Yes he is. When I stood next to him at the hotel reception and knew him as Nick Owen, rather than Nick Ross (as he assured me most people confused his name with!) it was the start of a friendship that lasted over the week in Algarve, mostly because of our joint love of football and his wife's interest in cryptic crosswords (I had a website for my crosswords and printed some out for her). It then became an email friendship, again usually concerning football but mostly about Luton's plight.
At the time, Nick's sons were Villa and Birmingham fans due to being bought up in the West Midlands where Nick, originally from Berkhamsted, a place I knew well, worked for the BBC's Midlands Today news programme. A couple of times we were all present at the same Alvor bar where live Premier League football was on TV.