Arthur Rex Alston (2 July 1901 – 8 September 1994) was a leading sports commentator for

BBC radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s.

Early life and education

Alston's middle name at birth was "Reginald", but he subsequently changed it to "Rex".CricketArchive profile
Retrieved 4 August 2014. His father was Arthur Fawssett Alston, the third

Bishop of Middleton The Bishop of Middleton is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Manchester, in the Province of York, England. The title takes its name after the town of Middleton in Greater Manchester; the See was ...

. Alston was a pupil at Trent College, Derbyshire, before going on to study at

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the Unive ...

. A considerable sportsman in his own right, he obtained a

Cambridge Blue A blue is an award of sporting colours earned by athletes at some universities and schools for competition at the highest level. The awarding of blues began at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England. They are now awarded at a number of other ...

for athletics in 1923, captained

Bedfordshire County Cricket Club Bedfordshire County Cricket Club is one of 20 Minor County clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Bedfordshire. The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Championshi ...

in 1932, and played on the wing for

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

and Rosslyn Park rugby clubs.

Career

Alston was a schoolmaster at

Bedford School Bedford School is a 7–18 Single-sex education, boys Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the county town of Bedford in England. Founded in 1552, it is the oldest of four independent schools in Bedford run by the Harpur Trust. Bed ...

from 1924 to 1941, before joining the BBC. He was originally a billeting officer, but it was soon realised that his voice – a clear, light baritone – was too good for him to remain in an administrative role. He remained on the BBC staff until 1961, and continued broadcasting for a few years after that as a free-lance. He wrote on cricket and rugby for the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'' and ''

Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegr ...

'', continuing to report on

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

for the former until 1987. He also had a column in ''

Playfair Cricket Monthly ''Playfair Cricket Monthly'' was a monthly British cricket magazine that ran from April 1960 to April 1973, when it was absorbed by ''The Cricketer''. Its comprehensive statistical content was taken on by ''The Cricketer Quarterly''. It was edited ...

''. His first international cricket commentary was on the Old Trafford "Victory Test" in 1945, as a deputy for Howard Marshall. He quickly became an ever-present in a Test match commentary team which included

John Arlott Leslie Thomas John Arlott, (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. With his poetic phraseology, he becam ...

and

E. W. Swanton Ernest William "Jim" Swanton (11 February 1907 – 22 January 2000) was an English journalist and author, chiefly known for being a cricket writer and commentator under his initials, E. W. Swanton. He worked as a sports journalist for ''The ...

, and also was the producer. He commented on about a hundred Tests in all, many of them after the launch of

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. The programme is available on BB ...

in 1957 expanded the coverage to include the full day's play rather than only portions of it. His last Test was in 1964.

Later life

Alston had the unsettling experience of reading his own

obituary An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...

in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' in 1985. A misunderstanding led to his obituary being published, instead of merely updated for the files. By an unfortunate coincidence, Alston had collapsed the previous evening at a dinner, and was a patient at the

Westminster Hospital Westminster Hospital was a hospital in London, England, founded in 1719. In 1834 a medical school attached to the hospital was formally founded. In 1939 a newly built hospital and medical school opened in Horseferry Road, Westminster. In 1994 the ...

at the time. Next year he remarried, and so became almost certainly the only man to have his death and marriage reported in ''The Times'' in that order.

Writing

Alston wrote a number of books, including: *''Taking the Air'',

Stanley Paul Stanley Paul were a firm of publishers founded in London in 1906. The original firm published mainly "cheap editions of thrillers and romances, and some light non-fiction" and traded until 1927 when it went in liquidation. In 1928 the imprint was ...

, 1951. *''Over to Rex Alston. A commentary on the 1953 Australian tour'', Frederick Muller Ltd, 1953. *''Test Commentary: An Account of the Australian Tour of 1956'', Stanley Paul, 1956. *''Watching cricket: An aid to the appreciation of first-class cricket, and a guide to the laws (Sports books)'', Phoenix House, 1962. *''Rothmans Rugby Yearbook 1973-74'', The Queen Anne Press Ltd, 1974. *''One Hundred Years of Rugby Football; a History of Rosslyn Park Football Club 1879-1979'' (Editor), 1979.

References

*''Barclay's World of Cricket - 2nd Edition'', 1980, Collins Publishers, , p652.
Rex Alston by Peter Baxter, Producer of Test Match Special
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alston, Rex 1901 births 1994 deaths Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge BBC sports presenters and reporters Bedford Blues players Bedfordshire cricketers Cricket writers English cricket commentators English cricketers English male athletes English rugby union players English sportswriters People educated at Trent College Schoolteachers from Bedfordshire 20th-century English sportsmen