Peter Anthony West (12 August 1920 – 2 September 2003)
/ref> was a BBC presenter and sports commentator best known for his work on the corporation's

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 st ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

and

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

coverage as well as occasionally commentating on

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

. Throughout his television career he remained

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance ...

Early life

West was born in

Cranbrook, Kent Cranbrook is a town in the civil parish of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst, in the Weald of Kent in South East England. It lies roughly half-way between Maidstone and Hastings, about southeast of central London. The smaller settlements of Sissing ...

, an only child. His father, the son of a tobacconist, had made some money in the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, and in 1924 set himself up as a poultry farmer in Cranbrook.

Education

He was educated at Cranbrook School as were his fellow commentators

Barry Davies Barry George Davies MBE (born 24 October 1937) is an English retired sports commentator and television presenter. He covered a wide range of sports in a long career, primarily for the BBC. Although best known for his football commentary, D ...

and Brian Moore. At school he was in the cricket XI for five years, and captain for the last three. He played rugby and hockey for the school for four years, captaining both games for his last two seasons, and, in rugby, leading an undefeated side. He ended his Cranbrook career as head of the school.

War service

After school he went to the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town o ...

and was commissioned into the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment, 33rd of Foot, which had the reputation of being the best rugby regiment in the Army. At Sandhurst he became an instructor but after being diagnosed with

spondylitis Spondylitis is an inflammation of the vertebrae. It is a form of spondylopathy. In many cases, spondylitis involves one or more vertebral joints, as well, which itself is called spondylarthritis. __TOC__ Types Pott disease is a tuberculous dis ...

was invalided out of the Army in 1944.

Career

Facing a post war world with no qualifications, West secured a job as assistant to the Controller of

SSAFA SSAFA – the Armed Forces charity, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, is a UK charity that provides lifelong support to serving men and women and veterans from the British Armed Forces and their families or dependents. Anyone ...

, a retired

Air Vice-Marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes ...

but was sacked after a run-in with his boss. By 1947 he was stuck in a dead-end job transmitting sports results via telegraph ticker tape. However, one day, when sitting next to the legendary test cricketer and journalist C B Fry in the press box at Taunton he was able to transmit Fry’s report after the telephonist failed to turn up. Fry recommended West to the head of the BBC outside broadcasting and West was signed up as a cricket commentator. He remained a cricket commentator, both on radio and television, until 1986. In addition, from 1955 to 1982 he played second fiddle to

Dan Maskell Daniel Maskell (11 April 1908 – 10 December 1992) was an English tennis professional who later became a radio and television commentator on the game. He was described as the BBC's "voice of tennis", and the "voice of Wimbledon". Early li ...

in the BBC's television coverage of Wimbledon. He reported the Olympics from 1948 to 1972, missing only 1952 and 1956. West was the editor of ''

Playfair Cricket Annual ''Playfair Cricket Annual'' is a compact annual about cricket that is published in the United Kingdom each April, just before the English cricket season is due to begin. It has been published every year since 1948. Its main purposes are to revie ...

'' from its inception in 1948 until 1954. He joined the BBC in 1947 on the recommendation of

C.B. Fry Charles Burgess Fry (25 April 1872 – 7 September 1956) was an English sportsman, teacher, writer, editor and publisher, who is best remembered for his career as a cricketer. John Arlott described him with the words: "Charles Fry could b ...

, following a chance meeting.''Playfair Cricket Annual'' 2004: obituary. He worked for the BBC for nearly 40 years until retiring in 1986. He presented many BBC programmes not connected with sport, including the original version of ''

Come Dancing ''Come Dancing'' is a British ballroom dancing competition show that ran on and off on the BBC from 1949 to 1998. Unlike its follow-up show, ''Strictly Come Dancing'', contestants were not celebrities. The show was created by Eric Morley, the ...

'' (1957–72), ''

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

'', and ''

Get Ahead ''Get Ahead'' is a BBC Television programme that ran from 1958 to 1962 and offered a prize of £5,000 () to a contestant's idea for an entrepreneurial project for a profitable business. It was an early forerunner of programmes such as ''Dragons' ...

'' (1958–62), about business entrepreneurs. He was a cricket and rugby correspondent for both ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' and ''

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

''. During interviews with sportsmen, West was in the habit of using words that were unfamiliar to his interlocutors. On one occasion, speaking to

Viv Richards Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (born 7 March 1952) is an Antiguan retired cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Batting generally at number three in a dominant West Indies side, Richards is widely ...

, he said "Viv, your genius transcends parochialism." In 1984, after

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won three seniors World titles. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his fluid, attacking style of play, White is the 1980 World Amateur Champion, 2009 ...

had won the Masters, he asked White to comment upon the "wonderful ethos which had permeated the final". When White said he was glad he won, West continued to press him about the ethos. Eventually,

Terry Griffiths Terence Martin Griffiths (born 16 October 1947) is a Welsh retired professional snooker player and current snooker coach and pundit. In his second professional tournament, he became world champion when he won the 1979 World Snooker Champions ...

, White's opponent, stepped in and rescued him. When interviewing

Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles. He started to play tennis at six years old. He was the first black player selected to the Un ...

after his famously deft victory over the belligerent

Jimmy Connors James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He held the top Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from 1974 to 1977 and a career total of 268 ...

in the Wimbledon final of 1975, he congratulated Ashe on "manifesting a superb tactical acumen". "If you say so Peter!" rejoined a bemused Ashe.

Personal life

He married Pauline Pike in 1946, the woman he met in his first job, the one-time secretary to the irascible SSAFA Air Vice Marshal. They lived in Cheltenham and had a daughter, Jacqueline, and two sons, Simon and Stephen. He died, aged 83, in

Bath, Somerset Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...

References