Rex Alston
Sports Commentator and Journalist
(1901 - 1994)

Rex Alston was a sports broadcaster and journalist who, for almost 30 years, was the voice of tennis on BBC radio. With less of a high profile than his TV counterpart, Dan Maskell, who also served Trent College, Alston captured a pleasant England in soft and courteous tones.

Alston came to Trent in September 1914; from 1918 to 1919, he was a Prefect in Shuker House. After leaving Trent in the summer of 1919, Alston won an athletics blue whilst at Clare College, Cambridge, and came second to the famous Harold Abrahams of Chariots of Fire fame. He also played rugby for Rosslyn Park and Bedford, as well as captaining Bedfordshire County Cricket with some distinction.

For 17 years, Rex Alston was a schoolmaster at Bedford School. He joined the BBC during the war as a billeting officer but an enlightened corporation soon realised that his voice was too good for an administrative role. His voice went on to become familiar to spectators at Lord’s, Twickenham and at Wembley for the first post-war Olympics.

Rex retired from the BBC in 1961, although he continued to cover county cricket and rugby for some time for both the BBC and the Daily Telegraph.

Rex Alston was thankfully one of those rare sorts who, having been admitted to hospital for food poisoning, read his premature obituary in The Times in 1985. He was reportedly very pleased with its content!

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