Out of sight, out of mind? Not for West Ham United’s blind faithful

Enjoy my latest feature . . .

 

By James Curtis 

 

Monday lunch time at Canon Palmer Catholic School, and in the PE department there is a frantic free-for-all to grab the few pumped-up basketballs for a break-time game. I am anonymous in all the hysteria and squeeze into the unorganised office where James Datson welcomes me with a constricted handshake and customary cockney greeting “’ello mate, alright?”.

Through the week, James works as a Learning Mentor supporting pupils on their journey in education. At the weekend he is the eyes for the visually impaired at his beloved West Ham football club where he began as a commentator in 2000.

At 35, he has an abundance of experience working for the FA and Wembley on FA Cup finals and England Internationals. However, the commentating comes natural to him, having spent many years on the terraces describing the action to Matthew, his blind brother and inspiration.

“The commentary is like the radio but with a little extra information” he explains, waving a prying student away from the door. “Say if the subs are warming up then I inform the listeners, if there is a noise from the crowd I let them know what’s going on. The golden rule I have is that if the game is stopped the listeners would know where the ball is on the pitch.”

In 1997, Coca-Cola produced a TV commercial showing James commentating to his brother in the stand at a West Ham game. “The advert was a success,” he recalls, “and West Ham started looking into providing a service for all visually impaired supporters during home matches. I was asked if I wanted to give it a go and so my first match was the Julian Dick’s testimonial. This would be the start of something special and a chance for us to show everyone that having a disability shouldn’t stop you from attending matches.”

Today, West Ham are one of five Premiership clubs to provide commentary for the blind averaging over 20 listeners each home game, and James is upbeat about the future. “You know, it would be good to get more Premiership clubs involved, but I hope that in five years time it doesn’t matter what ground you go to blind people will be able to access this service.”

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) through project Soccer Sight are making this possible, having helped install new radio transmission equipment - costing £5,000 with 10 headsets - at over 25 football league clubs.

“That’s right”, James’ cheeky east end grin shows he is pleased I have done my homework, “to get other clubs involved between the RNIB and Soccer Sight we send out information packs. Recently a five minute piece was done on Match of the Day 2 and we have been on Radio 4.“

We get talking about James’s most cherished game, the one where Paolo Di Canio scored against Chelsea in his last appearance at Upton Park, but lucky for this Gooner the bell sounds, quelling any chance of West ham nostalgia.