Blofeld & Baxter "The Leg Over"

um there's one bit of testm special we haven't actually mentioned blow so far it was hailed By Radio 5 live listeners uh as the best ever piece of commentary on the radio which is odd because it wasn't commentary we know it as the leg over and I expect most of you know it as well and um what was going on at the in the commentary box that day the whole incident hinged on a piece of cricket where ctle Ambrose b a bouncer at Ian Botham who uh went to hook but then realized that the thing was just a bit too close for him to him for the stroke so he tried to pull out of it we did pull out of it but he lost his balance and uh tried then he realized he was about to step on the stumps so he actually tried to Vault the stumps backwards and just brushed a bail off off with his inner thigh now we had in testm special a new Cricket correspondent because in 1991 just appointed a young man called Jonathan agnu what what happened to him anyway he he he' just come into the team and uh we sometime after this incident he was visiting the Press Box uh talking to his mates up there and he met the correspondent of the son who was regretting the fact that as he wrote for a family newspaper the son he um he couldn't use the line that he just thought of which was that both of them couldn't quite get his leg over so agus stored this away in the back of his mind and thought he might just possibly have a chance to use it didn't know he was after all in his first year in the testm special team so he ought to have been on his best behavior um and I all unknowing as the producer put on because agas was was operating in his first year as an expert summarizer because I was easing him into the job and he wasn't doing the full descriptive Ball by ball uh part of the job so for the close of play I put him on with brown Johnston to sum up the day's play Jonas would sort of talk about each incident and the expert would give his view on what had happened and this particular thing they just about got through it we'd almost escaped and just as an afterthought agas threw in yes couldn't quite get his leg over Jonas gave a little hiccup he then he always maintained later that for the next 30 seconds he was more professional than at any other time in his career sadly it was only for 30 seconds and while this 30 seconds was going on on I was trying to get people to lean back in their seats he had bill fle on his right who was a terrible giggler uh and I think canot quite heard or believed what he did here because otherwise he' have snorted and he didn't he was busy filling in his score sheets and and I got him to lean back so he didn't catch Jon as's eye and agar who was already chuckling away to himself got him to lean back and Jon was was forward with his elbows on the desk and I thought we might just get away with this no chance and when Jonas said o agas do stop it he said it quite seriously and and S of voi and I knew at that point we were not going to get away with it we were lost and he was lost and then the handkerchief came out the tears roll down his cheeks and that I'm told that on a very good quality recording you can hear me in the background say saying for God's sake somebody say something

Channel: iDiot Films

Views: 45,011

Keywords: Henry Blofeld, Peter Baxter

Id: -LSy_9k73dA

Length: 4min 5sec (245 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 11 2014