TRIBUTES have been paid to legendary sports broadcaster John Gwynne who has died aged 77 following a lengthy battle with cancer.
The Dentonian’s rich and fulfilling life, in which he embarked on a media career in his forties after quitting his job as a teacher, was celebrated at his funeral on Friday, July 22.
And the unusual eulogy at a packed Christ Church, Denton, where he was a parishioner, was given by John himself, an interview in which he spoke about his life, and which had been beautifully produced with musical interludes.
John talked about growing in the Shropshire village of High Ercall Shropshire and supporting Shrewsbury Town as a boy.
But the family – John was one of six children – moved to Fallowfield when his father became Manchester Education Committee’s chief finance officer.
There was great excitement as John intended to follow the Busby Babes only to become a regular at Maine Road as Charlie Hadfield, who became his best mate at Chorlton High School, was a City fan.
John, who was a tricky inside forward in local football, handy cricketer for both Denton and Denton West and successful local darts player, was buried at Denton Cemetery with two prized possessions, the ball with which he once took a hat-trick at cricket and Manchester log end darts board as he championed that local format of the sport.
He studied drama and divinity at Edge Hill and featured in plays and musicals, and such was his talent he was offered a place at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art).
John, who said he was made for the stage, turned down that chance declaring his parents would not be happy after three years training to be a teacher if he then went off to drama school.
He taught religious education and drama at various inner-city schools in Manchester for 20 years before quitting the profession in 1987.
“It was a big gamble and dad took advice from many people including the late Cllr Martin Wareing who told him to go with his dreams and he could always go back to teaching,” explained son Andrew, the MP for Denton and Reddish.
John, who had already done some sports broadcasting for Piccadilly Radio, landed his big break in 1990 when BBC Radio Manchester asked him to cover Oldham Athletic during their glory years and rugby while also continuing with his cricket commentaries as he covered Lancashire for 14 years before becoming the public address announcer at Old Trafford.
And it was through Jeff Stelling, who fronted television darts coverage, that John landed his long-standing job on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday.
The Soccer Saturday presenter said: “One of the greatest broadcasting voices has been silenced with the passing on my wonderful friend and colleague John Gwynne.
“Whether at the Etihad or Spotland, he made every game special with his gravitas, humour and passion. Soccer Saturday will never be quite the same.”
Cricket’s Test Match Special described John as “one of the most distinctive voices in broadcasting” while Lancashire cricket, where he was later the public address announcer, said he was “much loved” at the club.
Sam Matterface, Ned Boulting, Rob Palmer, Nigel Adderley and Jim Proudfoot were among the other broadcasters to pay tributes as did former Manchester City manager Brian Horton and darts legend Keith Deller.
Despite his work on Soccer Saturday, it was for his association with darts that John became best-known, covering 20 PDC World Darts Championship, including all 16 of Phil Taylor’s world titles, and 20 World Matchplays before hanging up the microphone in 2013.
John, who had lived in Denton since 1982, wrote for Darts World magazine and worked with the Darts Regulation Authority and as an exhibition MC and referee.
He was inducted into the PDC Hall of Fame in 2014 and also worked sporadically for the BDO before its collapse in 2020. PDC chief executive Matthew Porter described him as a “respected and popular figure in darts and across sports media”.
“As part of the original Sky Sports commentary team alongside Sid Waddell and Dave Lanning, John’s distinctive voice was part of the soundtrack to the PDC’s formative years and they formed an iconic trio,” Matthew told Sky Sports.
Closer to home, Phil Lees, president of the Audenshaw and Denton 501 League, also spoke warmly of his friend since the mid-1980s.
Phil, 60, recently made his England debut in the World ParaDarts Winmau Trophy in Belgium.
“I spoke to John just after I returned as, though he was very ill at the time, he wanted to know how I had gone on,” he said.
Phil described John, himself a very good darts players, as being a “local legend”.
“John played darts for the Carters and Denton Labour Club. When the PDC World Darts Championships were held, they had a competition for commentators and he would win that,” he continued.
Phil recalled an amusing story when he was in the final of the 2014 Winmau World Disability Masters against Ricky Chilton with John providing the television commentary.
Both players were amputees with Phil competing on crutches and Ricky in a wheelchair.
“John remarked that I could do with winning a leg in the match and then joked both players could do with a leg,” Phil said.
Phil also remembers John organising a darts exhibition match at Denton Cricket Club, which John requested as the venue for his wake, with PDC player Glen Durrant who produced a nine darter.
“I think it was the first time John had commentated with the mic on a nine darter,” he said.
Phil added John was knowledgeable not only about darts, but football, cricket and speedway.
“And if you got him on the subject of Manchester City, the team he supported from being a boy, he would speak to you for days,” he joked.
John, himself, in his eulogy, described Sergio Aguero’s dramatic injury-time winner, which gave Manchester City their first Premier League title, as his greatest moment in sport.
Correspondent sports editor Tony Bugby had known John for more than 30 years and believes he had the attributes for being a Formula One driver – late in life he had been banned from the road for speeding.
Tony used to occasionally travel with John to away games when they were both covering Oldham Athletic.
“John didn’t hang about. I remember one night game at Exeter in the early 1990s and we left Exeter at 10.15pm and he got back to Knutsford, where my car was parked, for 12.45am and I was back home for just after 1am to the astonishment of my family as I walked through the door,” he said.
That was a story that resonated with son Andrew who admitted passengers took lives in their own hands when they accepted a lift from his father.
John, whose wife Margaret died in 1994, leaves only child Andrew, daughter-in-law Allison, grandchildren James, William and Maisie and great grandson Lyle.