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The Graham Beecroft Q&A Interview
Exclusive to talkSPORT1089.co.uk

Graham Beecroft's sporting career comes in the I played against him category.
He was a full-back turned centre-half in the West Cheshire League and the
Birkenhead Sunday League. Peter Davenport was just one of the players who
gave Graham the runaround on a regular basis.

Home is on the Wirral, and Graham's broadcasting career has been based in
Liverpool, as sports editor at the BBC and independent radio stations there. He's
commentated on European Cup finals and Everton's Cup Winners Cup final, and
travelled around Europe with the great Liverpool and Everton teams of the eighties.

How long have you been working for talkSPORT, how did you get your job
at the station and what was youe initial role at talkSPORT?
I have been at talkSPORT since August 1998 when I left Radio City in Liverpool to
work purely on a freelance basis. I sent in a cassette of some of my work to Jim
Brown, who I knew from EMAP, which owns Radio City, and a lot of other local radio stations around the country. I guess my timing was right because Jim and Mike Parry felt they could use me and of course I still work for them now on the same freelance basis.

You have worked for a number of radio stations in Merseyside, including the BBC and commercial, who exactly did you work for and what were your roles at these stations before joining talkSPORT?
I began as a broadcaster after working on an unpaid part-time basis for BBC Radio Merseyside. I then got a full-time position there in 1982, became sports editor after a time and then moved to Radio City as editor succeeding Clive Tyldesley in 1989. Eddie Hemmings, Sky's Rugby League man, gave me my full-time break.

You were nominated for Sports Broadcaster of Year in the Sony Radio Awards in both 1985 and 1986 whilst based in Liverpool. Can you give us more details on how this happened?
I have been nominated for the final three of the Sony Awards as Sports Broadcaster of the Year on two occasions in 1985 and 1986. On the first occasion it was won by Peter Jones (almost an iconic figure on BBC Radio 2 which used to carry all the BBC's sports coverage prior to Five Live). I can't remember who won the award in 1986. To reach the final a sample of your work is submitted to a selection panel, who select the final three. A further judgement is made and the winner announced at a dinner at the Grosvener Hotel.

After working in the sport for BBC Radio Meseryside, Radio City and talkSPORT, you will have interviewed a great number of people. Who has been the biggest name to date that you have interviewed in sport?
The biggest name I've interviewed? That's a difficult one. There have been so many different names from different sports. Of the top of my head, maybe Pele who was in the country in 1996 on a promotional tour prior to the European Football Championships. That interview took place in Wigan via a connection with Dave Whelan sports' business, who is now Chariman of Wigan Athletic Football Club.

Probably the most important interview I did was with Leonhart Johanssen, the UEFA president, in 1990. He was in the country to announce that England would host Euro 96. But Liverpool, unlike other English clubs, were still banned from Europe following the Heysel Stadium disaster. I asked Mr Johanssen what Liverpool needed to do to be allowed to return. I passed on the interview to Peter Robinson, the Liverpool Chief Executive, and from that Liverpool successfully reapplied to rejoin European football competition, probably getting back in earlier than they might have done otherwise.

You have worked along side a lot of big names at talkSPORT including Ian St. John, Alvin Martin and Tony Cascarino. What does it feel like to work with such legends from the game?
Working alongside people like Ian St John, Alvin Martin and Tony Cascarino is easy, because I think they regard you as a team-mate on the radio. There are no airs and graces, you both rely on each other to make a good programme. When I was younger and new in the job I might have been somewhat overawed I suppose, but experience and confidence in your own ability gets over any such problems.

You and Tony Cascarino filled in for Alan Brazil and Mike Parry on The Sports Breakfast recently. Was it an honour to host a national radio breakfast show and to fill-in for Brazil and Parry?
Yes I thoroughly enjoyed working on the Breakfast Show with Tony and you're right it was a great honour. But there was one down side and that was getting up early in the morning! To read the papers thoroughly and run through the programme schedule I was up between 3:30am-4:30am and when you're not used to that you start developing Stan Ternant bags under your eyes! Over two weeks you can't adjust properly to a new sleep pattern. My beauty sleep, so important to working on the radio, was wrecked!

You have covered a number of top sporting events and fixtures for talkSPORT over the last few years whist at the radio station. Which would you say was the best one and most enjoyable of all?
Again difficult to pick one event above others: I've been fortunate enough to be at several world title fights but Lewis v Tyson in Las Vegas for the World Heavyweight Championship is difficult to beat because of all the stories that surrounded the contest. The pre-fight press conference punch-up, the story I got exclusively that Tyson had gone to Lennox' hotel room to threaten him before the fight. The whole thing was surreal... and the world heavyweight boxing championship is like no other sporting contest - it's the ultimate gladiatorial confrontation. Another highlight was going to Rio for the one and only World Club Championship. During time off it was tough to decide whether to go the Ipanima or Copacabana beach!

You have been to a great number of matches in the Premiership, Football League and in the Champions League since you have been at talkSPORT. What has been the best match you have seen for talkSPORT?
The best match I've watched for talkSPORT is a difficult one, I've seen so many. But I'd pick out two,both from last season: Grimsby 6-5 Burnley which speaks for itself, and Wales 2-1 Italy at the Millenium Stadium in a Euro 2004 Qualifier. For passion and atmosphere, apart from the result, that was superb.

You have commentated on a few games on Premiership Live in London. Would you like talkSPORT to get more live broadcast rights so you could commentate on them or are you happy with reporting?
I really enjoy commentating on the London opt-out for commentaries on Fulham, Spurs and Chelsea. Jim Proudfoot is talkSPORT's number one commentator, so he does all the games unless there's a 'double-header when I've been lucky enough to be drafted in to help out. Commentary rights these days are very expensive so in the present economic climate I don't see the station expanding in that respect. I enjoy reporting on games as well, but I'd rather commentate to be honest.

In your time at talkSPORT, you have been employed in a number of different roles including presenter, reporter and commentator. Which role do you prefer and why?
Presenting is more difficult I feel than commentating. I enjoy both, because both are a challenge. But when you're commentating you're at a game and not sitting surrounded by four walls, so there's all the atmosphere and the excitement of what the station is basically all about. You can't beat actually being at a sporting event and I enjoy presenting most when I'm on site, as I was at the Open Golf Championship this year. But I do feel that presenting a good show, paradoxically, is probably more satisfying than doing a good commentary, that's what everyone tells me anyway. I'll let you know when it happens!

You are the voice of Sport or Nought on the Hawksbee & Jacobs show. How did you feel when you were asked to to the voice for the Sport or Nought game?
The Hawksbee and Jacobs voice-over is just a bit of a laugh obviously. I did have slight reservations when I was asked to do it but it's amazing how many people rib me about it.

You worked as Youth Development Officer for Tranmere Rovers in the 1970's, did you discover any players that we may have heard of and were you proud of your achievements?
I was the youth development officer for Tranmere Rovers during the late 1970's until 1980. I got the job when, along with a friend, we recommended a boy called Bobby Tynan to their chief scout Walter Skinner. He watched Bobby, who used to play in our Sunday League team although he was only 15, and signed him on schoolboy forms immediately.

Bobby was the cousin of Tommy Tynan, also from Liverpool and also a striker, who went on to make a name for himself with Plymouth Argyle, although in my opinion Bobby was much better player. Surprisingly he moved from Tranmere to Blackpool for about �100,000, which wasn't a bad fee at the time, but still undervalued him and I felt it wasn't exactly a smart career move. Sadly Bobby got a severe knee injury before the season proper started and never played League football again. But, believe me, Bobby Tynan was a natural goalscorer who could have played at top division level.

Anyway Walter Skinner retired and recommended me to take over the youth development side of things, which I did on a part-time basis until cost-cutting meant that one of Bryan Hamilton's first acts when he took over as the manager, was to chop the whole system. Sad when you consider it had produced players like Tynan, Derek Mountfield, Steve Coppell and Ray McFarland. I always felt that there was still progress to be made, but among the players who came through at that time were Ian Woan (ex Nottm Forest), Ray Woods (ex Coventry City) and Paul Mason (ex Ipswich and Aberdeen).

Do you currently take part in any sports and who were your sporting idols as a child? Have they influenced your broadcasting career in sports radio at all?
I used to play football both on a Saturday and a Sunday before a broadcasting career got in the way. I played at centre-half or right back or occasionally in midfield, but I was always better moving onto the ball, than trying to scamper around in the middle. Played and lost in the final of the Cheshire Amateur Cup, but that level was about the upper limit of my ability. I captained my non-cricketing school at cricket. Not a bad swimmer and I really enjoy the sport, though I don't compete. I now play golf to a poor standard, but I am improving and try to play at least once a week. The club golf pro said I should cut a foot or so off the length of my clubs so I could get them in the bin!

I didn't really idolise anybody as a youngster, but among the footballers who were my favourites were a centre-forward called Alex Young who played for Everton, he was known as the' Golden Vision', Ian St.John and Peter Thompson of Liverpool and another centre-forward called John Manning, big and strong, nicknamed the 'Dashing White Eagle' of Tranmere Rovers. Defenders: Ron Yeats and Brian Labone (Liverpool and Everton).On the world scene: Pele and Eusebio. Non footballers: Muhammed Ali 'the Greatest' and Sugar Ray Leonard, two of the best, if not the best boxers of all time. I'd also have to say Red Rum too, the greatest horse in the history of the greatest steeplechase.

What was the last CD you purchased?
It was either the Best of Earth Wind and Fire or the Best of the Dells. I'm a soul music fan. If I was to buy a CD of a current artist, it would be Eminem, his stuff will be reading for GCSE English in years to come - honestly!

Have you read any good books recently?
The only chance I get to read these days really, is on holiday. Half-way through Mike Atherton's autobiography, but that will probably now have to wait until next summer to be finished. I enjoy poetry so tend to dip into books like Selected Poems by Robert Graves and the Oxford press selection of War Poems. Still waiting for the publication of My Predictions and Why I Still make Them by M Parry. Most of my reading tends to be the sports pages of the newspapers.

Thanks to Adrian Durham for helping us get in touch with Graham Beecroft. Thanks to Graham also for the chance to interview him. You can hear Graham on Football First weekdays from 7:00pm and Saturday's from 2:00pm on talkSPORT.

The Graham Beecroft Q&A Interview
Football First Around the Grounds
August 2003