I know he's not a football commentator, but he's been mentioned often enough on these threads - Charlie Sale tweeted earlier that he was considering legal action against Private Eye after they referred to him as a "portly sports diarist".
Also, does anyone remember Caple losing his voice whilst commentating (during an African Cup of Nations game I think) and Dave Farrah having to take over? That was amusing!
Heh. In Midnight in the Garden of Evil Kneivel, Giles Smith's excellent book of Telegraph columns (before he went to the The Times and went rubbish, doing the same jokes every week), there's an excellent piece about that match, saying "Pearce often sounds like a man commissioned to predict the following day's tabloid headlines", greeting the second Tromso goal with "Snow joke for Chelsea! They're being frozen out!"
Will be interested if anybody knows which of the Premier League trophies paraded about today but on two different continents within three hours, in Birmingham and in Afghanstian, is the real one.
I think Shreeves said that the trophy they had with them was Chelsea's trophy they won last May, while the other is presumably the replica that MOTD and ESPN have on their set every week. I dunno why they need to have that on their set, though, it barely gets in shot.
ITV stopped showing the Goal Rush when they lost the Premier League rights. But Tim was a regular reporter there, usually in South Wales or the West of England.
Gary Bloom used to report for The Goal Rush too and in 2002/03 was banned from entering Coventry's press box to report as Coventry were still angry over ITV Digital. The Goal Rush actually ended in December 2003 - seven years ago to the day, in fact - clearly as they couldn't be bothered carrying on now they were losing the rights, and because of the Rugby World Cup it was barely on for the last two months.
When would Trevor Harris have presented live football coverage on British Eurosport?
I seem to remember he did at least one of the Blackburn Uefa Cup matches that season, I think Eurosport showed two. One of them was when they completely managed to miss the first fifteen minutes, they simply didn't come back from the pre-match ad break and showed an apology card and then fillers, and when they finally appeared, Farrar simply apologised for "a brief loss of picture".
Also Matt Smith presented Womens' Euro 2005 for Eurosport, when they were the host broadcaster but the England games were also shown live on BBC2.
Agree with the earlier Tim Caple comments either - yes his voice is distictive but he doesnt commentate, he just rambles a stream of conciousness. Was that his ESPN debut? Maybe he was a last minute call if Proudfoot or a regular was stuck in the snow?
Yes it was his ESPN debut and it looks like ESPN are trying out new comms recently as Gary Bloom has also been heard on a couple of German games too.
I did hear a rumour about another comm going to be doing a game, but as of yet i havent heard him on there. But you never know!
Tim Caple also seems to be doing recently, the main Spanish La Liga game on sunday's on Al Jazzera Sport +3.
The other Al Jazeera Sport channels are using the World Feed comm for the game, but +3 must employing him just for the that channel!!
Tim Caple and Gary Bloom arent just scraping the barell, they're the wood itself. ESPN's commentators on the foreign leagues are their weakest links - it's a sorry state when Steve Bower is actually one of the more acceptable voices on the channel. Third Rate Speight sounds about 12 - if he's doing a game, I switch off.
Tim White, Martin Hindley, Nick London, the list of shite goes on.
I seem to remember he did at least one of the Blackburn Uefa Cup matches that season, I think Eurosport showed two. One of them was when they completely managed to miss the first fifteen minutes, they simply didn't come back from the pre-match ad break and showed an apology card and then fillers, and when they finally appeared, Farrar simply apologised for "a brief loss of picture".
Also Matt Smith presented Womens' Euro 2005 for Eurosport, when they were the host broadcaster but the England games were also shown live on BBC2.
Thanks for that Steve (and for jogging my memory of Matt Smith presenting Eurosport's Women's Euro 2005 coverage - another tournament I watched almost exclusively on the BBC).
Which season would this have been? Sorry to be a pedant but you haven't dated that bit about Trevor Harris.
You mentioned 2002/03 in the previous chunk of your post, but it can't have been then as I know the first leg of Blackburn's UEFA Cup tie with Genclerbirligi was on Channel 5 with only the second leg being on British Eurosport.
This only sticks in my mind because I distinctly remember the TV coverage of both games having involvement from talkSPORT folk - as mentioned Adrian Durham presented coverage of the second leg, while Tim White (who was talkSPORT's Yorkshire football correspondent until 2008/09) was 5's pitchside reporter in the first leg in Turkey - which doesn't happen very often, let alone over two legs of the same tie. Blackburn went out to the Turkish club in the first round, so that was that for their European campaign in 02/03.
I'm guessing it would have been either in 2006/07 or 2007/08 - the most recent years that Blackburn have been in Europe - as I remember Rovers games being on British Eurosport during at least one of those seasons. It would have probably been then when Tim Caple anchored that game from Ewood Park too.
On a general note, it's a shame for Eurosport that rights to the Europa League have been centrally sold to other broadcasters since 2009/10. It must have been a bit of a blow to them, as it was always nice to see the occasional European game that you weren't expecting to be able to see pop up on their channel during the 1990s and 2000s.
I think Tim Caple has a good voice, although it is a bit of an acquired taste. I think Tim has done alright previously when he covered things like the Toulon on Europsport with Brian Hamilton, but I thought on Saturday Tim didn't have his greatest game. It struck me that neither Tim nor Scott Booth seemed to know a great deal about Inter Milan. They contradicted themselves quite a bit and then remarked that Eto'o hadn't scored much for a couple of weeks - that's because he's been suspended. They said that Milito hadn't had a good season but that is also because he has been out with injury.
In the second half when there was plenty of scope for discussing how poor Inter's season has been so far, and what this may mean for Benitez's long term chances they contented themselves with very shallow debate on the subject before moving on. Likewise it's been a funny old 12 months or so for African football what with Ghana winning the U-20, the disaster of the AFCON, the more or less shcoking performances of the African sides at the WC 2010 (with the exception of Ghana over-performing) and now TP Mazembe turning up in the final of the World Club. But there was none of that, and it was a pity. I would have liked to hear their opinion and analysis of where African sides might rank against the bigger European sides, but didn't happen.
Having said that, they did refer to the Congo's win in the African Nations Cup (the one in which countries can only call up African base players) which Derek Rae didn't mention during Mazembe's semi-final on Tuesday.
For what it is worth I think the definition of a good commentator on a foreign lge is one who sounds excited and is knowledgeable. I think that is what makes Kevin Keatings very suitable for La Liga on Sky or what males Jim Proudfoot stand out on Serie A for ESPN. They obviously sound like they enjoy it rather than it sounding like they are only there because they are being paid...
Tim Caple and Gary Bloom arent just scraping the barell, they're the wood itself. ESPN's commentators on the foreign leagues are their weakest links - it's a sorry state when Steve Bower is actually one of the more acceptable voices on the channel. Third Rate Speight sounds about 12 - if he's doing a game, I switch off.
Tim White, Martin Hindley, Nick London, the list of shite goes on.
I see you've crawled out from under your rock.
It's not what you say, Keith. It's how you say it. But, hey, that's been said plenty of times.
Surprised you didn't throw a Myra reference in there somewhere.
For what it is worth I think the definition of a good commentator on a foreign lge is one who sounds excited and is knowledgeable. I think that is what makes Kevin Keatings very suitable for La Liga on Sky or what males Jim Proudfoot stand out on Serie A for ESPN. They obviously sound like they enjoy it rather than it sounding like they are only there because they are being paid...
Very good point. What makes guys like Jim Proudfoot stand out is that not only are they knowledgeable and tell you things about the teams, players, countries etc that you didn't know before but the way they use that information - it's clear they have embraced the league/tournament they are covering and the details they give you are relevant, rather than sounding like facts from a sheet.
They come in for some (IMO very undeserved) stick from the usual suspects on here but I think the bulk of ESPN's commentary roster for the European leagues they cover are very well rounded. I go away from watching these games feeling I know a bit more about that particular corner of the football world, which is what I want from my commentators on those kind of matches.
See? Keith comes back and this forum is more lively than it has been in months.
I've mentioned this I think on both forums, but ESPN should really consider trying to get Kevin Keatings because he is excellent on foreign league matches and the Champions League. Rae, Proudfoot, and Keatings on Serie A, Bundesliga, etc. is a decent lineup if you ask me.
I wont rise to the bating from certain members. That sort of crap is why I dont post much now.
ESPN's Euro Four should be IMHO
Rae
Keatings
Proudfoot
Bower
in that order of seniority, with maybe Champion used on occasions for the really big games. A pool of five should be more than enough to cover most weeks.
I'm guessing it would have been either in 2006/07 or 2007/08 - the most recent years that Blackburn have been in Europe - as I remember Rovers games being on British Eurosport during at least one of those seasons. It would have probably been then when Tim Caple anchored that game from Ewood Park too.
It was 2006, and a search through this thread's archives confirms that Eurosport did indeed show Blackburn twice that season. On 28th September, they showed their match against Salzburg with TIM CAPLE presenting and Mike Newell and Tim Sherwood punditing (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=10949304), while on 2nd November they showed their match against Basle with TREVOR HARRIS presenting and Sherwood and Paul Dickov punditing.
That was a very strange season as far as the Uefa Cup went, also around then you had Palermo vs West Ham shown only as highlights on Channel Five, Jon Champion of course commentating on that and a live game for Five and Gabby Logan doing about three matches in three months, her only work for ITV that season before she left.
It is a shame that with the central selling we don't get crazy kick-off times and crazy channels anymore for the Europe League, especially Five's demented triple headers, I made a list of them a while back. Including Alistair Mann doing two matches in three years, both mid-afternoon kick-offs from Wisla Krakow.
It was 2006, and a search through this thread's archives confirms that Eurosport did indeed show Blackburn twice that season. On 28th September, they showed their match against Salzburg with TIM CAPLE presenting and Mike Newell and Tim Sherwood punditing (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=10949304), while on 2nd November they showed their match against Basle with TREVOR HARRIS presenting and Sherwood and Paul Dickov punditing.
That was a very strange season as far as the Uefa Cup went, also around then you had Palermo vs West Ham shown only as highlights on Channel Five, Jon Champion of course commentating on that and a live game for Five and Gabby Logan doing about three matches in three months, her only work for ITV that season before she left.
It is a shame that with the central selling we don't get crazy kick-off times and crazy channels anymore for the Europe League, especially Five's demented triple headers, I made a list of them a while back. Including Alistair Mann doing two matches in three years, both mid-afternoon kick-offs from Wisla Krakow.
Thanks for taking the time to dig out those details Steve. A really informative post as always, they are appreciated.
I remember watching those Palermo v West Ham highlights on Channel Five - another talkSPORT broadcaster, the excellent Alvin Martin, was doing co-commentary on that game alongside Jon Champion.
It's one of the last times I can remember Alv doing a co-commentary for television, which is a shame as he's the best summariser on the radio IMO.
One of those Alistair Mann games was the infamous pairing with Roy Hodgeson. Blackburn at Kracow wasn't it?
Yes, the other one was Spurs, again against Wisla Krakow, with Graham Taylor two years later. What I also used to like about those triple headers was that on at least one of them Colin Murray went through what they were showing at the start and announced who the commentators were going to be for every one. That's what I want to hear. I also remembering Murray introducing Jon Champion as "Jon Chaaam-piii-ooon!" like a chant. Funny the things, eh?
Man City v Everton
Sky Sports 2D: Rob Hawthorne and Alan Smith
Sky Sports 3D: Gary Weaver and Andy Hinchcliffe
Int Feed: Martin Tyler and Paul Walsh
ESPN US: Ian Darke and Steve McManaman
Thanks for taking the time to dig out those details Steve. A really informative post as always, they are appreciated.
I remember watching those Palermo v West Ham highlights on Channel Five - another talkSPORT broadcaster, the excellent Alvin Martin, was doing co-commentary on that game alongside Jon Champion.
It's one of the last times I can remember Alv doing a co-commentary for television, which is a shame as he's the best summariser on the radio IMO.
Alvin & Jon Champion were on the same plane as me when we went out to Palermo!!
The last game i remeber Alvin doing for TV was a pre season on Setanta, was the MLS Al Star game in 2008, when West Ham were in it alongside Dave Farrar.
And the one before that was the season before, once again a pre season friendly on Setanta, which was another West Ham game v Norwich, alongside Jon Roder!
To me it's criminal that Alvin isn't used by a TV broadcaster as a regular co-commentator. With the dearth of available talent in that area, particularly on the terrestrial channels, you'd have thought TV execs would be queuing up to get him on board, particularly since talkSPORT superseded him with Stan Collymore (an unnecessary move IMO).
While perhaps not the biggest name (like that should count), Alvin is among the most thoughtful and level headed co-commentators out there.
To me it's criminal that Alvin isn't used by a TV broadcaster as a regular co-commentator. With the dearth of available talent in that area, particularly on the terrestrial channels, you'd have thought TV execs would be queuing up to get him on board, particularly since talkSPORT superseded him with Stan Collymore (an unnecessary move IMO).
While perhaps not the biggest name (like that should count), Alvin is among the most thoughtful and level headed co-commentators out there.
Yeah i was there, basically the other side from the camera up in the seats!!
Comments
Heh. In Midnight in the Garden of Evil Kneivel, Giles Smith's excellent book of Telegraph columns (before he went to the The Times and went rubbish, doing the same jokes every week), there's an excellent piece about that match, saying "Pearce often sounds like a man commissioned to predict the following day's tabloid headlines", greeting the second Tromso goal with "Snow joke for Chelsea! They're being frozen out!"
I think Shreeves said that the trophy they had with them was Chelsea's trophy they won last May, while the other is presumably the replica that MOTD and ESPN have on their set every week. I dunno why they need to have that on their set, though, it barely gets in shot.
Gary Bloom used to report for The Goal Rush too and in 2002/03 was banned from entering Coventry's press box to report as Coventry were still angry over ITV Digital. The Goal Rush actually ended in December 2003 - seven years ago to the day, in fact - clearly as they couldn't be bothered carrying on now they were losing the rights, and because of the Rugby World Cup it was barely on for the last two months.
I seem to remember he did at least one of the Blackburn Uefa Cup matches that season, I think Eurosport showed two. One of them was when they completely managed to miss the first fifteen minutes, they simply didn't come back from the pre-match ad break and showed an apology card and then fillers, and when they finally appeared, Farrar simply apologised for "a brief loss of picture".
Also Matt Smith presented Womens' Euro 2005 for Eurosport, when they were the host broadcaster but the England games were also shown live on BBC2.
Yes it was his ESPN debut and it looks like ESPN are trying out new comms recently as Gary Bloom has also been heard on a couple of German games too.
I did hear a rumour about another comm going to be doing a game, but as of yet i havent heard him on there. But you never know!
Tim Caple also seems to be doing recently, the main Spanish La Liga game on sunday's on Al Jazzera Sport +3.
The other Al Jazeera Sport channels are using the World Feed comm for the game, but +3 must employing him just for the that channel!!
Tim White, Martin Hindley, Nick London, the list of shite goes on.
He wasn't forced to (before anybody suggests such a thing).
Crosses fingers its not Ian Gwynne Hughes out of retirement.:eek:
I can't say anything i'm afraid Keith!!
Is it a big name or a well known one? Better than the names I mentioned? Yes's and no's will do!
Thanks for that Steve (and for jogging my memory of Matt Smith presenting Eurosport's Women's Euro 2005 coverage - another tournament I watched almost exclusively on the BBC).
Which season would this have been? Sorry to be a pedant but you haven't dated that bit about Trevor Harris.
You mentioned 2002/03 in the previous chunk of your post, but it can't have been then as I know the first leg of Blackburn's UEFA Cup tie with Genclerbirligi was on Channel 5 with only the second leg being on British Eurosport.
This only sticks in my mind because I distinctly remember the TV coverage of both games having involvement from talkSPORT folk - as mentioned Adrian Durham presented coverage of the second leg, while Tim White (who was talkSPORT's Yorkshire football correspondent until 2008/09) was 5's pitchside reporter in the first leg in Turkey - which doesn't happen very often, let alone over two legs of the same tie. Blackburn went out to the Turkish club in the first round, so that was that for their European campaign in 02/03.
I'm guessing it would have been either in 2006/07 or 2007/08 - the most recent years that Blackburn have been in Europe - as I remember Rovers games being on British Eurosport during at least one of those seasons. It would have probably been then when Tim Caple anchored that game from Ewood Park too.
On a general note, it's a shame for Eurosport that rights to the Europa League have been centrally sold to other broadcasters since 2009/10. It must have been a bit of a blow to them, as it was always nice to see the occasional European game that you weren't expecting to be able to see pop up on their channel during the 1990s and 2000s.
In the second half when there was plenty of scope for discussing how poor Inter's season has been so far, and what this may mean for Benitez's long term chances they contented themselves with very shallow debate on the subject before moving on. Likewise it's been a funny old 12 months or so for African football what with Ghana winning the U-20, the disaster of the AFCON, the more or less shcoking performances of the African sides at the WC 2010 (with the exception of Ghana over-performing) and now TP Mazembe turning up in the final of the World Club. But there was none of that, and it was a pity. I would have liked to hear their opinion and analysis of where African sides might rank against the bigger European sides, but didn't happen.
Having said that, they did refer to the Congo's win in the African Nations Cup (the one in which countries can only call up African base players) which Derek Rae didn't mention during Mazembe's semi-final on Tuesday.
For what it is worth I think the definition of a good commentator on a foreign lge is one who sounds excited and is knowledgeable. I think that is what makes Kevin Keatings very suitable for La Liga on Sky or what males Jim Proudfoot stand out on Serie A for ESPN. They obviously sound like they enjoy it rather than it sounding like they are only there because they are being paid...
I see you've crawled out from under your rock.
It's not what you say, Keith. It's how you say it. But, hey, that's been said plenty of times.
Surprised you didn't throw a Myra reference in there somewhere.
Very good point. What makes guys like Jim Proudfoot stand out is that not only are they knowledgeable and tell you things about the teams, players, countries etc that you didn't know before but the way they use that information - it's clear they have embraced the league/tournament they are covering and the details they give you are relevant, rather than sounding like facts from a sheet.
They come in for some (IMO very undeserved) stick from the usual suspects on here but I think the bulk of ESPN's commentary roster for the European leagues they cover are very well rounded. I go away from watching these games feeling I know a bit more about that particular corner of the football world, which is what I want from my commentators on those kind of matches.
I've mentioned this I think on both forums, but ESPN should really consider trying to get Kevin Keatings because he is excellent on foreign league matches and the Champions League. Rae, Proudfoot, and Keatings on Serie A, Bundesliga, etc. is a decent lineup if you ask me.
ESPN's Euro Four should be IMHO
Rae
Keatings
Proudfoot
Bower
in that order of seniority, with maybe Champion used on occasions for the really big games. A pool of five should be more than enough to cover most weeks.
It was 2006, and a search through this thread's archives confirms that Eurosport did indeed show Blackburn twice that season. On 28th September, they showed their match against Salzburg with TIM CAPLE presenting and Mike Newell and Tim Sherwood punditing (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=10949304), while on 2nd November they showed their match against Basle with TREVOR HARRIS presenting and Sherwood and Paul Dickov punditing.
That was a very strange season as far as the Uefa Cup went, also around then you had Palermo vs West Ham shown only as highlights on Channel Five, Jon Champion of course commentating on that and a live game for Five and Gabby Logan doing about three matches in three months, her only work for ITV that season before she left.
It is a shame that with the central selling we don't get crazy kick-off times and crazy channels anymore for the Europe League, especially Five's demented triple headers, I made a list of them a while back. Including Alistair Mann doing two matches in three years, both mid-afternoon kick-offs from Wisla Krakow.
Thanks for taking the time to dig out those details Steve. A really informative post as always, they are appreciated.
I remember watching those Palermo v West Ham highlights on Channel Five - another talkSPORT broadcaster, the excellent Alvin Martin, was doing co-commentary on that game alongside Jon Champion.
It's one of the last times I can remember Alv doing a co-commentary for television, which is a shame as he's the best summariser on the radio IMO.
Yes, the other one was Spurs, again against Wisla Krakow, with Graham Taylor two years later. What I also used to like about those triple headers was that on at least one of them Colin Murray went through what they were showing at the start and announced who the commentators were going to be for every one. That's what I want to hear. I also remembering Murray introducing Jon Champion as "Jon Chaaam-piii-ooon!" like a chant. Funny the things, eh?
Sky Sports 2D: Rob Hawthorne and Alan Smith
Sky Sports 3D: Gary Weaver and Andy Hinchcliffe
Int Feed: Martin Tyler and Paul Walsh
ESPN US: Ian Darke and Steve McManaman
Alvin & Jon Champion were on the same plane as me when we went out to Palermo!!
The last game i remeber Alvin doing for TV was a pre season on Setanta, was the MLS Al Star game in 2008, when West Ham were in it alongside Dave Farrar.
And the one before that was the season before, once again a pre season friendly on Setanta, which was another West Ham game v Norwich, alongside Jon Roder!
Since then nothing!!!
You mean you were there to witness this great moment in football history?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWfpGrKN_Ag
To me it's criminal that Alvin isn't used by a TV broadcaster as a regular co-commentator. With the dearth of available talent in that area, particularly on the terrestrial channels, you'd have thought TV execs would be queuing up to get him on board, particularly since talkSPORT superseded him with Stan Collymore (an unnecessary move IMO).
While perhaps not the biggest name (like that should count), Alvin is among the most thoughtful and level headed co-commentators out there.
Yeah i was there, basically the other side from the camera up in the seats!!
http://www.matchhighlight.com/premier-league/manchester-city-0-1-everton/