Kenneth Wolstenholme

Kenneth Wolstenholme, DFC & Bar (17 July 1920 – 25 March 2002) was an English football commentator for BBC television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best remembered for his commentary during the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final; in the closing minutes, Wolstenholme commented on a series of pitch invaders as Geoff Hurst dribbled down the pitch before scoring, saying "some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over!" The phrase has become deeply embedded in British popular culture.

Early life

Wolstenholme was born in Worsley, Lancashire. His family were Primitive Methodists and his brother attended Elmfield College. He attended Farnworth Grammar School, where Alan Ball Jr. (on whom Wolstenholme commentated in the 1966 World Cup Final) was also a pupil some years later. Wolstenholme began his career as a journalist with a newspaper in Manchester.

Military service

As Wolstenholme was a member of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, he was soon called up at the outbreak of the Second World War. By 1941, he had qualified as a bomber pilot and was posted to 107 Squadron, flying Bristol Blenheim Mk. IVs out of RAF Great Massingham, Norfolk. At the start of 1943 he transferred to de Havilland Mosquito with 105 Squadron, part of Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett's No. 8 Group RAF Pathfinder Group.

Wolstenholme completed more than 100 highly hazardous sorties over Occupied Europe and in May 1944 was awarded the DFC. The following year, he won a Bar to his DFC for his continual bravery in raids on Germany in a period of exceptionally heavy night fighter activity. He finished the war as an acting squadron leader, having spent its last stages working in the RAF's public relations department.

Sports broadcasting

After the war, he became a freelance journalist, working for BBC Radio before moving to television in 1950. He lived in Worcester Park, Surrey. He covered the 1959 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final between Kilkenny and Waterford for BBC Television, an experience which moved him to describe hurling as his second-favourite sport in the world after his first love, football.

In March 1954, Kenneth Wolstenholme and Barney Mulrenan co-commentated on the first football match to be broadcast on TV in Wales, South Wales Amateur Football League v the Worcestershire Football Combination from the Maindy Stadium in Cardiff

Wolstenholme commentated on many English domestic football games of the 1950s and 1960s, including the first ever game featured on ''Match of the Day'' in 1964. He covered the FA Cup final in 1951 and then every year from 1953 to 1971, the year of Arsenal's "double". For the BBC
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