Last updated at 13:35, Wednesday, 18 November 2009

A MAN who has delivered millions of words to his readers from some of the most exotic arenas on the planet talks to LEO CLARKE about his amazing career as a national sports writer

JAMES Mossop has been in a privileged position for virtually all of his working life.

He has had the front seat at the world’s best venues watching the top performers in their chosen sport – not bad for a man who began his career on the North West Evening Mail.

Now, at the age of 73, he is still called upon to give his expert judgment to readers of the Mail on Sunday.

In a career which has seen him rub shoulders with the sporting elite, James has many cherished memories and made a multitude of friends, even spending a night with an England World Cup winner on the day the football team claimed the highest honour in their sport.

He has watched Lennox Lewis exchange blows with Oliver McCall in Las Vegas, witnessed the European golfers beat the Americans in the Ryder Cup on their own turf, has covered the US Masters in Augusta on 22 consecutive occasions – even having the honour of playing on the hallowed course himself – and has admired the absorbing talents of his favourite footballer, George Best.

“If Ronaldo was £80 million George would top it by another £20 million,” he says.

He has also witnessed harrowing moments in sport, being at Hillsborough on that disastrous day in 1989 when 96 fans were crushed to death during Liverpool’s FA Cup semi-final tie with Nottingham Forest at the Sheffield stadium.

“It was just awful,” he said. “That had a profound effect.”

When you talk to James it is easy to understand why so many talented sportsmen and women feel at ease in his company.

James was preparing to give a talk to the Barrow Rotary Club at the town’s Lisdoonie Hotel when he took time out of his schedule to share some of his memorable moments. They include 10 World Cup finals, eight Olympic Games, umpteen F1 series, big boxing in Las Vegas, cricket World Cups, major golf tournaments and big horse races, like the Breeders Cup in America.

He talks about the absorbing occasion when Sir Steve Redgrave clinched his fifth rowing gold in Penrith Lakes, Sydney, and how runner Sally Gunnell held off the challenge Sandra Farmer-Patrick in the 400m hurdles Olympic final in Barcelona to claim the highest prize in her sport.

Yet when you ask him to name his favourite football team there is no hesitation as James immediately says Barrow AFC – the club where he cut his sports writing teeth.

He talks of amusing episodes at Holker Street like the times an eccentric trainer used to play the violin so badly his wife wouldn’t let him play it at home, so he played it in the dressing room when the lads had finished training.

There was also another occasion when it was discovered at an away match the players socks were left in Barrow. Emergency pairs were purchased, but not enough of one style, so the team had to turn out in odd pairs – six which were white and blue hoops and six blue with white tops.

He also recalls a historic date for the Bluebirds when they played host to the Wolverhampton Wanderers – the Manchester United of their day.

As you can imagine Holker Street was packed – in fact 16,340 were crammed into the ground.

Likewise so was the press box.

However, in 1959 there were only three telephones available and James had to get his story over for the paper.

So he and fellow Evening Mail journalist Bob Herbert came up with a cunning plan to overcome the obstacle – James writing his report and popping it into a coco tin, which was tied to a length of string and then dropped to Bob who cycled to a friend’s house nearby to ring the story over.

“He had a hell of a job getting the tin back up to me!” laughed James.

He says of the Barrow paper: “What a great training ground the Evening Mail was. I have been around the world umpteen times covering different sports, but the basics of a football team, a rugby team, a town council, building big ships, steelworks, was all there.”

Born in Lancaster, James moved to Dalton at the age of six months, later living in Milton Street, Barrow. He attended St James’ junior school and Barrow Grammar and was a Scout with 4th Barrow St James troop and, while living for a short spell in Urswick, joined the local Sea Scouts.

He is married to Sandra, a professor, who received an OBE for higher and further education as head of the London College of Fashion, part of the University of the Arts, in London.

James joined the Evening Mail at the age of 15, before eventually moving to Manchester when he was 26, where he joined the Daily Mail later moving to the Sunday Express and was there for 34 years.

He was with the Express in Manchester until 1974 when he moved to London to be chief sports writer, later joining the Daily Telegraph. After taking voluntary redundancy two years ago he had his ‘gap year’ as he says, before his undoubted writing talents were snapped up by the Mail on Sunday for whom he now covers Premiership matches and occasional golf tournaments.

During his illustrious career James, of Hale Barns, near Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was chosen as the 1992 Olympic sports writer of the year, and was twice highly commended in the British Press awards.

But he admits: “I am a soccer man at heart, having been brought up at Holker Street, peeping behind the wall when I was about nine.

“But if I could come back now and was told I could only do one thing I think it would be golf, because wherever you are, you are in attractive surroundings. It’s a game of courtesy and the players are very easy to get on with, and, also I play golf, however badly, but at least I know what they are trying to do.

“Every tournament is on a different course apart from the Masters.

“It’s not like going to the same tennis courts or the same snooker hall or whatever, there is always that variety.”

Writing appealed to James as a schoolboy and so did travelling around the world – both of which he was able to achieve.

“When I was leaving school everybody was going to work in the shipyard,” he said, recalling how the buzzer used to issue its call to the workforce on a daily basis.

“I don’t know what put it in my head, but I thought I’m not going to have my life ruled by that buzzer,” he said.

Of course, the rest is history for the talented scribe, who says: “I have always been fanatical about sport.

But no matter where he is, the first thing he will want to know on a Saturday afternoon is how Barrow have got on in their match.

First published at 13:12, Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk