Leslie Thomas John Arlott, OBE (25 February 1914 – 14 December 1991) was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC’s Test Match Special. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur.
The Hampshire burr and eclectic observations of John Arlott were a soundtrack to my early life as my father would always have a transistor radio with him on family outings or have the commentary on the radio at home during test matches.
Why this particular commentator enjoyed such popularity at school amongst teenage boys is interesting. His commentary was different from the other commentators and in a time when it was cool (not a word in popular use at the time) to be different. In musical tastes progressive rock was the thing to be in rather than the pop music that had been the norm in the 60s. Bands like Yes and Pink Floyd were more complex and very different to the mainstream offerings on Radio 1 and Top of the Pops at the time and enjoyed a cult following amongst schoolboys in that era.
John Arlott would describe what he saw in very different terms to his fellow commentators. When the England slip cordon happened to have a very tall player at one end such as Tony Greig with the rest in order of size going down to the smallest like Keith Fletcher he once described the slips as being graded in size like potatoes. No other commentator would have thought of that analogy and I wouldn’t have known that they did grade potatoes in sizes as they seemed to come together in all shapes and sizes. When a rain shower sent the players scampering off the field once he commentated on their progress like a horse racing commentator – “Edrich is first off the field easily with Boycott second” a short pause then “Bedi, sixth”. The master of the pause in which he probably contemplated his next utterance which was even more accentuated when he did some television commentary in the early days of The John Player Sunday League. Brian Close was batting for Somerset in one game in at the latter end of his career typical fashion and rather than describe a piece of action which was plain to see for the viewers he summed up the man in a few words. “Close, as full of fight at 40 as he was at 20 or for that matter when he was 18 and made his first class debut”. A long pause ensued and then as the camera showed a closer shot of him “Look at that jaw”. In another match Derbyshire got off to a bad start losing their first two wickets for nothing. Arlott paused after the second player made their way back to the pavilion and remarked “0 for 2, not at all a felicitous commencement” another pause and the “We will not be showing the scoreboard at this particular juncture in deference to viewers in Derbyshire”.
I can remember many of these classic Arlott quotes due to actually having them on cassette tape as I would make recordings from time to time and was lucky enough to catch him in great form in some of them.
He would observe things that would not occur to his colleagues which would probably reflect his own thoughts at the time. When Brian Brain was bowling in a game for Worcestershire he observed that he was probably the only first class cricketer whose first name was an anagram of his second name. He liked the combinations of bowler and batsman that have interesting connotations.
“Bourne to Love……..sounds like a popular record”
“Graham to Green……..interesting connotations if you’ve read Brighton Rock”
When Butcher and Baker were playing in the same game he remarked about the number of professions were represented on the field. I can’t remember if Engineer was playing that day but he made the observation before adding “Candlestickmaker didn’t make the final 12”
He was the master of the understatement as well. Geoff Boycott managed get out again to Eknath Solkar, the part time gentle medium left arm Indian bowler who had his measure in that particular series. The guest commentator who was referred to as ‘Prince’ being in fact the Maharajah of Baroda remarked that Boycott didn’t like being given out lbw. Arlott then reflected “Boycott dislikes being given out perhaps a little more than most”
One of the best combinations was Arlott and Trevor Bailey along with Arlott and Fred Trueman. The commentary when the players were off for rain was often more absorbing than when play was actually taking place. There was no need to break off from a long story or anecdote to describe some action on the field and many interesting discussions took place. Arlott had a fascination with Bishen Bedi particular in he choice of head gear which he was quick to point out was not a turban but a patka. Bedi used to use a variety of colours for his patka and Arlott would let the listener know what his choice was on any particular day. Bedi was quite different from other cricketers not least in his choice of headgear but aloo in his bowling style and philosophy. I was lucky enough to see him play at Lords and watch him bowl many overs one day and end up with 6-200. His philosophy was that if you got hit for a straight six it must have been a good ball being of good line and length to enable that stroke and if you hit him to two sixes he would get you out attempting the third one just varying the delivery slightly. This philosophy would not translate to the emerging shorter form of the game as Trevor Bailey once remarked in a rain break discussion “If you hit him for two or three sixes in a one day game you’re well up on him, but if you hit him for 2 or 3 sixes in a test match and then get out he’s well up on you”. This was in response to Arlott’s question to him “How high do you rate Bedi?”. Trevor replied very promptly “Very high”.
This conversation formed part of my collection of taped John Arlott commentaries which became known as the Arlott Tapes amongst my school contemporaries. Some of the sayings and phrases from those tapes would pass into our venacular. On a school trip round Truro Cathedral, for example, we would not marvel at the height of the main spire which is in number of feet the same number of miles to London. We would ask “How high do you rate that spire?” to get the same response as Trevor Bailey got from John Arlott. Variations on the adjective high could also be used such as the ones used to describe the consistency of our canteen produced mashed potato for example.
Fifty Five Years of Cricket Memories 