Obituary: Rex Alston

Arthur Rex Alston, broadcaster and journalist: born Faringdon, Berkshire 2 July 1901; Assistant Master, Bedford School 1924-41; BBC Commentator 1943-61; author of Taking the Air 1950, Over to Rex Alston 1953, Test Commentary 1956, Watching Cricket 1962; married 1932 Elspeth Stockman (died 1985; one son, one daughter); 1986 Joan Wilson; died Ewhurst, Surrey 8 September 1994.

REX ALSTON was a familiar and welcome voice on BBC radio for 20 years after the Second World War. Older generations will recall, with pleasure, the lucidity of his commentaries on cricket, rugby, athletics and lawn tennis.

Even during the war, some inter-services cricket matches were broadcast, usually from Lord's, and Alston, both medically unfit (after a serious bout of concussion) and too old for military service, was often the commentator. Mention of the weather was forbidden for security reasons; one imagines Adolf Hitler puzzling over the implications of a 'sticky wicket'.

Alston was born in 1901, the son of Arthur Fawssett Alston, the Suffragan Bishop of Middleton. Rex became a schoolmaster, at Bedford School, before joining the BBC, rather incongruously, as a wartime billeting officer, in 1941. Soon, his clarity of speech, quick wits and mastery of technique, took him to the microphone, initially as an announcer and then to the outside broadcasts department. Here his earlier sporting achievements, as a young man, complemented his skill as a broadcaster. He had been a talented performer at all the sports which he was called upon to broadcast.

A Cambridge athletics blue, Alston ran second in the 100 yards to the legendary Harold Abrahams at the inter-varsity sports of 1923. He also represented Oxford and Cambridge against Harvard and Yale. Alston and Abrahams later, on four occasions, combined on the radio, with no less distinction, to describe the Olympic Games.

At cricket, Alston captained Bedfordshire, his highest score being 115 against Cambridgeshire. This experience stood him in good stead when Test match broadcasts were resumed after the Second World War and C. B. Fry joined Alston at the microphone on 25 June 1946 for England v India at Lord's.

I met him, for the first time, that year when I was auditioned as a cricket commentator. He was generous with advice to a nervous novice and I survived the ordeal to share the microphone with him at many cricket and rugby matches in the Fifties and Sixties.

Alston broadcast cricket regularly until 1964, although he officially retired from the BBC's staff at the statutory age of 60 in 1961. Test Match Special, the ball-by-ball coverage of Test matches, began in 1957 when John Arlott and Ken Ablack were his fellow commentators at Edgbaston under the new slogan 'Don't miss a ball; we broadcast them all'. It was soon clear that someone with his feet firmly on the ground was needed to balance idiosyncratic personalities such as Arlott and, later, Brian Johnston. Rex Alston filled this role to perfection. With his scholastic background, he was clear, accurate and very much 'on the ball'. He had learnt his rugby at Trent College, as did another flying wing threequarter, Prince Obolensky. The latter's tries at Twickenham in 1936 against the All Blacks are part of rugby folklore, but Alston also scored a try there for Rosslyn Park against Harlequins. He had previously captained Bedford and played for the East Midlands.

At lawn tennis, he was for many years a commentator at Wimbledon. Although not matching Max Robertson for speed of speech, he gave a clear and accurate word picture of the game and not least introduced the great Fred Perry to the microphone.

Rex Alston's first wife, Elspeth Stockman, died in 1985. In that same year, much, I think, to his amusement, Rex's own obituary notice mistakenly appeared in the Times. Sadly, he will not read this one. He was a fine broadcaster and a kindly man.

His later years were much lightened by his second marriage, to Joan Wilson.

(Photograph omitted)