I watched Liverpool win UEFA final with Bill Shankly and was smuggled into Everton's biggest night
Some of the most memorable moments in Merseyside football and biggest names in the history of Everton and Liverpool – and beyond – feature in the star-studded autobiography of one of our own, which, as its title suggests is a light-hearted look back at an illustrious career at the very top of the game.
Elton Welsby’s Game For A Laugh tells the story of a lad from St Helens who rubbed shoulders with a plethora of sporting idols, while also meeting the likes of Olivia Newton-John, Roger Moore (he had to keep quiet about that one) and Henry Kissinger.
Some younger readers might not be too well-acquainted with the 73-year-old, but those of us who, like this correspondent, can remember football before the Premier League, recall Welsby as a broadcasting giant, even though his book reveals he’d start his after-dinner speech routine by confirming: “I am standing up,” given that hailing from a rugby league stronghold, his 5ft 6in frame places him in the ‘scrum-half’ category
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It’s with the round ball that he’s best remembered though and although he was a televised football stalwart here in his native Granada region, between 1988-92, he’d go live to the nation in front of audiences of millions as main presenter of The Match.
It was while carrying out this role that Welsby recalls watching up close what he describes as the most dramatic finale to an English top flight season and “the greatest night in English domestic football,” on May 26, 1989, when Arsenal’s last-minute strike from Michael Thomas put them 2-0 up against Liverpool at Anfield, to snatch the League Championship on goals scored at the expense of Kenny Dalglish’s Reds who had already triumphed in an emotional post-Hillsborough FA Cup final against Everton. Welsby describes the night at Anfield as one of the highlights of his career and remarks: “People think I say that because I’m an Evertonian. That’s ridiculous. They’re wrong. It’s because I witnessed football history being made.”
Indeed, before any indignant Kopites threaten to stop reading, Welsby, whose formative football experiences as a youngster were at Macclesfield, is the Blue who was smuggled into their greatest night against Rapid Vienna in Rotterdam thanks to Howard Kendall's co-operation, and explains that his allegiances were forged by chance after his father was unable to obtain access for a Liverpool home game and then took him to see Everton hammer Cardiff City 8-3 soon afterwards on April 28, 1962.
Starting as a football reporter for the Liverpool Weekly News – while soon taking up a second job at one of the city’s happening night spots ‘The Shakespeare Theatre Club’ on Fraser Street – Welsby became firm friends with legendary Liverpool managers Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.
Despite getting off on the wrong foot with the former after he “made up” a false transfer rumour, linking the Reds to a star player from another club, leading to a severe dressing down, Welsby went on to spend many happy hours in the company iconic Scottish gaffer, and he tells of watching the second leg of the 1976 UEFA Cup final with him in Bruges, only for Shanks to come a cropper with a huge hot dog, and it was a similar story with his highly-decorated successor from County Durham, with Welsby's role providing commentary for Radio City ensuring he was present for all of Liverpool’s major European triumphs in the late 1970s and early 1980s, often traveeling on the bus with the team and staff. There’s a constant stream of humorous anecdotes along the way as he recalls a time when elite sport was not taken quite as seriously, by those watching it at least, as it is now.
However, while there might have been more smiles on presenters’ faces, production values and professionalism were still sky high. As Welsby acknowledges: “We worked hard and played hard.”
Along with the club game, which included work with all the teams across the North West region, there are tales from international football trips at World Cup and European Championship tournaments, plenty of high-jinks when providing overnight coverage of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, and an eclectic mix of other sports including crown green bowls, snooker, golf and even a short-lived stint at commentating on croquet! If you love your football from the 1970s, 80s and 90s or want to learn more about that era and are “Game For A Laugh” then you can click here to let Elton share his fascinating and often humorous story with you.
