John Gwynne (commentator)

Richard John Gwynne (born 23 April 1945) is a British former teacher and now a sports commentator and reporter.

Broadcasting career

He was a commentator for the PDC darts tournaments which air on Sky Sports. In February 2013 he announced he was to step down in the summer. The 2016 World Championship was his last tournament for Sky Sports.[1] In 2014, he was inducted into the PDC Hall of Fame.[2] Later in 2014, Gwynne began commentating on Eurosport for BDO darts tournaments such as the Six Nations Cup and the Winmau World Masters. John still steps in occasionally for the odd PDC match commentary when required.

His first media job was covering speedway at Belle Vue in Manchester for Piccadilly Radio in 1980. He moved onto local North West football and contributed darts coverage on a weekly show called Talking Sport.[3]

His first properly paid commentating job was covering Lancashire County Cricket Club matches for a phone line based service called Cricket Call. He did this from 1988 until 1991.

In 1989 and 1990 Gwynne, with the help of darts entrepreneur, Dick Allix, set up a darts phone line service called The Darts Line where Gwynne would provide darts news and tournament updates to a paid phone number that people would call up.[3]

The Darts Line opened the doors to the darts world and before long Gwynne was commentating on darts tournaments for regional television with Dave Lanning. When the darts split occurred in 1993 and Sky Sports took up coverage of WDC (later to become the PDC) tournaments, Lanning & Gwynne were the natural choices as commentators. Sid Waddell was still working with the BBC and wouldn't join Sky for another year.

Gwynne and Lanning commentated on the very first WDC World Championship at the Circus Tavern in 1994. Gwynne, Lanning and Waddell commentated together for the first time on the World Matchplay at Blackpool in July 1994.

He remains a regular match reporter on Sky's Gillette Soccer Saturday. From April 2014, he is also providing expert analysis on William Hill's online betting service and In_play Radio service.[4][5]

Other work

Gwynne is an after-dinner speaker and toastmaster. He also MCs darts exhibitions and runs local darts tournaments in the Manchester area.

He wrote a monthly column "The Mancunian Way" for Darts World Magazine (previously titled Piccadilly Line) for 31 years and at one time was responsible for 'ghost writing' Wayne Mardle's column, Wayne's World in the same magazine. He also wrote for the local North West newspapers, covering local darts, for nearly 30 years. He gave up both in 2011.

He is chairman of the Manchester Superleague and Manchester Log-End Federation, which he founded in 2003 to save the log-end dartboard from extinction.

He sponsors PDC youth player Shaun Griffiths.

Personal life

He was born in Shropshire in 1945 and moved to Manchester in 1957. He attended Chorlton Grammar School and on leaving went into teaching.[3]

His son, Andrew, is the Labour MP for Denton and Reddish.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Matt Simpson (14 February 2013). "Legendary Manchester commentator John Gwynne to hang up darts microphone after 20 years". Mancunian Matters. Retrieved 8 April 2013.
  2. ↑ "Awards Treble For van Gerwen". PDC. Archived from the original on 25 January 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 http://www.dartsmad.com/darts-news/2013/07/20/gwynne-checks-out-on-double-top/%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  4. ↑ William Hill In-Play [@WillHillInPlay] (17 April 2014). "InPlayRadio LIVE through til 10pm. Legendary John Gwynne in studio for darts later. Talking Federer & Berdych in tennis & LOAD of footer" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. ↑ "William Hill Grand Slam of Darts - John Gwynne Preview - In-Play - Betting News - William Hill". news.williamhill.com.
  • John Gwynne on IMDb
  • Gwynne Checks Out On Double Top - John Gwynne interview & life/career history on DartsMad
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