Gary Newbon: I wasn’t a Brummie – but I guess I must be by now!

People are surprised when I explain that I was born and raised in Cambridge

Last week, I was at a networking party for the Deal Club hosted by Paul Fidoe, of Evelyn Partners, at the excellent Primitivo restaurant in Birmingham when I was asked by several guests: “Are you a Brummie?”

I always answer, ‘No but my wife is!’.

It’s funny how life works out. It is a question I am asked, it seems, most weeks – even though I have no trace of a Brummie accent!

People are surprised when I explain that I was born and raised in Cambridge.

But if you had known me up to the age of eight, you would not have been. I had a thick flat Cambridgeshire accent which was pretty awful.

My parents, Jack and Preeva Newbon, wanted to send me to boarding school but thought I would be bullied.

I was frustrated at missing football matches to go and have these painful elocution lessons but in hindsight I am grateful. I now speak without any accent.

My school, Culford School, is set in 400 acres in a village called Culford which is four miles outside Bury St Edmunds. I went there in 1964 and stayed for ten years because of playing sport.

The BBC commentator John Motson, a lifelong friend until he died last year, aged 77, was in the same class year as myself.

John Knight, father of Warwickshire and England cricketer Nick Knight, was a year ahead but we remained good friends until his passing two years ago, aged 78. John played hockey for England and Great Britain on the left wing.

He was a fine opening batter in the school cricket team. John.

I started as an apprentice journalist on a news agency (selling stories to all the media outlets) in Cambridge in 1964 on £5 a week.

Three years later, I was in Hayters Sports Agency, just off London’s Fleet Street, and writing about rugby union and tennis for the Sunday Mirror, which in those days sold nine million copies a week.

Then, in 1968, aged just 23, I joined ITV as their newest and youngest sports presenter.

Someone at last week’s gathering told me: “You have had a fantastic life, haven’t you?”

I totally agreed and said I wake up every morning and count my lucky stars – adding that, at 79, I am just pleased to wake up every morning!”

I started at the now-defunct Westward ITV in Plymouth to cut my teeth and learn to control my nerves.

I had never spoken in public before and there was no autocue or any prompts. Boy, was it scary to begin with, but a great learning curve.

The glass camera lens gives you nothing back – not interested in what you are saying; no encouragement and certainly no response to your attempts at humour.

But slowly I was learning to live with it, knowing that red light meant you were being beamed live into television sets.

I concentrated on what I was saying and talking to the camera operator – just as I did throughout my 50 years of presenting – aware of someone watching but trying to forget at the same time! Anxious to get it right but not too nervous.

Then, in December 1971, came my big break. The legendary Wolves and England captain Billy Wright was head of sport and outside broadcasts at Sir Lew Grade’s mighty ATV station, with centres in Elstree and Birmingham.

Billy wanted me as his new sports presenter, at 26 years of age, and what a job in the days when there was only BBC and ITV and everyone of all ages watched TV!

I regularly get told by Midlanders: “I grew up watching you on the TV.” The price of getting old!

When I first arrived in Birmingham to take the job I thought it was not a great place – especially after living in Cambridge, the Suffolk countryside, London’s Chelsea and Plymouth Hoe. I used to think Brummies were well-balanced with chips on both shoulders.

But now I love the Brummies, the transformed Second City and I do not want to live in another region.

I have been honoured, too, by being named as one of the 100 Great Brummies and selected for The Walk Of Stars in Birmingham’s Broad Street. Mind you, there are stories linked to both.

A few years ago when Ansells Brewery and the Birmingham Evening Mail (as it was then) ran a vote on the 100 Great Brummies, I received a call saying I was in the 100!

I said I could not possibly accept it as I was 26 when I first stepped into the city!

However, a bit like Groucho Marx stating, “If you don’t like my principles I have others!”

I did accept after being told Ed Doolan, of BBC WM, had – and he is Australian.

The BBC were making a network programme on the ceremony at Birmingham Town Hall. They wanted me to arrive in a Rolls Royce with my great friend Jasper Carrott.

Well, what would you have done? Precisely.

The great honour of having a Walk Of Stars stone was slightly soured when it was dug up to make way for a tramline!

I am proud, though, to be an adopted Brummie. Soon I will be giving a talk about the history and merits of the city at the Hotel du Vin in Birmingham, where I am an ambassador to a group working in the financial markets.

If you are interested to learn more, my book Newbon, Bloody Hell is still on sale. It was published last November and was shortlisted by the Sunday Times as the Sportsbook Of The Year. It is still available for Christmas presents!

In next week’s Sunday Mercury memories of Gordon Milne – a great Liverpool player who managed Leicester City and Coventry City and still lives in the region.