Cricket Commentary Loses a Legend

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Goodbye to a Legend as the Teams Prepare

 

July 31^st

 
 

[08:30 CEST] Yesterday night a tweet from BBC London’s Kevin Hand caught my eye. Without saying so in so many words – 140 characters has its limitations – it suggested that a broadcasting legend had died. I looked around various sites for confirmation of the news, including the daddy of all cricket sites, and found nothing. Finally, a link to a brief Obituary found in a Google search confirmed that Norman de Mesquita had died on Monday 29^th.

When I moved to London to study in the late ‘70s, ball-by-ball commentary was limited to TMS and home Tests. There was no coverage of the county game. There was no coverage of away tours. Television showed the Sunday League and one-day cup matches and that was it. And then I discovered Radio London. On Sunday afternoons in summer you could sit down and enjoy Ralph Dellor and Norman de Mesquita broadcasting ball-by-ball on Surrey and Middlesex games. No need to sit glued to the TV to follow a game, you could get up, move around, make a cup of tea, do coursework and follow what was going on. When the commentator’s voice moved up an octave you snapped to attention: a wicket, a great shot, a six, something worth concentrating on had happened but, mainly, you just sat back and enjoyed the atmosphere, the description and the pleasure of an afternoon in the sun, watching cricket. That was what the best commentators such as Norman de Mesquita could do: you felt that you were there in the ground.

Norman’s voice filled many Sunday afternoons for me. He showed that it did not have to be international cricket to make good radio. Those Radio London commentaries showed that the county game could be good, compelling listening, even in the changed atmosphere of the times. His commentaries must have been a factor when the idea of broadcasting county cricket systematically on Radio London was raised years later by Mark Church: Norman de Mesquita had shown that it worked. Norman’s reward for his brilliant work with Radio London was to be promoted to the TMS team when, in 1979, an expanded World Cup came to England and the BBC embarked on the remarkable challenge for those days of having ball-by-ball on every game when, most days, there would be two matches played simultaneously in different parts of the country (the ICC could shorten the ridiculous length of the tournament by going back to this practice). While one match would be the main commentary, a line would always be open to the other game and, when something interesting happened, commentary would switch. I cannot recall if it was Norman who covered the Australia-Canada match at Birmingham as England beat Pakistan in a thriller at Headingly (Geoff Boycott bowled England to victory when the match seemed to be slipping away) but, after 4 overs, with Canada 36-0 and Rodney Hogg nursing 0-26 after two overs, clearly someone had to bring news of the unexpected mayhem and Norman helped the BBC to ensure that the listeners heard news of such happenings, live and knew what was going on in every match and it received top-class commentary. Then, as now, a seat in the TMS box was regarded as the pinnacle for a cricket broadcaster and coverage of that tournament was fair reward for him. The BBC TMS book of that summer pays generous tribute to Norman’s style and contribution to the success of the World Cup coverage.

When, in 2011, I got to do some ball-by-ball myself, thanks to the kindness of Martin Emerson at Chester-le-Street, but mainly thanks to Norman’s successor at Radio London, Kevin Hand at Lords, I was fortunate enough to meet Norman. He was always there and wandered into the TMS box (pssst! Don’t tell TMS that Kevin uses their box because it is bigger and much more comfortable than the Radio London box, which is just that… a small box) every day to chat. Norman was a real gentleman, avid about Middlesex cricket and a really nice fellow. It was always a shame to me that he was never brought onto the microphone after Middlesex ball-by-ball started up, but the voice impediment that an earlier illness had left him, would have made it difficult for him to broadcast, although it was not a serious issue when talking to him away from the microphone. He could often be heard in the background, sat in the back of the box, asking Kevin questions that Kevin relayed to the listeners.

Kevin Hand said that he would have loved to have shared a microphone with Norman de Mesquita, commentating on Middlesex. You can just imagine it. They would have been a latter-day  Brian Johnson and John Arlott: both consummate professionals who complemented each other and who brought cricket alive to listeners in their own style, making it fun to listen to, just the way that Hand and de Mesquita would have done together. What a Dream Team that would have been.

Thanks Norman, from a cricket fan, for so many happy memories.

  

Back to the business in hand. Word is – how reliable I do not know – that Steve Smith will be fit to play. The weather forecast is for five mainly dry days, although cloud cover is likely to be a factor and Friday could see some storms. Day one will be hot. Days two and three rather cooler, but still pleasantly warm. Win the toss and bat to win the match.

[12:00 CEST] Lots of little hints appearing that, surprise (and as I suggested yesterday), England will play an unchanged XI tomorrow. Methinks hat there is a lot of use of smoke and mirrors.