Post by Sultan of Cannock- SRFC on Jul 9, 2007 18:44:46 GMT
Sorry about treating this section as an obit column lately but couldn't let the passing of Hugh Johns go unmentioned.
Hugh - called "The Voice" by his colleagues- was our regional football commentator back in the 60's and 70's on ATV's Star Soccer Every Sunday at around 2:00PM we would settle down to dinner to watch the commercial counterblast to Match of The Day.
Every other week in our area it seemed to be Derby-bloody-County though with the programme being regionalised we would sometimes get classics like Walsall v Mansfield Town, with Hugh taking it all in his rythmic stride (eg in the 1982 World Cup he described a goal that would've had screaming Johnathon whatsisface in paroxisms of orgasmic joy with a simple "And that's why Austria owes so much to Hans Krankl!"
Hugh became known as "the other commentator" because while Wolstenholm was doing his 1966 "some people are on the pitch" on the BBC, Johns on ITV was saying "That is it! That. Is. It!". Not quite as memorable...
To be fair, he did learn from this and began to notice the crowd a little more, hence a shot of defeated dogheads heading for an early exit was met with "Wolves supporters, turning their backs on their team"
More memorable for me was his gaffe in the 1970 World Cup Brazil v Czechoslovakia game. Pele made a run into the Czech "D" to meet a 50yrd high ball from Carlos Alberto. Allowing it drop over his head, Pele controlled it on his chest, took it past two defenders and volleyed it into the net. As this then 10yr-old watched in a mixture of awe and dismay (I wanted the Czechs to win) Hugh reassured us "He doesn't miss chances like those!"
Nearly every Sunday we would groan and moan about how crap he was, but it was a measure of his influence that I can't bring to mind who took over from him on Star Soccer after he went back to HTV.
Sadly another voice from my childhood is silenced for good, along with the likes of Maurice Eddlestone, Bryon Butler and the great Peter Jones.
Hugh - called "The Voice" by his colleagues- was our regional football commentator back in the 60's and 70's on ATV's Star Soccer Every Sunday at around 2:00PM we would settle down to dinner to watch the commercial counterblast to Match of The Day.
Every other week in our area it seemed to be Derby-bloody-County though with the programme being regionalised we would sometimes get classics like Walsall v Mansfield Town, with Hugh taking it all in his rythmic stride (eg in the 1982 World Cup he described a goal that would've had screaming Johnathon whatsisface in paroxisms of orgasmic joy with a simple "And that's why Austria owes so much to Hans Krankl!"
Hugh became known as "the other commentator" because while Wolstenholm was doing his 1966 "some people are on the pitch" on the BBC, Johns on ITV was saying "That is it! That. Is. It!". Not quite as memorable...
To be fair, he did learn from this and began to notice the crowd a little more, hence a shot of defeated dogheads heading for an early exit was met with "Wolves supporters, turning their backs on their team"
More memorable for me was his gaffe in the 1970 World Cup Brazil v Czechoslovakia game. Pele made a run into the Czech "D" to meet a 50yrd high ball from Carlos Alberto. Allowing it drop over his head, Pele controlled it on his chest, took it past two defenders and volleyed it into the net. As this then 10yr-old watched in a mixture of awe and dismay (I wanted the Czechs to win) Hugh reassured us "He doesn't miss chances like those!"
Nearly every Sunday we would groan and moan about how crap he was, but it was a measure of his influence that I can't bring to mind who took over from him on Star Soccer after he went back to HTV.
Sadly another voice from my childhood is silenced for good, along with the likes of Maurice Eddlestone, Bryon Butler and the great Peter Jones.
