Man behind a legendary sporting voice

Kenneth Wolstenholme is the latest star of our series of significant people who lived in Torbay in the 20th century.
Born in Worsley near Manchester on July 17, 1920, Kenneth Wolstenholme's parents were Thomas and Euphemia (Effie nee Redgrave), who introduced their son to sport.
He was just four years old when taken to his first football match at Burnden Park to watch Bolton Wanderers.
Young Kenneth was then introduced to cricket by his mother, who took him to Old Trafford, where many years later he would commentate on many greats of those days, including Duleepsinhji, Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Verity and Woolley.
He found journalism when joining the Manchester News after taking a course in shorthand at Pitmans College during the 1930s. Yet, like others of his age, he recognised the possibility of war breaking out and, yearning to fly, enlisted with the RAF Reservists and spent all his weekends at Barton Airport Eccles. There he was introduced to the theory, engineering and navigation of flight.
The voluntary commitment paid off, as, when mobilisation came on September 1, 1939, he had qualified as a pilot.
He became a bomber pilot with the Pathfinders and survived 100 missions between 1942 and 1945.
The Pathfinder Force marked out enemy targets, making them visible to the bombing crews that followed.
Both types of aircraft would have to contend with German anti-aircraft fire by day and night, making every mission dangerous, which brought huge losses.
Ken was decorated twice – the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and later a Bar to the DFC.
In 1944, having married his childhood sweetheart Joan and with the war coming to an end, they returned to Manchester and raised two daughters, while Ken returned to his beloved journalism.
Now came another plus when joining BBC radio and becoming a commentator. Two years later, in 1948, Ken was approached by producers of the new medium, television, which he knew nothing about.
Having never owned or watched TV, he became the exclusive commentator on radio and TV for over 20 years, covering all major football and later motor racing events. He reviewed all the World Cup matches on television until the broadcaster Peter Dimmock - at the time a horse racing specialist - was appointed the Head of BBC Outside Broadcasting.
By 1964, Dimmock had realised the power of TV football and he appointed David Coleman as top presenter.
He would commentate on the next Cup Final, a hugely “bitter moment” for Ken, who said his BBC career ended in that moment. He was offered a ‘journeyman’ contract (as and when required) but returned home “incensed and humiliated”.
It had been a pre-arranged assassination with Coleman being the victor. Later, he would be awarded a “Baird Silver Medal” for services to television by the widow of the inventor, Mrs J Logie Baird.
Ken then remarked that of all his commentaries, it had been the 1966 World Cup Final that was most recalled. Those famous words after Geoff Hurst scored to put England 4-2 in the lead came: “some people are on the pitch… they think it’s all over.... it is now.”
With the death of his wife Joan in 1997, Ken moved to Devon to be near his daughter at Stoke Gabriel Road. For a time, he wrote a sports column for our Herald Express newspaper, while completing his autobiography entitled ‘50 Sporting Years and it’s Still Not Over’.
Ken was always a popular local resident of Galmpton and involved himself in fundraising events, which included rebuilding a sports pavilion. As a regular golfer, he also attended Torquay United Football Club when playing at Plainmoor. Having lost his older daughter Elizabeth when aged just 14, his younger daughter Lena was at her father’s side when he died in a Torquay hospital on March 25, 2002, at the age of 81.
IAN'S COMMENT: An amazing life of ups and downs but in the final analysis, a man that absolutely loved football.
NEXT WEEK - Ruby Murray.