Summarising a World of Summers
- Vic Marks talks to NCLS
Vic Marks played cricket for Oxford University, Somerset and England, was part of one-day winning teams, indeed, was man-of-the-match on several occasions, as a spin bowling all-rounder…but it is for his thirty-year stint as a summariser on BBC Radio’s Test Match Special (TMS) that he is now best known.
At the January meeting of the Nottingham Cricket Lovers Society (NCLS), he regaled the audience with tales from his time in the commentary box – which these days includes his native Somerset where, with fellow NCLS speaker Annie Chave, he is part of the Live Stream team commentating on county matches.
Vic joined the TMS team back in 1990, the season after he had stopped playing professional cricket, so is a link between the days of Brian Johnston and Fred Trueman and the modern era of Johnathan Agnes (Aggers) and Alex Hartley.
“Things were done differently then,” he said, “With Brian, the summariser was expected to be quiet during play and contribute at the end of each over, shutting up as soon as play was ready to resume.
“Now with Aggers and the rest, it is much more of a conversation – and like good conversations should, it can range off topic very easily. But these are top, top commentators and if the action requires their attention and comment, they’re back on it immediately.”
He was keen to point out the difference between radio and television commentary. “On the radio, you have to give the listener a picture in words, not just of the action but of the atmosphere and the crowd. So Johnners’s cakes or Blofeld’s buses are an important part of scene setting.
“On the TV it is important to remember Richie Benaud’s dictum – the viewers can see what’s happening, so you only speak if you can add to the pictures.
“That’s not always easy to do and it can be slightly different on the Live Streams; sometimes there are not the number of cameras for a county game that would be used for one-dayers or Test Matches, so the commentator may need to add a little more information.
“But Benaud – as always – was right and on TV it is nearly always the case than less is more”.
Vic Marks also talked about his playing career – from the days when as a schoolboy he represented the Public Schools (he went to Blundell’s) against an English Schools Cricket Association team for which one I T Botham was thirteenth man!
“I didn’t know then that he would become a team-mate and a legend of the game”, joked Vic.
Indeed, when Botham and Viv Richards joined Somerset, neither were the stars that they were to become – though Vic Marks said that Richards stood out immediately.
“It seems strange now but at the time, Somerset were taking a bit of a punt in signing Viv Richards but it was clear from week one that he was something special. ‘Both’ was different, still a bit wayward and certainly not the fearsome fast bowler of a few years later.”
Marks had plenty of memories of those days at Somerset when Viv Richards, Botham and the great Joel Garner lead the county to successes in the shorter forms of the game.
“We had players capable of turning a game in an over or two with bat and ball, so perhaps we were always better suited to the knock-out competitions rather than the pressures of the County Championship”, he mused.
Typically self-deprecating, he needed NCLS’s Martyn Shaw to remind Vic Marks that he had been Man-of-the-Match when Somerset beat Nottinghamshire to win the Benson and Hedges Cup at Lord’s in 1982.
“I’m not sure why I won”, he said, “Big Joel took more wickets than me and only three of our batters were needed…”
Martyn reminded him that he had taken the crucial – certainly so according to Notts Outlaw fans – of Clive Rice and Derek Randall to help restrict Notts to a modest 130 all out.
Mention of Derek Randall prompted memories of Vic Marks’s days with England when ‘Rags’ – or ‘Arkle’ as England team-mates called him – was also in the squad.
“Derek was great character”, he recalled, “and really not the extrovert that his on-field antics would make you think.
“As well as his talents as a batter, he was simply one of the best fielders I’ve ever known. One of cricket’s great entertainers.”
It was clear that fifty years (!!) after he first turned out for Oxford University and Somerset, Vic Marks’s passion for the game of cricket remains undimmed.
Vic Marks moved into journalism and broadcasting at the end of the 1989 season, his first as Somerset captain, and explained why he decided to give up playing whilst still at the top. “I’d been writing bits and bobs for The Observer for a while so when their cricket correspondent left, they offered me the job.
“I tried to see if they’d wait a year and let me have another season as Somerset skipper but they needed someone right away.
“And in those days, it made financial sense. A newspaper journalist was paid much more than a professional cricket – it’s not like that now with newspaper sales slipping and cricketers earning decent money – and their offer was just too good.”
In concert with writer and podcaster Annie Chave, who also spoke at the NCLS meeting, he is an advocate for the long-form, red-ball game and a firm believer in the importance of county cricket and the Championship.
His pride in the fact that Somerset, for all their record of great overseas stars, have always had a kernel of local players from the South West of England in their squad was apparent and he is clearly looking forward to following Somerset and England again this year.
Membership of NCLS is £15pa, or entry on the night for £5 per session.
The next meeting on 6 February will revert to a 7pm start; speakers are Kathryn Bryce of The Blaze and Scotland and Steven Mullaney, Notts CCC county captain turned coach.
Full details of the 2024/25 programme from https://nottinghamcricketlovers.co.uk/
January 2025