LOVE them or hate them, Eddie and Stevo are a rugby league institution – but the famous commentating duo’s dynasty on the airwaves is coming to a close.

Mike Stevenson will be retiring from media duties on Sky Sports at the end of the 2016, bringing to an end an iconic partnership with Appleton resident Eddie Hemmings.

The pair are now releasing a book chronicling their 28-year rugby league adventure.

Eddie said: “Stevo is 70 in January and he’s going to hang up his microphone, so we came up with the idea that we should do a book together.

“It’s basically about how we met and some of the stupid and ridiculous stories and things that we’ve got up to over the years.

“I think I’m going to miss him greatly – when he’s had his health problems recently and he’s not been there it’s like I’m missing my right arm.

“You don’t feel like you’re going to work – you have a chat with your mates and for 80 minutes you shout at the pitch.

“A lot of people don’t like it, but a lot of people love it and I guarantee once Stevo’s gone people will talk about him in the same sort of terms that they talk about Eddie Waring.”

There are countless memorable moments from the pair’s distinctive rugby league coverage, but Eddie chose Stevo getting bitten by an ostrich while filming at Knowsley Safari Park and the famous Wide to West try as his best moments.

But Eddie also recalled a prop-based mix up involving Warrington Wolves in the 1990s.

He said: “It was at the old Wilderspool Stadium, where you had to go up and down the ladder on the Snookers side to get to the commentary box.

“In those days there were no squad numbers and after the game there was an old boy underneath the ladder waiting for us and he said we’d got the props the wrong way round.

“We had Mark Hilton playing in number eight and Gary Chambers playing in number 10 but they were the other way round.

“For 80 minutes we’d called Hilton Chambers and Chambers Hilton.”

Eddie’s first job in journalism was with the Warrington Guardian, having joined the paper as the Culcheth district reporter at the age of 18 in 1968.

He added: “I once interviewed a psychic who predicted that the world would end in 1999 – it didn’t happen but my world will end on October 8 when Stevo goes.

“It’s been great fun and I feel blessed to have been involved for this length of time – it’s been a blast from start to finish.

“Super League on Sky will continue but without a shadow of a doubt it will be different and I’ll miss him dreadfully because it’s a unique relationship – I don’t think it will be the same somehow.”

Eddie and Stevo will be signing copies of It’s Been Grand, Now It’s Final in Waterstones in Golden Square Shopping Centre on Saturday September 24 between 1-2pm.