- Rex Alston
Arthur Rex Alston (
July 2 ,1901 –September 8 ,1994 ) was a leading sports commentator forBBC radio oncricket ,rugby union , athletics andtennis from the mid 1940s to the mid 1960s.Rex Alston was a considerable sportsman in his own right, obtaining a
Cambridge Blue for athletics in 1923, captainingBedfordshire County Cricket Club in 1932, and playing on the wing for Bedford and Rosslyn Park rugby clubs. He was a schoolmaster atBedford School from 1924 to 1941, before joining the BBC. He was originally a billeting officer, but it was soon realised that his voice - a clear, light baritone - was too good for him to remain in an administrative role. He remained on the BBC staff until 1961, and continued broadcasting for a few years after that as a free-lance. He wrote on cricket and rugby for theDaily Telegraph andSunday Telegraph , continuing to report oncounty cricket for the former until 1987. He also had a column inPlayfair Cricket Monthly .His first major cricket commentary was on the Old Trafford "Victory Test" in 1945, as a deputy for Howard Marshall. He quickly became an ever-present in a Test Match commentary team which included
John Arlott andE W Swanton , and also was the producer. He commented on about a hundred Tests in all, many of them after the launch ofTest Match Special in 1957 expanded the coverage to include the full day's play rather than only portions of it. His last Test was in 1964.He had the unsettling experience of reading his own
obituary inThe Times in 1985. A misunderstanding led to his obituary being published instead of merely updated for the files. By an unfortunate coincidence, Alston had collapsed the previous evening at a dinner and was a patient at the Westminster Hospital at the time. Next year he remarried and so became almost certainly the only man to have his death and marriage reported in The Times in that order.He wrote a number of books, including:
*"Taking the Air", Stanley Paul, 1951.
*"Over to Rex Alston. A commentary on the 1953 Australian tour", Frederick Muller Ltd, 1953.
*"Test Commentary: An Account of the Australian Tour of 1956", Stanley Paul, 1956.
*"Watching cricket: An aid to the appreciation of first-class cricket, and a guide to the laws (Sports books)", Phoenix House, 1962.
*"Rothmans Rugby Yearbook 1973-74", The Queen Anne Press Ltd, 1974.
*"ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF RUGBY FOOTBALL a History of Rosslyn Park Football Club 1879-1979" (Editor), 1979.His father was
Arthur Fawssett Alston , the third Bishop of Middleton.References
*"Barclay's World of Cricket - 2nd Edition", 1980, Collins Publishers, ISBN 0-00-216349-7, p652.
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/test_match_special/legends/2938996.stm Rex Alston by Peter Baxter, Producer of Test Match Special]
* [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/236517.html Wisden obituary]
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