TYLER KEEPS HIS HEAD

Listened to Martin Tyler this afternoon as I was driving home from a stately home near York called Beningbrough Hall. Two moments amongst the paintings on loan from the National Portrait Gallery amused me, where portraits included the gentleman who named Earl Grey tea and another who brought the sandwich into the world.

We never stop learning.

Anyway Martin was born in Chester and went to the local Guildford Royal Grammar School and UEA. He was being interviewed on Talksport around 3.30pm and he is excited about beginning another season of commentary for Sky, at the ripe old age of 70.

I thought, well I was talking to him only last Sunday at the Lashings Cricket match. We both agreed we were too old to face up to Tino Best or chase a four hit by Gordon Greenidge and therefore swapped stories about football. Martin also acts as an advisor to the Independent Schools' FA. He is an extremely modest and knowledgeable man.

Martin maintains a strong coaching link with Hampton and Richmond Borough. His first involvement with what are now National League clubs would have been in the 1960s and he has played a decent standard, from Walton and Hersham FC and Kingstonian, even gracing the school pitch at Charterhouse on behalf of the "Commentators' XI" against a school XI!
See blog-http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/pundits-clash.html

But it is with commentary that he is best known and here are some of his greatest moments. Click on the link and you will get the "selection" eventually.
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/32414/10263768/lsiten-the-best-of-martin-tylers-commentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h80pi0zY4f8  with pictures!
Starting in the 1960s, he did some ghost publishing and writing, including a Football Book with Martin Cavendish and in the press supporting Jimmy Hill's column in the Times. He got his TV break with the Big Match on LWT 1968. By December 1974 he was working on Southern TV making his debut at the Dell when Sheffield Wednesday visited.

He then got more regular work with Yorkshire TV (1978 World Cup), Granada (1982 WC) along with Ian St John and worked with Brian Moore in the 1980s as live Football League took off and he "got" the 1986 World Cup. This led him into the BritishSatelliteBroadcasting, a company merging eventually with Sky, commentating on the first ever Sky broadcast in May 1988, a friendly between Manchester United and AC Milan at Old Trafford.

In 2003 he was named Commentator of the Decade and he has had a number of contracts with Fox, NBC, ESPN, Screensport, Octagon and IMG, including a variety of venues and sports-baseball, netball and cricket. Add to this being the commentator for the "Goal" movie and the FIFA Video Game series 2008.