57 Facts About John Arlott

Leslie Thomas John Arlott, was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special.

John Arlott was born in 1914 at Cemetery Lodge, Chapel Hill, Basingstoke in Hampshire, the son of cemetery registrar William John Arlott and Nellie.

John Arlott meanwhile showed an early interest in the local cricket matches; in 1926 he watched England and Australia play at The Oval, becoming a fan of Jack Hobbs, and later watched Sussex play Lancashire.

John Arlott progressed to the rank of sergeant while stationed at Southampton, and enjoyed the opportunity to watch Hampshire play at the County Ground while on duty at Northland Road.

John Arlott studied Russian language and military history at the library of Southampton University, wrote reports for his chief constable, gave lectures to students, wrote poetry, and took up boxing, at which he was quite proficient.

John Arlott played cricket at club level but would spend most of his free summer time following the Hampshire team both home and away.

John Arlott was watching Hampshire play Kent at Canterbury in August 1938 when they discovered they would be short of a twelfth man for the following game.

John Arlott subsequently joined the BBC as the Overseas Literary Producer the following year.

John Arlott was asked by the Head of the BBC Overseas Service, Donald Stevenson, to commentate on the warm-up games of India's tour of England in 1946.

John Arlott's commentary "went down very well in India" and he was invited to continue to commentate on further matches, including the Test matches, initiating a 34-year career as a cricket commentator for the BBC.

From 1946 until he retired at the end of the 1980 season, John Arlott covered every single home Test match.

John Arlott commentated on the first 20 overs of each innings with Jim Laker usually covering the last 20.

John Arlott briefly wrote, directed and narrated a topical local series for the BBC called ABC of the South in the 1960s but radio was his true metier.

John Arlott was a popular commentator partly because of his gift for poetic phraseology.

John Arlott was never repetitive or monotonous, except for effect.

John Arlott memorably described it as "a case of Mann's inhumanity to Mann".

John Arlott had the advantage of a very distinctive voice.

Four days later, John Arlott returned to Lord's for his last commentary, covering the 1980 Gillette Cup final.

John Arlott was a stylish writer, contributing regularly as a journalist and writing the occasional hymn, of which the best-known is "God Whose Farm is All Creation", sung at harvest festival.

John Arlott wrote annual reviews of the year's cricket books for Wisden for every year from 1950 until 1992, except for 1979 and 1980.

John Arlott wrote a well received appreciation of Neville Cardus for the 1965 edition.

John Arlott wrote articles on cricket art and history for the encyclopaedia Barclays World of Cricket.

John Arlott was the narrator and technical advisor for the documentary short film Cricket.

John Arlott began reporting football matches for The Observer in 1958.

John Arlott joined The Guardian in 1968 as chief cricket correspondent, where he would stay until 1980.

John Arlott was assigned at his own request to cover the Manchester United v Red Star Belgrade European Cup match in Yugoslavia.

John Arlott stopped covering soccer in 1977 after some violent post match incidents with hooligan fans.

John Arlott became an early member of the Cricket Writers' Club, founded in 1947, whose dinners in those days were lavish affairs and often held in liveried halls.

John Arlott was the chairman at that meeting and, as was his custom, had taken the odd sip of wine.

John Arlott tried hard to bring some order to the proceedings by banging the table with a spoon, but he missed the table.

John Arlott wrote to Arlott in the late 1950s, after hearing his radio commentaries, because "his voice and the words he spoke convinced me he was a nice, compassionate man".

John Arlott wanted help to find an opportunity to play professional cricket in England and Arlott finally got him a summer contract with Middleton Cricket Club in the Central Lancashire Cricket League in 1960.

John Arlott subsequently said that this was the achievement in his career of which he felt most proud.

John Arlott was incensed and condemned the selectors' decision in his press articles and publicly stated that he would not commentate on any matches involving the South African team during their scheduled tour of England in 1970.

John Arlott received support from many people over his uncompromising stand, including future England captain Mike Brearley, who called for the cessation of all South African tours, and the Reverend David Sheppard, who had been one of the first players to speak out against apartheid and who had previously refused to play against the 1960 South African touring side.

John Arlott maintained his strong views on the issue and two years later he came to an unprecedented agreement with the BBC to be excused from commentating on the upcoming Test series against South Africa in England without prejudicing his future commentary role on Test matches against other touring teams in subsequent years.

John Arlott got out some cheese and said this goes best with that wine.

John Arlott was a great advocate of county cricket and its players.

John Arlott became President of the Cricketers' Association in 1968, which aimed to raise salaries and improve the conditions of employment of the county cricketer.

John Arlott had developed a close friendship with Sir Jack Hobbs, who ran a sports shop in Fleet Street after his retirement from cricket.

John Arlott was invited in 1981 to select his Best XI from players who, for a wide variety of reasons, were never capped by England.

John Arlott's team was John Langridge, Maurice Hallam, Emrys Davies, Edgar Oldroyd, Jack Newman, Harry Martyn, Peter Sainsbury, Wilf Wooller, Don Shepherd, Charles Kortright and Tom Wass.

John Arlott subsequently wrote a regular wine column for The Guardian newspaper and he published two books, Burgundy Vines and Wines co-written with Christopher Fielden in 1976, and Arlott on Wine in 1987.

John Arlott espoused strong liberal and humanitarian political views and he stood as the Liberal candidate for Epping in both the 1955 and 1959 general elections, coming third on both occasions but achieving strong support at a time when the Liberals were weak nationally.

John Arlott was twice invited to appear on Desert Island Discs with Roy Plomley, in May 1953 and again in May 1975.

John Arlott was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1970 New Year Honours.

John Arlott was made a life member of the MCC in 1980.

John Arlott won the Sports Journalist of the Year Award in 1979, and was Sports Presenter of the Year in 1980.

John Arlott was married three times: his first wife was Dawn Rees, with whom he had two sons, James Andrew.

John Arlott retired as a cricket commentator at the end of the 1980 season.

John Arlott's health was fragile and he suffered from emphysema and chronic bronchitis after years of smoking.

John Arlott died in his sleep in the early morning on Saturday 14 December 1991 and was buried in the island cemetery.

The trust was a tribute to John Arlott's memory in creating a fund to provide affordable village housing and recreational areas in some of England's 8,000 villages and it is a national charity chaired by former newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald.

John Arlott had originally bought the former pub in New Alresford in 1961.

John Arlott completely renovated the interior, especially the large cellar for his collection of fine wine.

John Arlott became active in the local community becoming President of the newly founded Alresford Historical and Literary Society in 1966 until he relocated to Alderney 15 years later.

John Arlott: The Authorised Biography, by David Rayvern Allen, published in 1993, won The Cricket Society Jubilee Literary Award.