JOHN ANDERSON

John is a freelance sports broadcaster, specialising mainly in football commentaries which have been heard on a variety of outlets including BT Sport, BBC Sport, Sky Sports, talkSPORT and Channel 5. He also covers FIFA tournaments for HBS and has just returned from South Korea where he commentated on England’s triumph at the Under 20 World Cup.

Prior to going freelance in 2004, John was the chief sports correspondent at Independent Radio News for 17 years covering World Cups, European Championships, Olympics, World Athletics, Rugby World Cups, Wimbledons and world title boxing fights. In 2009 John published a memoir of his days as a globetrotting radio reporter called “A Great Face For Radio” which was updated in 2013.

John was born in Watford but, despite moving away to Guildford aged less than a year, has supported the club all his life. Unfortunately the nature of John's work and geographical factors have meant that he has seldom been a regular at Vicarage Road and this feeling of enforced detachment was the basis for his chapter in the first Tales from the Vicarage book entitled “On the Outside Looking In”.

John also wrote two chapters for the fifth edition; one about the professional and personal conflicts of commentating on Watford in the Premier League for talkSPORT and the other a short, allegorical piece on following the club’s fortunes during a trip to the Atacama Desert in Chile.

John says: "it's been a real pleasure and privilege contributing to this marvellous set of books and being given the opportunity to share my stories and memories with the readers. I now have a season ticket in the Sir Elton John stand which has boosted my attendance record at the Vic to around six or seven matches per season while my wife, who I first met due to our mutual love of the club, goes to almost every home game."

Readers and fans who wish to follow John on Twitter can do so by visiting @GreatFaceRadio.