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Author Topic: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly  (Read 14969 times)

Offline Woofles The Wonder Dog

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #15 on: September 17, 2021, 09:17:04 PM »
Totally agree Rory, Isa Guha is an emerging star.
Mikey was on Desert Island Discs this morning and I don’t mind admitting I had tears in my eyes listening. What a man.

The BLM segment last year was one of the most powerful pieces of television I've ever seen.

Agreed 100%

Online UK Redsox

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #16 on: September 17, 2021, 10:15:34 PM »


Baseball:

Tim McCarver



I consider this the most controversial thing that you’ve ever posted on H&V.

You are wrong, very wrong. McCarver is among the worst of the worst baseball commentators. Not quite Joe Morgan bad, or Hawk Harrelson bad, but close.

My own controversial take on baseball commentators is that Vin Scully was terrible. He’s considered a national treasure but the bloke never stopped to take a breath.

My favourite is Bob Uecker.

Jon Miller is great as well.

I also like listening to old broadcasts by Red Barber and Mel Allen.

As for cricket….

Ritchie Benaud
Aggers
Vic Marks
Jim Maxwell
Alison Mitchell
Tony Cozier
Tuffers (another controversial one)
Jeremy Coney

On Sky, I rate Athers, Nasser, Rob Key, Mel Jones, Ebony Rainford-Brent (who’s also on the Beeb as well)

By far the worst cricket commentator is Kevin Pietersen.

« Last Edit: September 17, 2021, 10:19:35 PM by UK Redsox »

Online UK Redsox

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #17 on: September 17, 2021, 10:17:43 PM »
My favourite two are/were definitely Benaud and Holding. Insightful, articulate, balanced, passionate about cricket, personable and down-to-earth, each having a no-bullshit integrity and a good sense of humour without the need to force 'bantz' on the listener/viewer.

Cricket is blessed with lots of excellent commentators. One of my emerging favourites is Isa Guha, who I think is fantastic.

One of the things I used to love about Holding was after a fairly dry period of the game when someone hit a scoring shot there would be a delay as it raced to the boundary, and Mikey in his deep voice would just say, “runs”.

Yes haha, like a not annoying version of Danny Morrison screaming "BOOM!" every time he hears bat on ball.

Danny Morrison has me reaching for the mute button

Online UK Redsox

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #18 on: September 17, 2021, 10:22:06 PM »
For Rugby, I like Eddie Butler and Brian Moore.

Nigel Owens will be great if he decides to do more summarising work.

Offline Villa Lew

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #19 on: September 17, 2021, 10:23:04 PM »
Favourites would be Barry Davies, John Arlott 'The voice of Summer' and the dulcet tones of Peter Alliss.

Offline Villan For Life

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #20 on: September 18, 2021, 07:41:14 AM »
What a great idea for a thread!

Football:

Barry Davies - much better than Motson who always seemed to get the big games. Davies was also able to commentate on several other sports and was generally always involved in the coverage of the Olympics.

Brian Moore - didn’t he speak those immortal lines back in 1982?

Gary Neville - I like his passion and he’s quite insightful at times.

Cricket

Arlott - his voice was so deep and mellifluous. There’s a famous quote of him describing a Clive Lloyd cover drive “A stroke of a man knocking a thistle top off with a walking stick”.

Benaud - the master of old-school commentary, he always let the television pictures tell the story and only spoke when necessary.

Johnson - his sense of fun made him perfect for TMS.

Aggers - the last link with the golden years of TMS but he’s a fantastic commentator in his own right.

Holding - a special man and when he spoke you just listened. His emotional speech last year was so moving.

Tony Cozier - I’d have had him commentating on every tour not just on the West Indies tours. He’s not been replaced although Viv Richards is good.

Others who deserve an honorary mention include Vic Marks, Mike Selvey, Athers and Rameez Raja.

Unfortunately there’s far too many poor commentators/summarisers across all sports but some personal nominations are:

Motson - the master of speaking the bleeding obvious

Michael Vaughan - tv and radio click bait, he’s only interested in one thing and that’s Michael Vaughan

Jamie Carragher - he’s like an excitable puppy and is too one eyed. His world is red which is odd because he grew up a blue.

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #21 on: September 18, 2021, 07:47:14 AM »
All the good commentators have one thing in common - they knew when to keep quiet. The best on TV hardly spoke at all.

Offline Nunkin1965

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #22 on: September 18, 2021, 09:09:00 AM »
Huw Johns and Gerald Sindstadt still top the football pile for me as Star Soccer was my first memory of watching the beautiful game.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2021, 09:59:07 AM by Nunkin1965 »

Offline Scratchins

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #23 on: September 18, 2021, 09:24:20 AM »
A friend went to a function where Hugh Johns was the guest speaker. He stood up obviously the worse for wear. As he spoke he fell forward and landed face down on the trestle table; it was over the join where 2 tables had been pushed together. They collapsed in a V shape around him and he was covered in food, dishes, glasses, cutlery etc.

Offline Nunkin1965

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #24 on: September 18, 2021, 09:59:57 AM »
A friend went to a function where Hugh Johns was the guest speaker. He stood up obviously the worse for wear. As he spoke he fell forward and landed face down on the trestle table; it was over the join where 2 tables had been pushed together. They collapsed in a V shape around him and he was covered in food, dishes, glasses, cutlery etc.
Fantastic story.
Just adds to the greatness of the man!

Offline ADVILLAFAN

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #25 on: September 18, 2021, 10:13:21 AM »
I used to love Mike Carlson doing the NFL Coverage, but he's probably more of a pundit than commentator. Madden and Al Michaels were a good commentary duo when I started watching the sport.

Can't stand Troy Aikman, who only cares about QB play. He will support whoever has the best QB.

Online UK Redsox

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #26 on: September 18, 2021, 11:15:49 AM »
Good call on Carlson, but he is more of a presenter than a commentator.

However, he does have one annoying trait…..his “he couldn’t be more alone if….” schtick

Offline Woofles The Wonder Dog

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #27 on: September 18, 2021, 11:16:21 AM »
I’ll grant you Bob Uecker, but I’ll also stick with McCarver

Offline Woofles The Wonder Dog

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #28 on: September 18, 2021, 11:26:29 AM »
I missed out Bill McLaren for Rugby! Capital offence.

Ebony Rainford-Brent has improved her match voice hugely and knows her stuff. Pietersen is scarily crap, and could be replaced by a gerbil on helium. All of the IPL commentary teams are abysmal - everyone and every thing is fantastic.

I’m also convinced The Hundred commentators were ordered to squeal with delight at every ball, and that reflected badly on Dinesh Karthtik, who had been a decent commentator in the Tests this year.

Offline Tony Daleys Shorts

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Re: Sports Commentators - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
« Reply #29 on: September 18, 2021, 11:36:41 AM »
Sid Waddell was a genius, not too many commentators have the World championship trophy of their chosen sport named after them.

 


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