Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2017

28 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society twitter: @scloverssociety I must be one of the only people in the world who can honestly say I’ve woken up every morning of my life looking forward to the day ahead - and sometimes not having a clue what’s going to happen. Unpredictability is an elixir of life for me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I didn’t even know I was going to write this article ten minutes ago, but then the heavens opened and I decided cutting the grass can wait! The best example I can give relates to events at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow a couple of years ago. My everyday role was to voice highlights packages of the day’s action, so plenty of swotting up on prone bore pistol shooting, lawn bowls and even power lifting was required. Mornings were free though so on this particular day I took the opportunity of going to Ibrox Park to watch the Rugby Sevens. Out came the All Blacks to face Fiji. I settled back in my press box seat thinking what a wonderful life I had. Well not quite. The mobile went off: “John, we need you back here urgently. There’s an emergency.” That was it. Bang went my morning’s entertainment, and after cajoling a friendly official in VIP Transportation that I was a worthy cause, I was whisked back to the Broadcast Centre, to be met by a very flustered producer informing me “Our boxing commentator has lost his voice - you’re on in five minutes!” What! The only scrap I’d ever seen was in a pub in Featherstone, and here I was going live to millions around the world professing to be an expert on pugilism. The only information I was given was a draw sheet with the names of the boxers, their countries and weight divisions. Nineteen bouts later I was told I could take a break, but was required for the evening session. “When does that start ?” I groaned. “In 20 minutes” came the retort. I ended up covering 71 fights in two days, and either side of two very large glasses of sauvignon blanc decided I had better check my emails. To my astonishment there was one from TVNZ (New Zealand) saying they didn’t know I covered boxing and could I commentate for them at the Asian Games in Korea later that year! That’s how I ended up in Incheon which led to something else coming completely out of the blue. EVERY MORNING By JOHN HELM