After Dinner Speaker : Pat Murphy

PATRTRICK MURPHY is the Cricket and Football correspondent for BBC Radio 5. For the last thirteen years, he has been a regular football reporter on BBC Radio's "Sports Report".

During that time, he enjoyed a privileged relationship with Brian Clough, which culminated in an acclaimed biography in 1993.

Recently, he has compiled and presented a series of programmes on Radio 5 about legendary footballers, and is to follow that with a series about some of the greatest of the extrovert football managers. In the Summer, Patrick Murphy swaps football for cricket. He is a member of the "Test Match Special" production team, and has commentated regularly on one day internationals, cup finals at Lords, and County cricket. He has also written over thirty books on cricket and football.

In addition to the Clough biography, he has written a biography of Ian Botham, and has co-authored books with players of the stature of Bob Willis, Bob Taylor, lmran Khan, Graham Gooch, Basil D'Oliveira, Mike Procter, Graeme Hick and Viv Richards. During the course of his commentating and writing, not to mention spending a great deal of time with many of the world's greatest sportsmen, Patrick Murphy has accumulated a wealth of experience.

He is quite simply one of the most knowledgeable sports writers in the country.

In his after-dinner speaking, he does not tell jokes but relates anecdotes and stories, drawing on that personal experience. His speaking is always suitable for mixed audiences - he is funny, well-informed, perceptive, and above all, entertaining.