A chance late evening stay at the Advertiser has led to the paper breaking the sad news that Andover's own Reg Presley, former lead singer with the Troggs, died at 1pm today after a long battle with cancer.

The 71 year old retired last year after a series of strokes and his passing had not been made public when sports editor Kerry Miller took a call in the news room from Kevin Lewin, an English jounalist working for WENN news network in Los Angeles.

Kevin had spotted something on the Twitter account of David Icke, the self styled spritual healer which spoke of his passing and contacted the Advertiser offices at 9pm, where by chance Kerry was working late. It read: " It is with great sadness we announce the death of Reg Presley who died at home this afternoon. He retired from The Troggs only six months ago after suffering a stroke and then being diagnosed with lung cancer. Reg was best known as the lead singer and songwriter of The Troggs. His songs have sold millions and he was awarded with three prestigious Ivor Norvello awards for writing Love Is All Around which spent 15 weeks at number one and of course everyone's favourite Wild Thing. In later years Reg was an enthusiastic follower of crop circles and the paranormal. He had a great mind and could speak for hours on his theories on crop circles, UFO's and the unexplained. He did much to raise the profile of these subjects on national tv. He was an early follower of David Icke at his earliest talks in Alton Barnes. Along with his friends Colin Andrews and Busty Taylor Reg could often be found investigating crop circles in the area or talking about the unexplained at The Barge. Our thoughts are with his wife Brenda and children Karen and Jay. He was also grandfather to Bradley, Millie, Jazz, Guy and Max. Sleep well Reg x

Kevin was a friend of the family and he contacted them and they confirmed the sad news that Reg had died that afternoon.