Rob Hawthorne

For the Hollyoaks character, see Rob Hawthorne (Hollyoaks).

Rob Hawthorne is a football commentator currently working for BSkyB's Sky Sports and Bell Media's TSN. He is notable for his commentating alongside Andy Gray in the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final in Istanbul.

He was born in Dudley, Worcestershire now West Midlands. He was a pupil at Foxyards Primary School and later the Blue Coat School.

Early career

His media career began at the age of 14, when he was still a pupil at the Blue Coat School. After participating in a local radio talent spotting competition, he was taken on by Beacon Radio in Wolverhampton.

Five Live

He became one of the regular commentators on live broadcasts for BBC Radio 5, shortly after its launch, before moving on to BBC Radio Five Live with the rest of its sports team in 1994. After senior commentators Mike Ingham and Alan Green, Hawthorne and colleague Ron Jones formed the second "tier" of commentators. During his time on radio Hawthorne commentated on several Division One Play-off finals, the Scottish Cup Final, a number of FA Cup and League Cup semi-finals and two major international tournaments - Euro 92 and World Cup 94.

Television commentary

His first live television experience came in 1991, when he covered Brazilian championship football games for Screensport.

Sky Sports

Hawthorne's move to television was completed as he became part of the Sky Sports commentary team covering Monday night games in the F.A. Premier League; his first live game was Leeds United v Liverpool in August 1995.

But after his first season covering Monday Night Football (having commented on the title showdown between Newcastle and Man United) Hawthorne worked alongside Alan Brazil and had the privilege of commentating on memorable play off finals. For example, Charlton v Sunderland from 1998 and Man City v Gillingham from 1999. He was moved back to covering Monday Night Football and some Saturday games. He has commentated on League Cup Finals and FA Cup matches. He commentates on all of the Republic of Ireland's matches. In 2003 when Sky got Champions League football live, Hawthorne added this tournament to the ever growing list of tournaments he has commentated on. He did the famous Liverpool v AC Milan Champions League Final in 2005[1] as Sky's lead commentator Martin Tyler was covering England.

References

  1. ↑ White, Jim. "Sky's perfect pitch ensured that we, the viewers, never had to walk alone". The Daily Telegraph, 27 May 2005. Retrieved on 23 May 2013.