Folks,
98FM’s weekly sports show “Now That’s What I Call Sport” airs every Sunday morning from 9-10am.
Presented by myself Johnny Lyons, this week’s show broadcast on Sunday February 15th is a very special one for it is the 400th edition which is, kinda, a milestone (Programme Director – get on with it Johnny self praise is no praise)!
Anyway, the show features the following guests :
- Keith Wood –
Allez Le France! Allez Les Bleus ! Ah yes the French are back in town. Renowned on the Emerald Isle for their handling skills - oui Thierry Henry take a bow(couldn’t help myself on that one) – France always pose a threat on the rugby front.
Sure you never know what you’re gonna get from the French – beautiful free flowing rugby from a happy bunch of punters or the ball thrown around like it was a bar of soap by a posse of malcontents.
Ireland’s most famous baldie gets down and dirty and tells the Six Nations match between Ireland and France as it is as we look to keep up our 100% record.
Like the French themselves, Woody has that Je ne sais quoi factor !
- Jonathan Garth -
Am delighted to have Jonathan on the programme as my resident expert for the duration of the Cricket World Cup which goes on seemingly for ever (jaysus another 400 shows will have elapsed before this one’s over)!
Eh it goes on for six weeks - staggeringly bad schedule planning for a tournament with just 14 countries.
No better man than Jonathan to have on – no question about it he was one of the best and most entertaining and swashbuckling cricketers I’ve ever had the ability to see in action. A big hitter who’d come in at 5 or 6 Garth was an instant cure for insomnia, I’d swear all the aul ones watchin’ the cricket and havin’ the odd snooze here and there had a JG alarm call. For when Jonathan batted you had better be awake – balls thumped here, there and everywhere cominatcha at a rate of knots – jaysus if truth be known the Johnny Strut had to be disrupted many a time in the honourable pursuit of keepin’ me bleedin’noggin on! I can tell you wheelin’ the chisler down the ground in the pram was not a good option either when JG was battin!
He was also an excellent fast bowler and brilliant fielder.
Class oozed from his every pore – Jonathan was also an excellent flanker with Wanderers and was one of the first Ireland Sevens rugby internationals - and is in his genes – his daughter (and his wife) are also both cricket internationals.
And the other good thing was there was always a whiff of cordite in the air when Jonny was around (that kind of activity always got the Johnny seal of approval).
The toffs that ran Irish cricket back then – or as Will Carling once famously called the bods who ran English rugby “old farts” – in their wisdom banned him from playing for Ireland.
Ah yes I remember well – the rock n roll lifestyle didn’t sit well with the heads back then – the hirsute and boy do I mean hirsute back then leather jacketed newly appointed cricket correspondent with the Sunday Tribune and with ‘tude to match went down with em as spectacularly as a Led Zeppelin!
In case you were wonderin’ – yep that was me.
(My Sports Editor at the Tribune Ger Siggins once described me as the closest thing to Jesus Christ he’d ever seen – and he wasn’t comin’ from the inspirational angle)!
Jonathan will review Ireland’s opening game against the Windies, a game in which there’s a fighting chance of Ireland causing another shock on the global stage.
And Stephen Doyle presents the first of his League of Ireland packages ahead of the new season which starts next month.
The Hairy Man picks Bohemians this week and interviews manager Keith Long as well as players Jason Byrne and Derek Pender.
Competition :
Tix for Leinster against Dragons at the RDS on Sunday to giveaway.
Thanks,
Johnny.
