'MOTTY' SAYS GOODBYE
Posted on: Sun 29 Jun 2008
By Matt Cecil
Legendary BBC commentator John Motson will call time on his career in major tournaments this evening as Euro 2008 draws to a close with the final between Germany and Spain, and we take a look back at the time that 'Motty' made a memorable appearance at Adams Park way back in 1990.
However, nobody here at wwfc.com could do that story justice, so we've reproduced the article that Motson kindly wrote for the Wanderers' matchday programme against Barnet on New Year's Day last season:
BE MY GUEST
BBC commentator John Motson shares his views.
Christmas was not the only thing I celebrated last month. One Saturday in December marked the 17th anniversary of the day that quite inadvertently changed my career In fact, it took just a few seconds for a chance photograph to do just that - and it happened at Adams Park.
The second round of the F.A. Cup that season paired Wycombe Wanderers - then of the GM Vauxhall Conference - with Peterborough United, who were pushing for promotion from the old Football League Division Four. Earlier that year, I had been the BBC commentator on England's World Cup semi final against Germany in Turin, but Italia '90 was a distant memory as I prepared my notes on two clubs whose players were somewhat less familiar.
The sun was shining on a pale winters morning as I left my home in St. Albans and cruised round the M25 and the A40. As I turned off the big roundabout just outside Wycombe it started to snow, and by the time I reached the smart new stadium down the valley there was a light covering on the ground.
Between my arrival at around 10 o clock and the interview I was scheduled to do with Wycombe manager Martin O'Neill for Football Focus at half past twelve, that light covering became a drift. The referee arrived around midday and promptly called the game off. The "Grandstand" editor told me to stand O'Neill down, as there was to be no game, face the camera myself and explain the reason for the sudden postponement.
What I did not know, as I stood in my sheepskin coat holding a microphone and huddled against the cold, was that an enterprising young photographer named Stuart Clarke was standing with his camera just behind the BBC crew who were facing me.
I delivered my piece to Grandstand without ever knowing he was there, until a few weeks later he sent me a copy of the picture and asked my permission to use it in an exhibition of his work entitled "The Home of Football".
A few years later, Stuart produced a wonderful series of postcards depicting typical scenes from football grounds, he sent me so many copies of "Reporting From the Ground, Wycombe Wanderers 1990" that I still use them as Christmas cards 17 years later.
Quite why that photograph did more for me than Gazza's tears a few months earlier, I will never know. But it made me synonymous with sheepskin coats, for which I will always be more recognisable than for any of my commentaries!
I wish I had a few quid for every time somebody has asked me "where were you when they took that picture in the snow?" Things have certainly moved on since then, not just for me, but for Wycombe Wanderers and for Martin O'Neill.
When that cup-tie was rearranged, I came back to Adams Park to commentate on the 1 -1 draw, although Peterborough won the replay 2-0 at their London Road ground.
O'Neill's team finished fifth in the Conference at the end of that season, when the champions were today's opponents Barnet. And therein lies another connection in my life as a reporter.
As a callow 18-year-old in 1963 I started my Journalist career as a trainee on the weekly Barnet Press. Starting in the Athenian League reporting Finchley, I eventually graduated to watching Barnet in the Southern League.
Little did I realise that they, like Wycombe, would one day aspire to the dizzy heights of the Football League.
I always make sure I squeeze in a couple of trips to Underhill during the course of a season - usually on my rare Saturday off - and I still manage one visit to Wycombe where I saw the match against Grimsby a few weeks ago.
Thankfully, it wasn't snowing!
Legendary BBC commentator John Motson will call time on his career in major tournaments this evening as Euro 2008 draws to a close with the final between Germany and Spain, and we take a look back at the time that 'Motty' made a memorable appearance at Adams Park way back in 1990.
However, nobody here at wwfc.com could do that story justice, so we've reproduced the article that Motson kindly wrote for the Wanderers' matchday programme against Barnet on New Year's Day last season:
BE MY GUEST
BBC commentator John Motson shares his views.
Christmas was not the only thing I celebrated last month. One Saturday in December marked the 17th anniversary of the day that quite inadvertently changed my career In fact, it took just a few seconds for a chance photograph to do just that - and it happened at Adams Park.
The second round of the F.A. Cup that season paired Wycombe Wanderers - then of the GM Vauxhall Conference - with Peterborough United, who were pushing for promotion from the old Football League Division Four. Earlier that year, I had been the BBC commentator on England's World Cup semi final against Germany in Turin, but Italia '90 was a distant memory as I prepared my notes on two clubs whose players were somewhat less familiar.
The sun was shining on a pale winters morning as I left my home in St. Albans and cruised round the M25 and the A40. As I turned off the big roundabout just outside Wycombe it started to snow, and by the time I reached the smart new stadium down the valley there was a light covering on the ground.
Between my arrival at around 10 o clock and the interview I was scheduled to do with Wycombe manager Martin O'Neill for Football Focus at half past twelve, that light covering became a drift. The referee arrived around midday and promptly called the game off. The "Grandstand" editor told me to stand O'Neill down, as there was to be no game, face the camera myself and explain the reason for the sudden postponement.
What I did not know, as I stood in my sheepskin coat holding a microphone and huddled against the cold, was that an enterprising young photographer named Stuart Clarke was standing with his camera just behind the BBC crew who were facing me.
I delivered my piece to Grandstand without ever knowing he was there, until a few weeks later he sent me a copy of the picture and asked my permission to use it in an exhibition of his work entitled "The Home of Football".
A few years later, Stuart produced a wonderful series of postcards depicting typical scenes from football grounds, he sent me so many copies of "Reporting From the Ground, Wycombe Wanderers 1990" that I still use them as Christmas cards 17 years later.
Quite why that photograph did more for me than Gazza's tears a few months earlier, I will never know. But it made me synonymous with sheepskin coats, for which I will always be more recognisable than for any of my commentaries!
I wish I had a few quid for every time somebody has asked me "where were you when they took that picture in the snow?" Things have certainly moved on since then, not just for me, but for Wycombe Wanderers and for Martin O'Neill.
When that cup-tie was rearranged, I came back to Adams Park to commentate on the 1 -1 draw, although Peterborough won the replay 2-0 at their London Road ground.
O'Neill's team finished fifth in the Conference at the end of that season, when the champions were today's opponents Barnet. And therein lies another connection in my life as a reporter.
As a callow 18-year-old in 1963 I started my Journalist career as a trainee on the weekly Barnet Press. Starting in the Athenian League reporting Finchley, I eventually graduated to watching Barnet in the Southern League.
Little did I realise that they, like Wycombe, would one day aspire to the dizzy heights of the Football League.
I always make sure I squeeze in a couple of trips to Underhill during the course of a season - usually on my rare Saturday off - and I still manage one visit to Wycombe where I saw the match against Grimsby a few weeks ago.
Thankfully, it wasn't snowing!
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