Ekow Nelson, December 2021
I learned from Unco Ade yesterday that former GBC TV sportscaster and personality Winston Davies had passed in London.
I met Winston twice in my life: once in his offices (for his day job) in Accra when I was soliciting sponsorship for an event I was organising. The second was at a funeral in London. But I grew up with his voice as a football commentator every Sunday when there was televised KBL-sponsored soccer.
Between him and Edward Faakye (of Ghana Television News) and later, Prof Ivan Addae-Mensah, they provided much eloquent commentary that was as delightful to listen to as the game that was being played. I could never tire of the dulcet tones of his voice – indeed I never wanted to him to stop speaking.
All seasoned commentators have well-rehearsed lines they deploy as needed. The best ones made them sound effortless and off-the-cuff and Winston perfected the art. I used to have a stock of memorable Winston Davies riffs but with the passage of time they have faded. One remains forever etched in my memory, however. A beautiful pass was threaded to the feet of the centre forward of an attacking team, but with almost no defence between him and the goal post, he shot wide and missed the chance. As soon as he did, an instantaneous, thunderous admonition boomed from Winston in the commentary box with, “what a lackadaisical approach at goal!” Whereupon we all reached for the dictionary.
He was great man of language and words. He once told me how his love for language was cultivated growing up in Kumasi, inspired by the legendary sociologist, Dr. Alex Kyeremanteng, to whom an entire generation owed their literacy and fondness for reading and language.
No wonder when another great literary figure, the late Kofi Awoonor, passed, Winston paid him the following eloquent tribute:
“This news has taken us all by surprise leading to a lot of unanswered questions.
I really don’t know why he went there but knowing him he had friends in both academia and the diplomatic world so he might have been on a personal/private or a professional one. No one is saying as yet.
This is a man I have known most of my adult life. He was a very good friend of my late uncle and a bosom companion of my brother-in-law, so I always found my self in his company, in Ghana or in New York.
As an educator he had very few equals and as a friend he was not only trustworthy but also one who stuck to you through thick and thin.
His command of the English language made him unique in our world. He chose his words very carefully for both substance and weight. He never wasted a word and that quality endeared him to some of us mere mortals.
Ghana has lost a very illustrious son and he will be sorely missed. May he rest peacefully in the arms of The Lord.
So I have started my mourning process.
Winston Davis
Former GBV-TV Sportscaster & Personality
London, UK, September 26, 2013”
It’s a shame that like many other capable people, Winston had to leave Ghana to settle abroad and deprive us of this most natural-born of raconteurs.
I know he was an avid rugby fan too. He was quick to remind me during a World Cup tournament, when I was supporting England and sharing ‘Swing lo, sweet chariot’, that he was a fan of Welsh rugby (he was part Welsh) and was almost always overcome with emotion whenever their national anthem, “Land of their fathers”, was sung by The Dragons. Here is a typical scene https://youtu.be/AM4mIlYKG9s Real goose pimple stuff; and it shall be my abiding memory of a man I did not know well but whom I held in great admiration all of my life
Rest in Peace, Sir!
Ekow Nelson
December 2021
reimagining 