Everything about Phil Tufnell totally explained
Philip ("Phil") Clive Roderick "Tuffers" Tufnell (born
April 29,
1966 in
Barnet) is a
television personality and former
English cricketer.
Early life
Tufnell went to
Highgate School where his cricketing prowess was recognised and he was appointed captain of the Junior School's First XI despite the fact he wasn't yet in the top year. On leaving Highgate he attended, and played cricket for,
Southgate School.
Cricket career
As a slow
left-arm orthodox spin bowler he played 42
Tests and 20
One Day Internationals for
England between
1990 and
2001, and 316
first-class matches, mainly for
Middlesex.
Tufnell was occasionally inspired with the ball, taking 11-93 against
Australia at
the Oval in
1997 (for which he won the
Man of the Match award after England won by 19 runs) and seven wickets in an innings against the West Indies at
the Oval in 1990, but he took his 121 Test wickets with a
bowling average of 37.68 across his whole Test career.
Mark Waugh theorised that "if you attack him, he can go on the defensive, and it puts him off his game." According to
Michael Parkinson, a British talk show host, "at the age of nine he was opening the bowling and the batting for his club's junior team." It can be assumed that his bowling developed much more than his batting (he averaged 5.09 in Test cricket). His batting might have been better had he not developed the habit of moving his back foot away from the wicket as the ball was bowled, making it harder for him to get in line with the ball (this was pointed out by Cricket commentator
Simon Hughes on Channel 4). Parkinson also believes that his "
ordinary fielding
made him a luxury in the view of the...(English cricket) management (circa August 1996)." However his fielding did improve during his career. He was nicknamed "The Cat" due to his propensity to be found sleeping in the dressing room. He also acquired the nickname "Two Sugars" due to his well known love of
tea. According to England teammate
Michael Atherton, Tufnell smoked more than occasionally
During his illustrious career spanning over a decade with Middlesex, Tufnell took more than 1,000 first class wickets in the English game, a feat only achieved in the modern era by
Andrew Caddick,
Phillip DeFreitas and
Martin Bicknell.
His autobiography
What Now ? ISBN 0002188163 was published in 1999.
Television and radio career
Tufnell retired from professional cricket before the
2003 season in order to participate in the "
reality television" show
I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and was a team captain on the sports quiz show
They Think It's All Over until 2005. In
2004, he made two guest appearances in UK Soap opera
Family Affairs. He also co-presented the game show
Simply the Best that year. Tufnell also co-authored a humorous book called 'Phil Tufnell's' A To Z of Cricket' with cricket journalist
Adam Hathaway.
In 2006, at the
Allan Border Medal ceremony, Tufnell made an appearance and gave a long, humorous speech aimed at poking fun at the
Aussies after their recent loss in the
2005 Ashes series. Unfortunately, these digs were taken a little too seriously by
Ricky Ponting, who failed to see the fun in Tufnell's speech.
Tufnell makes occasional appearances as a summariser on BBC Radio's
Test Match Special. Tufnell is now taking on
Matt Dawson and his guests as a team captain on on the BBC panel show
A Question of Sport.
He makes regular appearances as a reporter on
BBCs
The One Show
Tufnell is appearing in one of the teams on BBCs
Sport Relief Does The Apprentice
On April 12th, 2008, Tufnell and his wife Dawn were guests on the
ITV show
All Star Mr & Mrs
Personal life
Tufnell's first marriage to Alison Squires ended in 1989, she later became a prostitute. He has two daughters; Ellie, 16, with ex-girlfriend Jane McElvoy, and six year old Poppy with ex- wife Lisa Bar. He is now married to wife Dawn.
Controversy
Parkinson admits that "the prejudice against Phil Tufnell [was] deep seated." Tufnell's sporadic appearances during the mid-1990s may have also been due to his "tantrums on the field".
Tufnell was charged by the police with assault on a girlfriend.
(External Link
)Further Information
Get more info on 'Phil Tufnell'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://phil_tufnell.totallyexplained.com">Phil Tufnell Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |