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Alan Clarkson, who died on Monday night aged 85, was universally regarded as a sports-writing icon by his peers.
There could be no greater salute, no greater recognition.
Affectionally known as ‘Clarko’, he was the Sydney Morning Herald and Sun Herald’s chief sports-writer covering rugby league for 33 years, including five Kangaroo tours, World Cups, four Olympics, and when available the Australian tennis circuit, including Davis Cup ties at home and overseas.
Clarko was the epitome of accuracy, it was his whole being. Add his genuine passion for sport that earned the total respect of readers, sportsmen and women alike, plus administrators, and he covered the whole spectrum.
In those early days during the 1960s, EE Christensen, Geoff Prenter, Peter Peters, and Gary Lester were the rugby league writers at The Sun, Bill Mordey, Peter Muscat, and Peter Frilingos at the Daily Mirror, with Ian Heads at the Daily Telegraph.
But as widely read as he was, it was his weekly Sunday morning appearances during the winter with Rex Mossop’s Controversy Corner on Channel Seven that brought ‘Clarko’ closer and more personal to sports lovers.
The CC panel was compulsary viewing with Rex in the chair, his co-Kangaroos Ferris Ashton and Noel Kelly, former refereeing legend Col Pearce, and Clarko.
The segment was the corner stone of the two-hour show and every other sport host gathered around the cameras so we didn’t miss anything – Ian Craig, Max Presnell, and Paul Ambrosoli with the gallops, trots, and dogs, David Jack then Johnny Warren with the soccer, for a while Sam Kekovich hosted the AFL, while I covered the rugby and cricket.
Rex not only ran CC with an iron fist, but the entire two-hour Sports Action program.
But nobody told Ferris or Noel that, so their banter made Rex rankle on many occasions.
Ferris and Noel were past masters at rattling Rex’s cage, and it usually took the quietly spoken moderator Clarko to settle the dust.
That was so typical of Clarko. In all the years I’ve known him, I never heard him raise his voice, nor swear, and the same could be said of Col Pearce.
The same could never be said of Rex, ‘Ferdie’, or ‘Ned’. How they restained themselves for those 25-odd minutes a week was a feat in itself.
Especially Noel Kelly, who was without doubt one of the toughest rugby league footballers either of us had ever known.
We discussed that topic often, recalling one particular incident.
In the lead-up to a Headingley Test where the Kangaroos and Great Britain came out of opposite doors into a long dark tunnel, the two Poms marking Noel and Peter Dimond stepped into the light, staggering with very wobbly knees.
Both players had unloaded on their opposite number’s jaws in the dark. And those hit by those two Roos invariably stayed hit.
Sadly, Noel Kelly at 79 is the last living legend of Controversy Corner.
Col Pearce died June 10, 2004, aged 86.
Rex Mossop died June 17, 2011, aged 83.
And Ferris Ashton died January 29, 2013, aged 87.
Sports-lovers will be forever indebted to the quality quintet, for they were trail-blazers.