

As we were putting together reports from the Champions League final and the third round of the Memorial Tournament, yards away people were losing their lives. We became aware of a flurry of flashing blue lights and as we rushed to the window on the ninth floor of our building in the shadow of The Shard, chaos was unfolding on the streets below. We couldn't know the scale of it, but we knew that it was serious.

And then we heard that a colleague who is also a close friend had almost died. He was walking across London Bridge when he suddenly became aware of a white van careering towards him, hitting people as it veered one way and then the other. He leapt out of the way, in the nick of time.

You know the rest, and I have no intention of reliving it here. For me, the consequence was that our building was immediately put into lockdown. Bizarrely, we carried on with our work for a while, realising that, in the grand scheme of things, it mattered not on iota. And when it was done, when the final edition of the paper was put to bed, we could face the magnitude of what had happened - and the fact that we were not getting out of the building anytime soon.

We had to spend the night in work, eventually being allowed out at 7.30am, a full 23 hours after I had originally reported for work. It wasn't an easy night, I can tell you, and when I finally got home on Sunday the tears started rolling down my cheeks. A friend had nearly died, innocent people had died. It was all too close for comfort. 

It is the second time I have experienced such a near miss. On July 7, 2005, I was on the last train into Liverpool Street station before the bombings that left 52 dead, hundreds injured and many people maimed and mentally scarred for the rest of their lives.

Britain recovered from the events of 2005, just as it will from the events in Manchester and London in 2017. 

And if you have been planning to go along and watch the finest golfers in the world playing in the greatest golf tournament in the world - The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale - do not under any circumstances allow these recent events to prevent you from doing so. If you change your plans, the terrorists have won. We must not and cannot ever allow that to happen. By living our lives normally, we will defeat them.