Interesting interview with Barry Hearn on TalkSport

He made a fortune hustling the Nugget about in the early days.

Listen online here:

http://talksport.com/radio/how-to-listen

Some brilliant tales Hearn's recounting.

He's just said how Eubank dropped his trousers one day a week or so before a fight and told Hearn he'd just been circumcised - and had it done without anaesthetic because he didn't want to fail the drugs test for the fight!

Very funny stuff!

Reticent and modest are two words I wouldn't use to describe Barry Hearn - but I like him

I don't like him but he's a great raconteur, Nick.
Boring he most certainly is not.

It was a great couple of hours + of listening. He can rabbit so much I'll bet he could still be on now if they'd have had the time slot!

I had a boss back in the 80s who was very much like BH.

Looked a bit like him. Like BH, he was from an east London working class family and was a qualified accountant. He could also talk the hind leg off a donkey but was in no way boring. He was also a great raconteur

Hearn took plenty of gambles in the early days - when he admitted he had no idea what he was doing - and it was obviously his spiel and quick-wittedness that got him through it a lot of the time.

His tale about how he arranged the Bruno v Bugner fight was a peach - especially when he gave his impression of Aussie Joe on the 'phone when he called him up on the spur of the moment from a Chinese restaurant one night!

I've just checked on the TalkSport website to see if it's available to listen to again, but sadly, it seems it isn't. Well, not at present anyway.
It's a really great listen for anyone who likes sport.

Ah! I've just found it. I didn't realise you could use the drop-down box to go back to the day before on TalkSport's 'listen again' tab.

Here's the Barry Hearn interview for anyone who might want to listen to it:

http://talksport.com/radio/listen-again/1398978000

cheers Tommy, I will listen to that, probably Sunday.

It's very entertaining, kenny.

Some cracking stories about snooker, boxing, darts and football (Leyton Orient in particular).

Barry Hearn certainly knows how to tell a good story.

It's also interesting from the perspective of why he's been so successful. A more driven man would be hard to find.

I can imagine it is very entertaining, Tommy.

I heard him interviewed many years ago by Eamon Andrews I think it was, and very amusing he was back then.

I would imagine he came out with lots of risky stories he wouldn't have got away with in the old days so I'm looking forward to hearing the interview.

They weren't particularly risky, kenny, other than the odd swear word or two - but he did give a very realistic description of what it was like in the late 70s/early 80s in smokey snooker halls and the way big betting coups were pulled off by people 'in the know'.

I saw a tv programme about him either last year or the year before on ITV4 in their sporting profiles series (I think it was). That was also very entertaining.

He hasn't written his autobiography yet as he said it would take him too long and he has too much other stuff going on at the moment - but said he may do in future, when a few people have popped their clogs and he can give the full story!

Tommy, that link is to the Talk Sport site. I thought it was a direct link to the interview.

I've clicked on "Listen Again", and that has brought up several programmes but not the BH interviw, and I can't see a search engine.

Can you guide me?

Kenny just press play on that page.

Hi Jayco, ok I'll have another go. Thanks mate.

I'm stumped. Where EXACTLY is PLAY?

oh hang on

The question stands.

On iTunes Monday

kenny, i copied and pasted the link, then "the sports bar" comes up. press the play button on that it works.

ok thanks. I'll try again.

ah, splendid. I'm in now.Thanks.

That link is only 30 mins, I thought it was a couple of hours.

Ah, it's gone on to the next 30 mins automatically.

Kenny would you be more comfortable with 8 track ?

No, I'd be more comfortable with an 8 pack.

This is good, I think you'd enjoy it.

Just had to check what an 8 track is. I've actually still got some of those. One has my mum on singing I Believe in 1975.

Good day Tommy, and belated thanks for this. An enjoyable listen indeed.

Personally, I've long admired Hearn's entrepreneurial zeal and engaging manner, even during that era when his Matchroom Mob were regularly slaughtering my own favourite snooker players. They then of course added insult to injury by having that ghastly 'Snooker Loopy' hit.

At first, I thought this thread might actually be another of your practical jokes Tommy, with you sending an entire forum off on a wild goose chase.

For any readers unfamiliar with Tommy btw, he is notorious for such japes, the latest of which I'm embarrassed to say I fell victim to, as I'll explain below.

Being a proud Pretendy Fulham fan (i.e. I wouldn't go to see them if you paid me), it came to my attention that Fulham would be relegated if they lost at Stoke last Saturday. Tommy therefore very generously invited me to his VIP corporate box at the Oatcake Surprise Britannia Stadium, to cheer for my team. "Fulham till I die" and other such feeble pretences etc.

For those who don't know, that VIP box is where Tommy and his business partner, The Count, regularly discus lucrative international business propositions with clients. The day I was there they were floating the possibility of invading Equatorial Guinea (with the highly-armed cast of "Are You Being Served" in tow) not for the oil, but simply to seize the Cream Cracker-making factories and the like. Sounds like yet another blue-chip investment opportunity if ever I heard one.

Anyway, at half-time on Saturday, TT and The Count were dispensing largesse like kings. Instead of coffee and croissants, Tommy was handing out those ice lollies he likes so much. (I won't advertise the brand here, but let's just say the lollies are in the shape of a gentle female cartoon pig currently with her own TV series, but inevitably doomed to die a horrible death courtesy of a truly hideous method of slaughter by 'peace-loving' religious types). 

I wasn't the only lucky recipient of a gratis ice lolly, as the other VIP guest Lady Burslem was also generously provided with one. What TT didn't tell us was that he and The Count had been up until the early hours injecting the ice lollies with generous amounts of both LSD and cr@ck c0caine for good measure.

Inevitably it wasn't long before the effects took hold. I'm told that I ran onto the field, charging up and down the pitch like some demented freelance linesman, awarding Fulham penalties at the slightest provocation, and even a 5 point penalty-try in the 73rd minute. Lady Burslem meanwhile was doing her cheerleader bit on the touchline, stripped down to her tweed scanties and screeching like a banshee :

"What do we want?"
"Five goals for the embarrassingly-named Cottagers please"
"When do we want it?"
"Preferably before the start of injury time my good man".

Suffice to say, the local fuzz eventually arrested us, and our cases come up next week in a town that Tommy rules with a rod of iron. With luck I suppose I might get 23 life sentences and therefore an unlocked cell in an Open Prison.

regards etc TT

Cracking stuff Alun!

My affections for the Peppa Pigs may have to take a back seat the next time I'm lolly buying as I noticed the other day on the Iceland website that the wonderful strawberry ice cream lolly of the 80s has made a return.
Welcome back Funny Feet!

- and glad to see kenny was guided through how to click the button on the TalkSport website!

Barry Hearn coming up on TalkSport in a moment, talking about Orient reaching the play-offs.

Ah, talking about Stephen Lee first.