John Arlott - Friendship With Ian Botham

Friendship With Ian Botham

Ian Botham: "I met John when I was 17 and took his picnic basket up to the commentary box. There were four bottles of Beaujolais in that basket. Being a cider-boy I thought wine was a namby-pamby drink. But I was gripped as John started talking to me, this dumb yokel, about wine. His command of English just rolled off him. He got out some cheese and said this goes best with that wine. 'Go on,' he'd say, have a taste.' Our incredible friendship started and he became my mentor. These days they call 'em life-gurus or some such crap."

Botham also had a holiday home nearby in Alderney and during the last seven years of Arlott's life they often had two meals a day together when he was staying on the island. "At six minutes past nine every morning the phone would ring. John would say, 'C'mon over — and bring your thirst with you.' At the end when the emphysema took over and he was struggling with speech he had an oxygen mask and I often had to empty his bag for him. But he liked me being there because I knew to wait and let him finish his sentences between gasps. I didn't try to say the words for him because I knew how much they mattered. That was strange for me - to be patient and quiet. But I always wanted to listen to John."

On New Year's Day 1992, Ian and his wife instigated a family tradition of breaking open a bottle of Beaujolais alongside John's grave and toasting his memory.