Interview - Graham McKechnie @ BBC Radio Berkshire

Questions

Graham McKechnie - BBC Berkshire

Age?

Married?

No

Children?

I play a lot of cricket over the summer and enjoy hacking a golf ball round too.

Best moment in your life to date?

If England win the Ashes next week, that will take some beating. Sorry if that makes me sound a little shallow!

How long have you worked there?

3 years

How did you end up working there?

I had been working as a cricket writer for CricInfo, but when the internet bubble burst, I moved into rugby writing as a freelancer. Oddly, at that point I decided to try a few years in the army, but took a job with the BBC for what I thought would be for a couple of months. I enjoyed it so much I stayed.

We all do a bit of everything in local radio. During the week, my main focus is on producing the Drive programme and presenting the sports bulletins. But I’m also the rugby correspondent, so keep an eye out on London Irish news, conduct interviews and come the weekend, cover the matches with commentary or live reports. If LI aren’t playing, then I’ll be down at Newbury.

How many people work there?

There are about 30 of us here.

Is it just sport you cover personally or do you get involved in other things?

It can be anything: sport, politics, local news. That’s part of the fun of the job. It’s the rugby I enjoy most though.

I do think rugby is hard as there’s much more going on away from the play than in other games. The best advice anyone gave me is to imagine you’re describing what’s happening to a blind person. It’s a really simple idea, but it does help to keep that in mind.

As for things going wrong, there was a rather sticky cricket incident…

I was covering a local league match and arrived at a match at about 1pm as usual (the matches start at 1130). There are certain questions I always ask the scorer, like who won the toss, who’s batting, state of the pitch etc. At Banbury, I was in the scorers’ hut so couldn’t actually see the scoreboard.

So I was ready for the first piece: “I’m here at Banbury where it’s a grey, hazy day. There’s some grass on the pitch and the ball’s seaming about. I can tell you that Banbury won the toss and put Reading in. It looks like it was the right thing to do as Reading are in trouble at 74 for 5 etc.” That, I thought, was a perfectly good report.

A few moments after, the scorer turned round and said, “Oh, what I didn’t tell you was that Banbury won the toss and batted and were all out for 86.

My next piece was along the lines of: “Good news for Reading here as they edge towards an excellent victory….”

Non-match day. Arrive at the office and discuss the day’s stories, decide which ones we’re going to run and how we’re going to do them. Setting up the stories would take up most of the day before we go on-air at 16.00. Then it’s a question of keeping on top of what’s coming up next and generally to make sure the presenter is happy.

With the sport, it’s similar – looking at what’s happening with our local teams (Reading, London Irish, Reading Racers, hockey, horse racing etc) and then deciding which are the stories of most interest before speaking to the players or managers for news clips.

What’s the best part of your job?

It’s a great buzz to be close to professional sport. I have to say as well that dealing with London Irish is always a pleasure. It makes my job a lot easier. But overall, the best bit is the 80 minutes.

I’m feeling quite good about it. I like what I’ve been hearing from Brian Smith and the signings have impressed me too. I do think this is a really important season for them in terms of moving forward but if they can stamp out those annoying individual errors that lost them several matches last year, they can do well. Top six is what they say – I’d settle for sixth.

I’m a relative new-comer to London Irish, so I’m going to cheat a little and broaden the question to rugby. Being from Lancashire, the clubs I used to watch were Fylde, Vale of Lune and Orrell, and I remember enjoying watching Lancashire in the old County Championship. It really mattered back then.

One of my favourite rugby moments was when Australia came to play Oxford University at Iffley Road in 2001. I remember the Oxford wing – Ruby I think - breaking away from just in front of his own line, with 15 Wallabies in pursuit, led by Ben Tune. He was roared home by the crowd of 6,000 or so packed in there in the November gloom and he just made it.

Oxford were never going to win the match and in the end when they were within four points the Wallabies brought on their big guns and won comfortably. But it was one of those glorious moments that only rugby can produce, where a crowd is desperately urging a man on to keep running and can see the defence closing in. It was also an afternoon of nostalgia for the amateur game, when tourists would regularly play Oxford on a cold, misty afternoon.

I’ll give you a London Irish moment too – Bob Casey’s try against Quins last year. It was a great try and Bob looked so pleased to have broken his duck, but in the context of the season, it was vital.

The BBC remains neutral at all times! That said, watching a team over the course of a few seasons, and speaking to the players and coaches regularly, you do of course become absolutely tied up with their fortunes and really do want them to win. The atmosphere is great as well – there’s still a feeling of an old-fashioned club in the best possible sense.

I can’t remember how I found you now, but I’ve enjoyed reading all the stuff on there. It’s fun and lively which reflects well the London Irish supporters. I’m a little scared of all the people who post on the site. Not only do you all seem to enjoy bickering with each other, I’m also a little frightened by the amount you all know about London Irish. You’ve always been nice to me so far though, so I’m not complaining.