Test Match Special

Subject: Test Match Special

Yesterday England decisively beat the West Indies in the final cricket test at Lords. It was a game in which the West Indies were expected to do well, having beaten England in good game last week. My mind went back to the great West Indian sides of the 50s and the birth of the calypso "Those little friends of mine Ramadhin and Valentine". The batting power of the three Ws, Weeks, Worrall, and Walcott turned the test series on its head to the delirious approval of the large, noisy West Indian contingent amongst the spectators. England were no pushover, led by perhaps the greatest English batsman Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook ably supported by Alec Bedser and Godfrey Evans. The verve and light hearted spirit induced to the games by the enthusiastic spectators, West Indians not long off the boat and dying for their nation to make their mark, an antidote to the hostility they sometimes found in their attempt to make a new life for themselves here in this cold wet island. 

Pace bowling though was what the Windies were best known for, Malcolm Marshall, Courtney Walsh, Michael Holding, Joel Gardner and Curtly Ambrose all names to strike fear into the minds of the batsman and we gathered around our radio sets to listen to the commentary of a contest so far away it could have been the other side of the moon.

Test Match Special commented on them all. The inimitable tone and pace of John Arlott 

the light heated banter of Brian Johnson and Johnathan Agnew, who can forget the moment in one of the matches when Agnew said something which had a double entente meaning and devolved Johnson into tears, neither commentator able to say a thing, over come with the giggles which seemed to go on interminably.  It's a recording in which the giggles and the gasping for air are infectious and I dare anyone not to be caught up in the moment. 

Test Match Special was a uniquely English mixture of serious cricket reporting mixed with reminiscence and humour. The commentators, between balls, would describe a hundred and one things which were going on in the ground or describe incidents which had happened to them on tour all around the world. It was a conversation between friends and we were privileged to be able to eaves drop.

One of the best raconteurs with his oh so upperclass English accent was Henry Blofeld. His penchant was to see the smallest  off scene event and bring it to our attention. It enriched the commentary and endeared the man to his listeners. 

Yesterday as the match drew to an early close it was his last appearance in the commentary box. There was much to reminisce especially the tours overseas, a lifetime of exporting his English mannerisms and quirks to I'm sure, a baffled locale be it South Africa, India, the West Indies or the most raucous of them all, the Pom bashing Aussie. The last bowl balled, the last word said and he was out of the commentary box to do a tour of the Lords Ground to the enthusiastic applause of both cricketer and spectator for whom he had been a linchpin pin in their game describing the matches for over 45 years.

Blowers departs and the men in the mould of Arlott and Johnson are joined by another, a classic of a passing age, probably never to be repeated.