Technical headaches, a chat with an England international and prep time

Watford’s home game with Ipswich served as a reminder that our broadcasts are only ever subject to the technology that connects us from our location back to the studio actually working!

For no reason that has yet been unearthed, a number of the ISDN lines (the phone lines that radio broadcasters use) at Vicarage Road decided not to work and it didn’t matter how hard various staff at Watford FC worked, the lines weren’t going to play ball.

This meant that there were more broadcasters than lines in use so in the end priority had to be given to those of us who were there to provide full match commentary, namely the two local BBC stations and also Five Live Sports Extra. Talksport’s Ian Abrahams drew the short straw and had to provide his match updates from his mobile phone. Fortunately that has never happened to me yet, but it just proves that you have to be ready for anything in this game!

Before kick-off I managed to secure an interview with Middlesex and England fast bowler Steve Finn, who played his club cricket for Langleybury and is a Watford supporter. He jets off with the England squad today as they look to defend the Ashes down under this winter and was taking the opportunity to watch the Hornets for the last time before he had to report for duty!

Here are some snippets from the interview:

When did you first start coming to

Vicarage Road

?

“I have been watching football here since about 1996 when I was seven I think. My first game was a 6-3 win against Grimsby! I sat in the Family Stand and Watford is quite close to my heart, I’ve always had the shirts and stuff since I was younger.”

Were you a regular here then and I guess you saw the successive promotions in 1998 and 1999?

“I had a season ticket from 1999 through to about 2004 I think and then obviously cricket and playing every Saturday I couldn’t come and watch the amount of games that I would have liked to, especially being away in the winter but I have really enjoyed watching Watford FC over the last few years.”

Who were your Watford heroes when you were watching?

“I remember Craig Ramage was a big player and Tommy Mooney, Kevin Miller in goal, all those guys back in 1996 when I think they were playing and also the guys that have played more currently certainly.”

Do you keep in touch with what’s going on at Watford now?

“Yeah I do, every now and again people update me on Twitter all the time about what’s going on at Watford FC and I have been following closely and it’s been going well this season so far”

Playing for England now is all a far cry from your days at Langleybury?

“It’s a totally different stage but you are just playing a game of cricket and I just try and enjoy it as much as I did when I played at Langleybury. I thoroughly enjoyed it at Langleybury, everything I did and I still go down there now and again and they have made me an honorary life vice-president I think so I am down there a lot and that is a place very close to my heart”

The England squad depart for Australia shortly and I can foresee some late nights/early mornings to try and watch as much of the action as possible coming up in the next three months!

As well as commentating on the matches, at

Vicarage Road

I conduct a pre-match interview with a former Watford player in the Legends Lounge and ahead of the Scunthorpe match the guest was former goalkeeper Steve Sherwood. Steve is gentle giant of a man and spoke very openly about his career, including of course ‘that’ goal in the 1984 FA Cup Final. However, we also spoke about his goal at Coventry and he told us how he also very nearly scored at

White Hart Lane

in similar fashion against Ray Clemence’s Tottenham!

As I write today I am also preparing my notes and statistics ahead of the weekend’s trip to Derby. This involves preparing a page of notes on each Derby player, team news, statistics such as the recent records of both teams, and Watford’s record on Derby soil. I also have a spreadsheet of statistics on every Watford player which I update after each game. All being well, Adrian Mariappa will be making his 100^th consecutive start of his Watford career tomorrow which is a fine achievement.

Travel arrangements also have to be made and confirmation received from Derby that they will let us into the ground! I also speak to my co-commentator ahead of the game, sometimes to arrange where to meet although this week it will be at the ground as Craig Ramage lives only a few minutes from Pride Park, and also to have a chat about anything that we should or would like to discuss on air during the game.

Once this all done, bags are packed and we are ready to hit the motorways once more. Next week I’ll reflect on the trip to Derby and also the fans forum which I am hosting at

Vicarage Road

on Monday night.