Half seven in the morning. Mick Channon is sitting at a desk in the office of his palatial West Ilsley stables. A force of nature, he’s been merrily swearing away for the last couple of hours.
A black and white picture hangs on the wall: Alan Ball on the left, Channon on the right. The pair are at Lawrie McMenemy’s Southampton. Both are laughing. There’s a lot of that when Channon is around.
Once a thoroughbred footballer and now a prolific trainer, the remarkable 68-year-old’s windmills are slowed by arthritis these days. But the mind is still fast, the tongue still sharp and the language incorrigible.