Hazel's biography

Way back when……

• Hazel has been a TV sports broadcaster for 30 years.  She made her debut on STV’s Scottish football programme, “Scotsport” in October 1987, taking over from Sally McNair –who had, three years earlier, become the first woman to appear on a dedicated sport programme in the UK.
• A few months later Hazel made her network TV debut, landing an anchor role with ITV Sport on its coverage of the Seoul 1988 Olympic games alongside the legendary Dickie Davies.

Focus on football…..

• In the autumn of 1988, STV created a new programme called “Scotsport Extra Time” for Hazel and co-host Jim White. It became a popular Friday evening football preview show and made Hazel the first woman to become a dedicated anchor of a football programme in the UK.
• She also presented Channel 4’s pioneering early coverage of women’s football at this time.
• After working as ITV Sport’s Scotland camp reporter at the Italy 1990 World Cup, later that summer that Hazel began assignments with BBC Scotland, fronting “Friday Sportscene” with Rob Maclean. She’d go on to present other football programmes, “Sportscene Match of the Day”, “Final Score” and report from a further 3 World Cups and 4 European Championships.

The big, black chair and beyond…..

• In 1992 Hazel was given her first chance to sit in the Grandstand hot seat at BBC Sport, becoming the youngest ever presenter of the flagship show. She often hosted the programme  over the next 15 years, and indeed fronted the last ever Saturday Grandstand in 2007.
• She has worked on a huge variety of sports and events since then, from Wimbledon to the Boat Race, the 60^th anniversary of the D-Day Landings, and everything from the Six and Ten o’clock news to the World Barefoot waterskiing championships!

Snooker

• She has become particularly associated with several key sports including snooker, teaming up with colleagues John Parrott and Steve Davis in 2001. They continue to work together at  iconic venues such as the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield with IMG Media.

Golf

• Hazel first presented golf for BBC Sport in 1992 and went on to become the first woman to anchor full live coverage of both the Open Championship and the Masters at Augusta.

• Her experiences in men’s golf also took her to the Ryder Cup, Walker Cup, European Tour events such as the BMW PGA Championship, World Matchplay championship, Scottish Open and the British Masters. She has also enjoyed many wonderful experiences in women’s golf, from Patti Sheehan’s victory at the Women’s British Open at Woburn in 1992 to Inbee Park’s career slam at Turnberry 2015, Solheim and Curtis Cups.

Ski Sunday

• She hosted the alpine sport's iconic “Ski Sunday” programme for a decade, on the road and back again to venues such as Kitzbuhel, Wengen, Val Gardena, Vail, St Moritz and St Anton.

Athletics

• Hazel fronted athletics for over ten years, including significant events like the London Marathon and World Athletics Championships. She led the presentation of the BBC’s BAFTA-award winning coverage from Berlin in 2009.

Olympics

• She has presented, commentated and reported on 15 Olympic games: from Seoul 88, Barcelona 92, Atlanta 96, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 to Rio 2016.

• She has also had her thermals at the ready for Winter Games in Lillehammer 94, Nagano 98, Salt Lake City 2002, Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 and Pyeonchang 2018.

• Hazel was proudly wearing those thermals when she carried the Olympic flame during the torch relay in Moscow ahead of the Sochi 2014 Games. 

     Other Business…..

• She’s enjoyed projects in Light Entertainment – including Hogmanay Live, Millennium Night,  D-Day 60, and The Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

• Has presented TV magazine programmes, such as “The Air Show”, “Outside Now” and “Feeling Good” and is equally at home on radio.

• Behind the camera, Hazel also works in TV production. She was an Executive Producer of IMG Scotland's documentary, "Glasgow '67; The Lisbon Lions", which won Best Single Documentary at both the BAFTA Scotland and RTS Scotland awards. She also produced an accompanying radio documentary. 
• Hazel is an accomplished conference facilitator and awards host.

• She is also a busy after dinner and keynote speaker, covering themes incorporating motivation, teamwork, leadership skills and the changing role of women and female broadcasters in sport.

• Having reported, presented and commentated on many of the world’s greatest sporting events, she has a wealth of tales, both funny and revealing, from in front of and behind the camera.

• When she’s not working and being a wife and mother, Hazel just about manages to squeeze in the odd game of golf, play the piano and cheer on Dumbarton FC, the club for which she is proud to be Honorary President of the Supporters Association.