Boro surveyor: Alastair Brownlee
Talking point, yesterday’s blog on the hysterically excited Stranraer Live TV commentator last Saturday also recalled that delirious Norwegian chap, the one who invoked Maggie Thatcher.
Eddie Roxburgh, faithfully blog reading even when on holiday in Lanzarote, suggests that we aint heard nothing until reprising the late Alastair Brownlee.
Ali was born near Ayresome Park, worked for Barclays Bank before joining BBC Radio Cleveland (as then it was) and becoming for 33 years the voice of the Boro.
His dad had recalled the first time he took the youngster to a match. “See that lot down there, they’ll always break your heart” he said. Well, almost always….
Excitable? Eddie remembers Mark Schwarzer’s last gap penalty save from Robbie Fowler of Manchester City which secured Middlesbrough a UEFA Cup place at the end of 2004-05 – “the biggest Australian hero since Ned Kelly” Ali told his listeners – and, most indelible of all, his on-air euphoria the following season when a 4-2 win over Steaua Bucharest took Boro to the UEFA Cup final.
“We go back to 1876, the Infant Hercules, fashioned out of the foothills of Teesside, mined out of the Eston Hills, we’re roaring all the way to Eindhoven and the UEFA Cup final…Party, party, party – everyone round my house for a parmo.”
The words and the passion became legendary, the writing still high on the wall of the Riverside Stadium, though the funny thing was that Ali wasn’t much fussed about the parmo. He was a fish and chips man.
“He found the balance of criticism and support whilst still displaying his love of the football club” said former Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate.
Ali died from bowel cancer in 2016, aged just 56. Five thousand fans were in the stadium as his hearse was driven alongside the pitch, the gates hung with scarves and other tributes more familiar with the passing of a star striker not a local radio commentator.
The BBC website carries a wonderful tribute by his former colleague Duncan Leatherdale, including the revelation that Ali was adept at breaking chairs – “there’s not a chair in this house that hasn’t been taped together” said Wendy, his wife – and that he’d turned down Century Radio’s offer to be their Man United reporter in order to remain with his beloved, breathtaking, Boro.
“Like the parmo, Ali was a proud product of Middlesbrough” wrote Duncan.
He was also a tireless fund raiser for several charities, a 5k run still contested annually in his memory. Every day they still talk of the talker.
Radio silence: tributes to Alastair Brownlee at the Riverside Stadium in 2016
*Duncan Leatherdale, coincidentally, is working on a BBC website piece on No-brainer, my new book which seeks to marry the amazing life story of former Boro defender Bill Gates with his widow’s indomitable campaign to raise awareness of the neurological dangers of repetitively heading a football. To date, touch wood, every Amazon review has five stars. More copies arrived here today: it would be great to shift a few more, and further to promote the message.
*Waxing lyrical, last Friday’s blog reported on the bucolic joys of Feversham League cricket at Westerdale, on the North Yorkshire moors.
Among our little gathering was former Northern League footballer Ken Thwaites, now 80 and still button bright, much involved in horse racing and eagerly anticipating a ninth decade outing with Normanby Hall Cricket Club. Now read on.
On Tuesday (May 21) in the 7 58 at Hexham there’s a horse called Norse Reiver, trained by Gillian Boanas and owned by Mrs M B Thwaites (wife of the aforesaid). It’s said to be a 100-1 shot.
In the same event, making its racing debut and listed ante-post at 33-1, is a horse called Westerdale. traied at Sheriff Hutton, near York. Perhaps we should back both.
*In anticipation of Alnwick Town’s happy return to the Ebac Northern League, we’d wondered of the restored Aln Valley Railway might now be open from Alnmouth – iffy bus timetable or hair-raising four mile walk otherwise.
Julian Tyley reports that the line’s now operational from Alnwick to Greenrigg, but not yet through to the main line at Alnmouth. However truncated, it won’t prevent an early season visit.
Still in those Northumberland parts, anyone know what happened to John Common – a great guy best described as a little eccentric – who both played for and was chairman of Alnwick?
*This walking football business seems to be catching on among the oldies. Bishop Auckland FC reports a “staggering” 20 participants at tonight’s event. The term may be wholly appropriate.
Grass Routes 