Trump gets his numbers up on Saint and Greavsie
EARLIER this year, while many of us were stockpiling toilet tissue and dobbing the neighbours in for exceeding the limit on visitor numbers, distinguished journalist, broadcaster and producer Gabriel Clarke was making better use of his time.
With no live sport to focus on owing to the pandemic, Clarke took to rummaging through the archives collecting nostalgic gems for a new series of ITV Sport Stories which, for those that missed it earlier this summer, has been delighting viewers once again on ITV4.
Whether you are a fan of bat, ball, cue or hoof, this six-part series [ITV Hub] is the ultimate sporting boxset as one tantalising clip effortlessly dissolves into the next until you find a 30-minute episode has become a three-hour excuse for not walking the dog.
The collection begins with a passionate Muhammad Ali discussing his opposition to the Vietnam War with Ian Wooldridge and ends with Glenn Hoddle explaining his footballing genius to the melodic winds of Kenny G.
In episode one, Ali also has an impromptu sparring session with a member of the studio
A 30-minute show becomes a threehour excuse for not walking the dog
audience, himself a boxer. ‘What do you box?’ asks Ali as he dances round his increasingly frustrated subject, ‘oranges?,’ much to the amusement of host Dickie Davies and an audience featuring our own Henry Cooper.
Talking of orange, episode six finds Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves in Trump Tower in New York making the draw for the 1991/92 Rumbelows Cup quarter-finals alongside the Donald himself, the soon-to-be former president of the United States picking the away teams to Jimmy’s home.
‘I haven’t seen a boardroom as big as this since I was in Doug Ellis’ house,’ quips Jim, as his bemused host’s chuckle fails to conceal a complete lack of knowledge of the former Aston Villa supremo. ‘I love soccer,’ claims Donald as he is gifted a Saint and Greavsie mug.
Sandwiched in between is everything from Tiger Roll to Tyson Fury via Red Rum and Don Revie. There’s a youthful Ronnie O’Sullivan, then more sparkler than Rocket, Jocky Wilson and jockey John White, who in 1993 rode Esha Ness to ‘victory’ in the Grand National that never was – the race voided after numerous false starts.
A veritable sporting feast and proof, if needed, that a good story never gets old.