Sky Sports F1 commentator and West Ham United fan David Croft is the latest guest to join the Club’s official podcast, Iron Cast.
There are clouds in the London sky but the sun is still shining. It’s 1980, and ten-year-old David Croft is sitting in front of the TV watching West Ham United v Arsenal in the FA Cup final at Wembley...
An early Trevor Brooking header gave Second Division West Ham a shock early lead against the Gunners that day. Many would have expected Arsenal to recover from such a setback, but John Lyall’s side admirably clung on to create history. It was at that moment Croft became a true Hammer.
Fast forward a year, and he was in the stands at the home of football as Ray Stewart’s extra-time penalty earned the Irons a replay with Liverpool in the Football League Cup final.
Now, aged 53, he is a Season Ticket Holder at London Stadium, has seen his beloved Hammers become UEFA Europa Conference League champions, and has one of the most recognisable voices in sport.
Speaking to Iron Cast co-hosts Chris Scull and James Collins, he said: “I have no idea [how I became a West Ham United fan]. I grew up in Stevenage, the home of seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton.
“When I was growing up, there were no football teams in my local area and Stevenage Borough didn’t really exist until around 1982. All of my mates were either Arsenal, Tottenham or Chelsea fans. I didn’t want to support any of them as I had no affinity with them. There was just something about West Ham that made me decide to support them. We got to the FA Cup final in 1980 and I was like ‘this is the team’.
“In 1981, my dad managed to get tickets for the League Cup final which was a pretty impossible feat at the time as we didn’t have season tickets. That was one of the days when you point back and say why you love your parents as much as you do.
“Liverpool scored with three minutes remaining in extra-time. We’re in the Liverpool end, everyone’s going crazy around us, so he looked at me and he put his arm around me and said, ‘don’t worry son, we will be OK’, and we were. We went up to the other end, won a penalty, and Ray Stewart buried it. There were two people in the Liverpool end going crazy. He jumped up with me to celebrate and then we got out and legged it to the station.”
While there have been ups and downs throughout Croft’s time supporting the Hammers, he reflected on his memories of the recent success that saw West Ham lift the UEFA Europa Conference League trophy last season.
He said: "My best game ever, the one that stands out, was when we played Liverpool at Upton Park in the cup in 1988. We were bottom of Division One and they were top, and we beat them 4-1. [Paul] Ince scored a couple of goals, they scored one of the most ridiculous own goals ever and then Tony Gale bent it like [David] Beckham from 30 yards. It was one of the most incredible nights.
"There are a few West Ham fans [on the F1 circuit]. Sometimes it’s easy to watch, sometimes it’s not. I’ve been up at 5am in Australia to watch a midweek Europa League match.
“I couldn’t get a ticket [for the Conference League final] but it would have been unfair, and I couldn’t have done it to other fans. We had a work night out. I ended up leaving it and watching the game in a pub around the corner.
“When I started going to games with my boys, there was a time when neither of them were sure about being a West Ham fan. Daniel has stuck with it through thick and thin, while the other supports Liverpool, but I told them when the good times come, it makes everything else worthwhile. I’m a Season Ticket Holder now and there are games where I watch and say that’s worth suffering for the good times.”
Croft grew up idolising the likes of Stewart, Brooking and Billy Bonds in the 1980s, while current Sporting Director Mark Noble is one of his Hammers heroes from the modern era.
He continued: “Trevor Brooking was the one growing up. Billy Bonds, Phil Parkes, he was so good. I used to love Geoff Pike and Alan Devonshire. There are so many guys from the 1980s who I looked at and admired.
“Alvin Martin was the first player I ever got an autograph from. He came to an event in Stevenage, so I went along just to get his autograph and it stayed on my bedroom wall until the point it completely faded.
“When you go through it, some of the players we’ve seen over the years have been incredible. Dimitri Payet, who for one season couldn’t miss from 30 yards, Paolo Di Canio, the most eccentric, bonkers and gifted footballer we’ve ever had and ever likely to have.
“Mark Noble, who I’ve become mates with as he is a massive F1 fan. I was in Bahrain a few years ago and I got this Instagram message from Mark saying, ‘best of luck for the season, we will be watching’. He sent me a photo of the dressing room as they were away at Tottenham that day and they had the Grand Prix on!
“We got talking more and he came out for a weekend for a race with a few mates. We got them into the paddock and had a brilliant weekend, but there was one thing that summed up why he was captain, a brilliant captain and why he is a proper good guy.
“I said to him that we had a grid pass but could only get one. He said he was with his mates and couldn’t leave them.”
Croft sacrificed a career as a theatre publicity officer to take up a one-month contract at the BBC in 1995, hoping to pursue his dream. The rest is history.
You may recognise his voice from Sky Sports F1’s coverage, but the commentator believes he made his name while covering the BDO World Darts Championship.
“Darts was my big break,” he said. “I had worked for the BBC and done commentary, but that [darts] is what got me noticed in a TV sense. I miss it a lot because I don’t know any other sport that swings from good to bad so fast.
“The BDO did a brilliant job of putting darts on the map and the PDC have taken it on, and the standard now is unbelievable. I watched Luke Littler over Christmas and it was just brilliant. If anyone is going to beat Phil Taylor’s 16 world titles, he is the one who will do it.
“I’ve done 350 races now and never thought I’d do that many. I got the job after being advised to audition for it by the producer after we had a chat at a bar in Las Vegas at 2am. So, I gave it a go, and had to leave a full-time job at the BBC to take up a freelance role to pursue my dreams, not for the first time in my life. I joined the BBC in 1995 on a one-month contract, giving up my job as a theatre publicity officer just to see how far it would go.
“I do more revising now than I ever did at school, and I realised later in life you need to put the work in if you want anything. I spend a day-and-a-half before each Grand Prix researching notes and then add to it during the course of the week.
“I’m very aware that we often commentate just after a football match, and I try to never give the score away. There are bits people don't see - when West Ham score and I’m in the middle of a commentary, I’m giving it the full celebrations!”
