Elton Welsby

Roger Elton Welsby (known as Elton Welsby) is a British television sports presenter.

Born Roger Welsby, he changed his name in the 1970's to Elton as a tribute to one of his favourite musical artists Elton John.

The ITV Years

He began his broadcasting career on Liverpool radio station "Radio City" as a sports reporter and commentator. In January 1978 he joined Granada Television , working on its football programme "The Kick Off Match" and presented its 1980s successor "Match Night" until its demise in 1983. When Granada revived "Kick Off" in 1989, Welsby returned as presenter.

However, it is for his work on national ITV that Welsby will be best remembered. He was one of the anchors of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the last Olympic Games to be covered by the network, and also presented the Saturday afternoon Results Service from the late 1980s onwards.

At the start of the 1988-89 season, ITV began broadcasting exclusive coverage of the Football League. It was the task of future BBC Director- General Greg Dyke to oversee the coverage and he entrusted Welsby as presenter of "The Match", anchoring numerous dramatic matches over the next four years. The most notable was Arsenal's 2-0 win at Liverpool to clinch the championship at their opponents expense in the dying seconds of the 1988-89 season

The loss of top- flight football to Sky Sports in 1992 hit ITV Sport hard, and Welsby's final work for ITV was as an anchorman at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. However, this tournament saw newcomer Matthew Lorenzo do much of the presenting, the imminent arrival of Bob Wilson pushed Welsby further down the football presenting pecking order on ITV.

Welsby continued to present regional sports programming for Granada Television until May 2000 when the station decided not to renew his contract. No explanation was given for the decision, although he had become increasingly prone to gaffes such as getting the Chelsea director Matthew Harding's name wrong when announcing his death in a helicopter crash and upsetting Sir Alex Ferguson with a tactless question suggesting he hadn't been a very good player.Welsby has occasionally returned as a guest on the Granada Soccer Night programme. In 2001 Welsby returned to radio to present "Elton Welsby's Soccer Saturday" fot North- West regional station Century FM - a role he held for three years.

Other Work

Welsby was the final presenter of British gameshow Busman's Holiday following on from Julian Pettifer and Sarah Kennedy. He is regularly involved in corporate and charity work, and his known for his close association with the "Zoe's Place" children's hospice.

Welsby is nowadays rarely involved in sports presenting, although he has recently been seen presenting Crown Green Bowls for Sky Sports. In recent times, Welsby has toured the country with Ricky Tomlinson in the theatre tour, "An Evening with Ricky Tomlinson", where he interviews Tomlinson in- character as Jim Royle. Welsby, a lifelong Everton fan, was once a porter at Broad Green Hospital in Liverpool. His son Chris works for Sky Sports.