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Hazel Irvine interview

Postby SnookerFan

With thick ring-binder folders stacked on the desk in front of her, and a refreshing indifference towards social media, what could be more reassuringly constant during these uncertain times than Hazel Irvine presenting snooker live from the Crucible on the BBC?

The World Championship final, which begins on Sunday afternoon, represents a 20th-anniversary milestone for a broadcaster who learnt her craft under maestros such as Dickie Davies and Steve Rider before developing into something of a doyenne herself.

Not that Irvine seems remotely comfortable with such acclaim.

She mentions the word “team” continuously throughout our interview, name-checking everyone from Clive Everton and David Vine of BBC yesteryear through to the new guard led by Seema Jaswal and Shaun Murphy. But two names continuously crop up. Steve Davis and John Parrott were coming towards the end of their own playing careers when they stepped into off-table BBC roles alongside Irvine at the 2001 LG Cup.

It was perfect timing all round. Irvine, the seasoned golf and Olympics broadcaster, was new to snooker. Davis and Parrott, two personable greats of the game, were rookie pundits.

The ice was immediately broken when they tried to innovate by introducing a snooker table to demonstrate certain shots, only for Parrott to miss the pack completely with his demonstration break-off. “Steve Davis literally almost fell off his chair laughing and, from there, this mad chemistry grew,” Irvine says. “We have stuck it out together: Three amigos but the whole team is one big family.” The glue, though, is undeniably Irvine, whose preparation for the 17-day marathon sounds every bit as intense as any player’s.

“Don’t expect to see me for about a month – it’s like preparing for an exam – but a wonderful exam in front of lots of people,” she says. “I find great joy in the preparation. I really quite like losing myself in it.

“The Crucible is an amazing place. You can see it, smell it, feel it and, for a good few weeks before the World Championship, your brain automatically starts going there. It is a building that draws you in. It pulls you back... so comfortingly familiar but disconcertingly challenging.”


Irvine began working for Scottish Television in 1987, before working with Dickie Davies at the 1988 Seoul Olympics
The groundwork begins with ensuring her instant recall of the individual back-stories of the 32 players who have qualified. That might sound daunting until you consider that she would do the same for the entire 156 players in the field of a golf major.

“It is important that you give the players who you are speaking to the respect that they deserve,” she says. “That’s fair and right. And I enjoy it. I have to admit that I am a bit of a nerd. I like turning up the odd good line. I really enjoy writing scripts. I’m not trying to be smart by having a thick ring-binder – it’s just how I work. If you feel you are ready, you’ll be ready. I don’t feel right unless I’ve put the hours in.”

The practical reality, says Irvine, is that “nine times out of 10 you will rip it up and fly by the seat of your pants”, which, while stressful, is all part of the fun. “It’s live, unscripted theatre – that is the addiction of it,” she says.

Myriad memories soon come flooding back, starting with her first World Championship with Davis and Parrott in 2002, when Peter Ebdon triumphed through sheer force of will with deciding-frame wins over Matthew Stevens and Stephen Hendry. “The whole psychodrama came into sharp focus – every ball was a high-wire act,” she says. “I remember thinking: ‘This is unbelievable.’ Visceral. You live every moment.”

At another end of the pendulum, there was the time that Ronnie O’Sullivan walked out, mid-frame, of his 2006 UK Championship quarter-final against Hendry (watch video below).


“We literally had just put our Marks and Spencer sandwiches down on the table and were, ‘What!’” says Irvine. “It was quite a shocking moment but actually quite distressing. That was a guy who was clearly struggling. We’ve had interesting moments with Ronnie in studios.

“His evolution as a sportsman has been fascinating to have a ringside seat for. His ability to work on the mental side of his sublime game, to harness that mental discipline, has been the greatest privilege to witness. I’m fascinated by sports psychology. I’m hooked to see how these players align their talent, their work ethic, to their mental strength.”

Irvine’s own career journey has, in its own way, been every bit as trailblazing. She began working for Scottish Television in 1987, presenting a round-up called Scotsport, before having the opportunity to work with Davies at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It was a time when national sports broadcasters were almost exclusively men. Irvine was only 23 but her eyes light up at the mention of Davies, who is himself now 93 and remains an avid armchair fan of all the sports that she presents.

“He was incredibly generous and kind,” she says. “He could have thought, ‘Who’s this new girl? I’m a man with supreme broadcasting ability’, but it was the complete opposite. I had only been there five days and he was, ‘Hazel, I think you should take us off air now. I’ll be here if you get into trouble’. I said, ‘really?’ 

“Anyway, I did get us on air and I could see Dickie Davies lifting his arms aloft like he had won a race. A most marvellous man.”

Rider, whom she worked with while becoming Grandstand’s youngest-ever presenter, was another inspiration. “Completely unflappable with the most wicked sense of humour,” she says. “Very understated but the sharpest man you will ever meet. Steve allowed me to come onto the set in 1992 and I sat and watched. I had a notebook and just learnt so much. I was, ‘Wow, this guy is what I’d aspire to’. And I’m still trying. I’ll never be in his league.”

Many would disagree, even if Irvine herself seems utterly oblivious to the praise she invariably provokes across social media. The epitome of unerring substance and delivery over self-promotion, it also seems like it might be a long wait before we read her on Twitter.

“One: I am hopeless with technology,” she says, laughing. “I would be bungling my way through that if I tried. Two: I just feel there is my work. It’s not my life. When I stop work, I go home, see my family. That’s my life. The two don’t merge. I am quite happy to have a line. It is hard enough dealing with one at one time and the other at the other.”

And with the end of another World Championship now nigh, how will it feel on Monday night before stepping into the Crucible to say the first words to the new champion?

“Someone is pushing you in the back... you go through the curtains, the last shot has gone in, everybody stands up, there is this roar... this wall of noise, and the heat of the arena hits you in the face,” she says. “You mustn’t forget how much emotion is invested in that moment. In which other sport do you have a two-day final? It is terrifying. And it is thrilling.

“It’s the most thorough examination of a person’s talent and willpower in sport. There’s that mixture of tension and excitement but, ultimately, the excitement outweighs the terror.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/snooker/202 ... 1651392221

Re: Hazel Irvine interview

Postby Empire State Human

SnookerFan wrote:The ice was immediately broken when they tried to innovate by introducing a snooker table to demonstrate certain shots, only for Parrott to miss the pack completely with his demonstration break-off.

Disappointed this hasn't surfaced. It was genuinely hilarious at the time. Parrott actually botched the break twice in the same demonstration. First, he missed the pack completely; and then on the re-try, hit the pack too thick and the cue ball died in the jaws of the corner pocket. I believe he threw he cue on the table and said, 'Bugger this, this shot's impossible,' or something along those lines ...

Re: Hazel Irvine interview

Postby Dan-cat

That’s a brilliant read, thank you!! She’s ace. A real pro. Her first words to Ronnie after the final ending with ‘magnificent!’ And she stepped backwards, it was quite a moment.

Re: Hazel Irvine interview

Postby SnookerArcher

I bet she was gutted not to be able to be there for 2020, I know most of them couldn't be due to the pandemic anyway. But yeah I'd wager most fans, pundits, players had been expecting Ronnie's 6th title a lot sooner & I'm sure Hazel would have thought about what she'd say with what some people had given up hoping for, with a mediocre 5 visits from the Rocket but she didn't get to wait long to be host for his 7th!

Pre snooker as I largely didn't watch it from late 90s to 2013 I was familiar with Hazel from Beijing games.


   

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