Ewart Bryon Butler (5 June 1934 – 26 April 2001) was an English writer and broadcaster, best known as the BBC's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

correspondent from 1968 to 1991. He was born in Taunton, Somerset and educated at

Taunton School Taunton School is a co-educational independent school in the county town of Taunton in Somerset in South West England. It serves boarding and day-school pupils from the ages of 13 to 18. The current headmaster is Lee Glaser, appointed in the aut ...

. After working for a number of regional newspapers, he joined the '' News Chronicle'' shortly before its closure in 1960, soon moving to '' The Daily Telegraph''. Around this time, he also started reporting football matches for the BBC, and in 1968 became a radio commentator and the corporation's football correspondent. He was well known for his crisp, eloquent, precise style, with a distinctive West Country undertone to his voice. Although he often did not actually commentate on the very big occasions, frequently taking a side role as summariser (in earlier years) or presenter or reporter (in later years), he commentated on a number of World Cup finals, as well as the famous quarter-final between England and Argentina in 1986. He frequently worked alongside

Maurice Edelston Maurice Edelston (27 April 1918 – 30 January 1976) was an English footballer, who later became a sports commentator. Born in Hull, England, he was son of the Hull City footballer Joe Edelston. At the age of 18, he played in the footba ...

, Peter Jones,

Alan Parry Alan Parry (born 1948 in Garston, Liverpool) is an English sports commentator, concentrating on football and athletics. He has commentated for all four main broadcasters of football in the UK – the BBC, BT Sport, ITV and Sky TV, as well as f ...

and, latterly, Alan Green and

Mike Ingham Michael Robert Ingham MBE (born 24 September 1950 in Cheshire) is an English football commentator and broadcaster. Early life He grew up in Duffield and Quarndon and attended the Belper School (then The Herbert Strutt School) in Belper. H ...

. He wrote or co-wrote a number of football books and also wrote for the ''Daily Telegraph'' on

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

. In 1991, he retired as the BBC's football correspondent to concentrate on his writing career. He also gave up commentary around this time. On his death in 2001, he was widely mourned as a representative of a bygone era of sports broadcasting, arguably less brash and more eloquent than the present.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Bryon 1934 births 2001 deaths English association football commentators English writers People educated at Taunton School People from Taunton