RAY STUBBS has carved a great career in sports broadcasting after playing professional football for Tranmere Rovers, whom he joined from school and was with for five years. After switching to an administrative role with the club, he then spent three years with BBC Radio Merseyside as a reporter and presenter before in 1986, moving to BBC Manchester as an assistant producer, working on a number of sports including snooker, darts and bowls as well as A Question of Sport. In 1990, Stubbs began working as a reporter on Grandstand, Match of the Day and Sportsnight. He has covered the last three World Cups for BBC Sport, as well as numerous other big events. He moved to American sports channel ESPN in the summer of 2009.
What is your favourite training session?
The final long run before the Great North Run because it’s then too late to do any more – along the Thames towpath for as long as I can keep going.
What is your least favourite training session?
About every July when I do two miles when I realise it is less than a sixth of race distance and the Great North Run is looming large on the horizon!
Who is your athletic hero/heroine?
Lord Foster of Northumberland (aka Brendan). I admired his tenacity as a runner and to then become a colleague and friend has been a pleasure.
What was your first race?
The Wirral Marathon in the early 1980s – I did it in about 4 hours 25 minutes. I also did the Mersey Marathon on two occasions.
What is your favourite race venue?
The North Eastern welcome and hospitality over a Great North Run weekend does it for me!
What sport event would you most like to go to?
England playing in a World Cup football final. Since England played in a World Cup Final in 1966, 12 European nations have played in a major final – either the Eorld Cup or European Championships. Unfortunately we’re not one of them. Germans have played in 10 … a sobering thought.
If you hadn't been a sports reporter, what career path do you think you would have taken?
I really don’t know … but I would have liked to have been involved in sport in some way. Before I got involved in sport I did have ambitions to work in a theatre.
What is your greatest running achievement?
Taking 20 minutes off my Great North Run time between year 1 and 2, but it’s been a downhill slide since then!
What interests do you have?
I keep promising myself I will take snooker more seriously although Steve Davis and John Parrott are of the opinion I have the worst bridge hand in history and therefore should give up.
In the hours leading up to a race, how do you prepare?
In the past, carrying John Motson’s bag to the start and ensuring it’s on the correct bus for him to collect at the finish. I have a pre-race ritual of questioning why on earth I am there! (It always evaporates when I cross the finishing line).