 Arthur Wrigley was born in Heaton Moor, Cheshire, and after attending Heaton Moor College he became an accountant with a firm in Manchester.Successful in club cricket as a right-arm leg-spin bowler, he joined the Lancashire County Cricket Club ground staff in 1934, though he never played in a first-class match.His career with the BBC began that same season when, after a request by commentator Howard Marshall for a scorer, Lancashire offered his services for the England-Australia Test at Old Trafford.