Inspired masters of the microphone

FORMER Middlesex and England cricketer and Lord's coach Clive Radley, will be speaking at the Cornish Crusaders lunch on Sunday, March 7.

That is good news. It also reminds us how speakers and commentators enrich sporting occasions.

My boyhood commentator hero was Raymond Glendenning on "the wireless."

In those pre-TV days such commentaries were our link with the big time: the thrill of hearing the Hampden Park roar when Scotland played England, the excitement of the Derby at Epsom.

"Mr Glendenning" spoke at a tremendous pace, his voice at the end of a race or when a goal was scored reaching remarkable crescendo.

Years later I discovered he had a swig of honey in his whisky to sustain his stamina and voice during commentaries. A more recent hero in the commentary box was John Arlott whose rich Hampshire accent adorned the world of cricket for more than three decades, his voice conjuring up images of cricketers and umpires, spectators and members in the pavilion, flags fluttering, settings as different as Worcester and Old Trafford.

He was a good friend of EK Brown of Liskeard, the doyen of cricket book experts, and he enjoyed holidays on the Isles of Scilly.

An island lover, he finally moved to Alderney. As befits a poet, John was a master of description and he could produce a shaft of wit on the spur of the moment.

When he was commentating in South Africa, the MCC captain George Mann was clean bowled by the slow left-arm Springbok spinner 'Tufty' Mann, a beautiful delivery pitching leg stump and taking the off bail.

"Mann's inhumanity to Mann," said John without hesitation.

I have had the luck to hear a range of after-dinner speakers, including Tony Brown, then Gloucestershire cricket captain, at the House of Commons and Peter West in that elegant restaurant high above the racecourse at Cheltenham – two golden evenings.

In the Westcountry David Shepherd of Instow, great umpire and character, has to be high in the premier league of regional speakers, a man who loved cricket and Devon, especially North Devon. 'Shep' had a repertoire of marvellous stories, all punctuated with his special brand of humour.

The fact The Times gave him a full page obituary and a second page feature reveals the esteem in which he was held. For David, a good day's umpiring was when everything went well and he was hardly noticed.

Here in Cornwall Rex Carr, headmaster of St Erbyn's, a prep school at Penzance, and Archie Smith of Gorran Haven, headmaster of Poltair at St Austell, were two gifted orators. Rex, Cornwall's representative on the Rugby Union committee for many years and the driving force behind the Pirates of Penzance & Newlyn, was equally at home proposing a toast or speaking from the political platform for the Conservatives at a General Election.

There was a whiff of Winston Churchill about him, especially when he wore a bow tie.

Archie was equally versatile: preaching in the pulpit on Sunday, addressing his staff and pupils – or making a speech after dinner.

Like his historic bowling, Archie could pitch it perfectly, orations full of wit and wisdom. I recall Sir James Scott-Hopkins, MP for North Cornwall, telling me whenever Harold Macmillan was due to speak in the Commons, the chamber filled.

Whenever Archie Smith stood up, you knew you'd be hearing something worthwhile – an inspiration.