Gerald Williams
Commentator who created a popular double act with Des Lynam for BBC Wimbledon coverage
GERALD WILLIAMS, who has died aged 86, was the voice of tennis on the BBC and Sky during some of the greatest matches ever played; Brian Johnston once wrote that if he were asked to nominate the commentator with the “sexiest” voice, it would be Williams.
Williams began his career in the 1950s on the Croydon Advertiser, where he first began covering Wimbledon. The BBC commentator Harry Carpenter became a friend and it was he who helped Williams to his initial break into the national sports media when he wangled him a job on the Daily Mail.
He joined as a sports sub-editor, but did not enjoy it as he never got out of the office. On February 7 1958, he came into the office to find “an awful atmosphere”. The paper’s football writer, Eric Thompson, had been killed, along with most of the Manchester United players, in the Munich air disaster of the previous day. Two weeks later Williams was given Thompson’s job, and sent to Manchester to report on the rebirth of the club.
In the early 1970s he was asked by Cliff Morgan if he fancied doing radio commentary for the BBC. He turned out to be a natural behind the microphone and went on to work in the tennis commentary box alongside Dan Maskell and Bill Threlfall.
He became great personal friends with many of the players, Brian Johnston noting his habit of “slipping in remarks between rallies which build up the tennis scene beyond just the game on court”.
In the 1980s he established a popular double act with Des Lynam in the television studio during the nightly round-up at Wimbledon, Williams playing the slightly nerdy, bespectacled tennis know-all to Lynam’s laid-back boulevardier.
There were only occasional forays into the realm of Private Eye’s “Colemanballs” column. On one occasion Williams was heard to say: “There are two Jonas Strenssons on the tour, but this is the one whose name we’ll get more used to hearing.” During a ladies’ doubles match, one of the players, Pam Shriver, was stung by a wasp inside her dress. As she was looking down her cleavage to find it, Williams was heard to remark, apropos Shriver and her partner: “They are a fine pair, aren’t they?”
Williams covered the rise of John McEnroe from “Superbrat” to Grand Slam winner, but their relationship was never warm. “I thought he and Jimmy Connors were bringing disgrace to the game,” he told the
Belfast Telegraph in 2008. “I used to say so and McEnroe and I found it very difficult to have anything to do with each other.” On one occasion McEnroe interrupted a serve to ask the umpire “to tell that Brit commentator to keep his voice down”. Sometimes, however, Williams admitted, “I’d be criticising the players for their behaviour and thoroughly enjoying it... feeling like a complete sham.”
His favourite players were Björn Borg, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.
Gerald Williams was born in Surrey on June 24 1929. His parents separated when he was young and his teenage years were divided between Carmarthenshire and Croydon. After leaving Carmarthen Grammar School, he joined the Croydon Advertiser. Within a couple of years he was the paper’s sports editor. During the latter stages of his career he provided updates from the Wimbledon tournament for Sky Sports.
Williams was a keen supporter of Christians in Sport, and was said to have been responsible for introducing leading Wimbledon players to the movement. It was he who first introduced Sue Barker to Cliff Richard.
In 1964 he married the tennis player Joyce Barclay, but the marriage was later dissolved. In an interview with the Carmarthenshire Herald last year, he described his friends in the tennis world as “my family”.