Peter Newlinds worked for ABC Radio Grandstand for 18 years through the 1990s and 2000s. His name and voice will be familiar to cricket followers around Australia, and also to the followers of many of the various sports the ABC has covered over the years. Peter provides a unique perspective on the life of the broadcaster as someone who may not have been one of the biggest names on radio but nevertheless was always there, someone whose voice was heard routinely on most days over summer as the cricket broadcast went ‘around the grounds’. In Around the Grounds, Peter shares memories and insights that will fire sparks of nostalgia in Australian sporting enthusiasts. In this marvellous memoir, Peter recalls teenage years working inside the grand scoreboard of the SCG, to the pressure of auditioning for the ABC in front of a childhood hero, and then through a long career with the national broadcaster. It’s the story of the sporting fan who manages to live out the ultimate sporting fantasy: working as a commentator with one of the world’s great sporting broadcasters. Peter describes his numerous experiences with Grandstand covering everything from international cricket to air-pistol shooting on the outskirts of New Delhi. In doing so he provides the reader with numerous insights into life ‘one step away’ from the action, working with broadcasting legends and crossing paths with sporting greatness at regular intervals.
After reading Around the Grounds, readers will never listen to radio sport coverage in quite the same way again. AUTHOR: Peter Newlinds grew up on the northern fringes of Sydney. Like so many kids growing up in the sixties and seventies, his love of sport was fired by listening and watching commentators who are now legends of the Australian sports media: Alan MacGilvray calling cricket on the ABC, Frank Hyde doing rugby league on 2SM, Rex Mossop dominating his kingdom on Channel 7, and the Big Match beaming in games from atmosphere-laden soccer stadiums in England. Peter even watched VFL games from suburban Melbourne! His spare time was spent devouring rugby league magazines and trading footy cards. During a routine meeting in late high school to determine where he would best spend two weeks of work experience Peter had a simple epiphany: ‘Why not go to work where the best sport is played?’ An imaginative letter to the Sydney Cricket Ground trust lead to an offer of two weeks’ work experience which later converted to a sports-mad teenager’s dream job, working the numbers inside the majestic edifice of the SCG scoreboard. A keen amateur cricketer, Peter packed his bags and bat in early 1986 and spent two summers playing the game in and around South Eastern England. On his return home, with the small matter of a career to consider, he found the perfect combination of his two passions: radio and cricket. From the littlest things big things do actually grow and through persistence, dedication and a great desire to be part of a great national sporting and broadcasting institution, Peter worked his way patiently around the grounds before spending 18 wonderful, event-filled years at ABC Grandstand watching and commentating on a passing parade of stars and personalities, many who (unlike Peter himself) became household names. Peter lives in Hobart with his family. This is his first book.