Have Mic Will Travel: A Football Commentator's Journey | Ian Crocker

Sky Sports Ian Crocker has been commentating for the past 25 years and for almost two decades now has become synonymous with Scottish Football. Ian spoke recently to RedMatchday about his career and also the book he has recently completed.

Ian's adventures in football started with the FA Cup dreams of hometown club Weymouth and supporting West Ham through thin and thinner (his words not mine!), to landing a job at Upton Park as a Tannoy announcer. That started a journey from ushering studio audiences in for Del Boy and Rodney and working behind the scenes at BBC Radio 2, to commentating on football here, there and everywhere, from Arbroath to Amsterdam and from the Football League to the EPL, The Champions League to the European Championships and World Cups and from 0-0 to a 6-6, and even a 8-4. His book charts the life of a football fan and commentator. So how did the book come about?

“I was coming up to 25 years of commentating. As you can imagine, there have been a few tales along the way from doing all the different tournaments so I thought I would put them all in a book and see how it panned out.” 
His wonderfully titled book is very appropriate but it was someone else who come up with the phrase as Ian explains.

“When I started commentating on Scottish football in 1998, a newspaper tagged me a 'Have Mic Will Travel' Englishman! Hard to argue, they were probably right at the time! I quite liked the sound of it.

“The first ever game I did in Scotland was actually the Aberdeen v Dunfermline play-offs in 1995. I did that for Grampian TV who had the rights to the two games. I actually watched the game again recently, there were some very decent goals across the two legs.”

Like many who have landed up in a commentary booth, his journey getting there was a very long and patient one.

“I started off working for the BBC doing an office job for a few years but I could not get into their sport department. I then got a job part-time on matchdays as the stadium announcer at West Ham. They were the club I supported, so it was a dream job for me. I did that for a couple of years and met Jonathan Pearce who was then working for Capital Radio in London. They were just starting to do a lot of commentaries, so I took a job there. They then took over a radio station in Birmingham so I went up there and covered Birmingham City, Aston Villa, West Brom and Wolves. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to meet Jonathan.

“Unlike today, when I was growing up, there were not that many commentators around in England doing football. The main three were John Motson, Barry Davis and Brian Moore, who was probably my favourite out of all of them. As for other sports, I have huge admiration for the horse racing boys and in particular Peter O’Sullevan was fantastic. I once did a commentary on the Derby and that was extremely hard work! I vowed never to do a commentary on horse racing again!”

While most of us think it is a dream job and very glamourous, it certainly is not the case all the time. One of the biggest challenges is very often not dealing with unpronounceable names, but it is actually just getting into the gantry in the first place! 

“Sometimes getting up there can be the biggest challenge. You have to climb up ladders and over the top of roofs. Portsmouth would probably be the worst gantry I have ever attempted to get onto. It actually got condemned after a while! Arbroath would have to be the coldest I have ever known. I have been there twice and it was a cold that I have never known before. I remember we did Arbroath v Celtic in the Scottish Cup. I was freezing an hour before kick-off. Celtic won 1-0 and Arbroath very nearly equalised in the last minute. I think extra-time would have finished me off!” 

What other games, for the right reasons, have lived long in the memory?

“There have been a lot of big games over the years but I would have to say I don’t think I will ever see another Motherwell 6 Hibs 6 again! It was a midweek game that we did in 2010. Hibs were 6-2 up with half an hour to go and the home side had an incredible comeback.

“I did a game for radio in England, a League Cup semi-final between Aston Villa and Tranmere in 1994 when Villa were 3-1 down from the first leg but won the second leg 3-1 after extra-time and the game went to penalties and the shoot-out was dramatic. I lost my voice for a week after that because the excitement was incredible.

“There have been a few mistakes over the years. I was covering a Birmingham match for radio and they a player called Jonathan Hunt. When you are doing radio you get a lot of information fed into your ear such as the scores from the other grounds. So you have to concentrate on what is happening in front of you and also concentrate on what you are being told. Once, when someone was talking to me about something and at the same time I tried to say ‘Jonathan Hunt cuts inside’, but it did not quite come out the way I wanted it to! You can guess the rest!

“The worst nightmare for a commentator is getting a goalscorer wrong. Then there was a game when Aston Villa took the lead at Oldham. I was struggling really badly with man flu and as the goal went in, I could just about speak. I then reached under the table to get some medicine. When I came back up I had not realised the goal had been disallowed! For about a minute I hadn’t realised until a fan tapped me on the shoulder to tell me it was still 0-0, despite the fact I had been telling listeners Villa were 1-0 up! There is no way out of that either.

“People ask me how I can do a West Ham game without being biased, but it’s easy. I once had to commentate on them being beaten 7-1 by Manchester United! I remember after they had lost a play-off game against Crystal Palace 1-0 someone said to me, “I am sorry your team have lost”. I had actually forgotten it was my team. You have to put your professional hat on.

“In Scotland, I get accused of being biased but I can assure you I don’t have a favourite team. I like them all. I’m completely neutral in Scotland, not that some would believe that! Recently I was commentating on the Hibs v Rangers game which finished 2-1. Hibs scored a cracking goal which I got quite excited about. Then when Rangers equalised I was a little bit less excited which fans of that team noted. The reason was because it was an own goal and I was trying to work out who the heck it had deflected off!”

Have Mic Will Travel: A Football Commentator's Journey is available at all good book stores and can also be downloaded on the kindle.