Elton Welsby
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elton Welsby is a British television sports presenter.
He began his broadcasting career on Liverpool radio station Radio City as a sports reporter and commentator. In January 1978 he joined Granada Television , working on its football programme The Kick Off Match and presented its 1980s successor Match Night until its demise in 1983. When Granada revived Kick Off in 1989, Welsby returned as presenter.
However, it is for his work on national ITV that Welsby will be best remembered. He was one of the anchors of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the last Olympic Games to be covered by the network, and also presented the Saturday afternoon Results Service from the late 1980s onwards.
At the start off the 1988/89 football season, ITV began broadcasting exclusive coverage of the Football League. It was the task of future BBC Director- General Greg Dyke to oversee the coverage and he entrusted Welsby as presenter of The Match.
The loss of top- flight football to Sky Sports in 1992 hit ITV Sport hard, and Welsby's final work for ITV was as the anchorman of the European Championships of 1992.
Following this, he was replaced as ITV's football anchorman by Matthew Lorenzo, signed from Sky News.
He continued to present regional sports programming for Granada Television until May 2000 when the station decided not to renew his contract. No explanation was given for the decision. A year later, Welsby returned to radio to present Elton Welsby's Soccer Saturday fot North- West regional station Century FM. However, he has not worked for the station since the end of the 2003/04 season.
He was the final presenter of British gameshow Busman's Holiday following on from Julian Pettifer and Sarah Kennedy.
He does a great deal of corporate and charity work, and his known for his close association with the Zoe's Place children's hospice.
Welsby has become something of the forgotten man of television sports coverage, although he has recently been seen presenting Crown Green Bowls for Sky Sports.
He is currently also touring the country with Ricky Tomlinson in the theatre tour, An Evening with Ricky Tomlinson, where he interviews Tomlinson in- character as Jim Royle
Born Roger Welsby, he was once a porter at Liverpool's Broad Green Hospital.