Colin Stuart Slater MBE (28 February 1934 – 10 January 2022) was an English

sports commentator In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio wa ...

for BBC Radio Nottingham.

Early life and career

Slater was born in Bradford, England on 28 February 1934. He started his career as a journalist at local newspapers in Bradford. He later progressed to reporting and commentating on football matches at

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

in 1959, initially writing match reports for "The Football News" and "The Football Post" before joining Radio Nottingham in 1968. He covered over 2000 matches featuring Notts County for Radio Nottingham, a milestone reached on 17 November 2007 when Notts played

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was wound-up after a High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially known as Macclesfield F.C., the club was formed in 1874 and ...

. During the 1970s, Slater also handled media relations for Nottinghamshire County Council, seeing it through the reorganisation of 1973/74 when the county took over some of the powers of Nottingham city Council. On 24 April 2017, Slater announced that he was to retire from commentary duties for BBC Radio Nottingham although he would remain as the station's Notts County correspondent.

Honours

Slater was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(MBE) in the

2001 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours 2001 was announced on 16 June 2001 for the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland), New Zealand (4 June), Australia (11 June), Barbados, Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Sai ...

"for services to the community in Nottingham", in recognition of his contribution to radio, his work with the

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

, and his role as the Deputy Chairman of the Nottingham Bench of Magistrates (NBoM). In August 2015, Slater had a Nottingham tram named after him. On 15 November 2017, Slater was named as an Honorary Vice-President of Notts County Football Club, in recognition of his many years of dedication to the club. He received honorary degrees from both

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new universities, new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham School of Desi ...

(2014) and the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

(2018).

Personal life and death

Slater represented the

Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham The Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York, headed by the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham. It covers all the English county of Nottinghamshire and a few parishes in South Yorkshire. It is b ...

on the

General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations. Anglican Communion The General Synod of the Church of England, which was established in 1970 replacing the Church Assembly, is the legislative body of the Church of ...

of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. He died on 10 January 2022, at the age of 87.

References

External links

Inducted into Notts County's Hall of Fame.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Colin 1934 births 2022 deaths BBC radio presenters British broadcasters English radio personalities English association football commentators Mass media people from Bradford Members of the Order of the British Empire Notts County F.C. non-playing staff People associated with Nottingham Trent University People associated with the University of Nottingham