The sweet, gentle voice of the BBC...and farm favourite of nation's listeners

DESSERT trolleys may be the buffet cars of obesity, but to voice of football John Murray they will always be a reminder of his favourite soundbite.

Forty years ago, when his predecessor as BBC Radio football correspondent, Bryon Butler, was surveying the teamsheet at the 1984 European Cup final (below left), he came up with a one-liner for the ages.

Noting that Roma's line-up against Liverpool was sprinkled with exotic Brazilian imports, Butler purred: "Graziani, Di Bartolomei, Tancredi the names of a warm Roman sunset... but with Falcao and Cerezo, this truly is an international sweet trolley of a side."

If Butler was the pavlova or tiramisu of his trade then, Murray is the Grand Marnier crepe or panna cotta of the airwaves now.

Millions of us listen to his gentle Northumberland lilt on the retreat from longdistance away games.

As the son of a sheep farmer, whose land was so close to the Scottish border you could almost mistake the keen winds for wheezing bagpipes, Murray's early life was often a lone beat. But he is a man of the people on Radio 5 Live now. One of the great broadcasters of his time.