Radio Football Commentators and Reporters 2012/13

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  • LanarkianLanarkian Posts: 7,534
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    London 94.9 I think in the early 2000s. if memory serves he might also have covered Middlesex cricket for the station.
    BBc
    You're right. Ned Hall was with BBC London (in all its guises) from 2001 to 2006 and covered football, rugby union and cricket.
  • damien666damien666 Posts: 11
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    States on ZoomInfo that Tony Lockwood is LBC Football Correspondent. Has he returned to the station?
  • The DifferenceThe Difference Posts: 21,037
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    talkSPORT

    Saturday 15th June

    The Transfer Tavern with Nat Coombs, followed by Ian Danter presenting Kick Off alongside Marc Bircham

    UEFA Under-21 Championship Semi-Finals
    Spain Under-21s v Norway Under-21s - Graham Beecroft
    Italy Under-21s v Netherlands Under-21s - Ian Abrahams

    Tennis: AEGON Championships
    Queen's Club, London - Dave Luddy

    Golf: US Open
    Merion Golf Club, Pennsylvania - Bob Bubka


    Tuesday 18th June

    Drive Time with Adrian Durham and Darren Gough

    UEFA Under-21 Championship Final
    Spain Under-21s v Italy Under-21s - Graham Beecroft

    Horse Racing: Royal Ascot
    Ascot Racecourse - Rupert Bell
  • The DifferenceThe Difference Posts: 21,037
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    Slightly later than promised and certainly later than I usually do, I have compiled the presenting, commentary and pitchside reporting statistics from talkSPORT's live football coverage throughout the 2012/13 season. With the station adding commentary rights to the FA Cup and England friendly internationals and an extended Capital One Cup deal to their existing commitments to the Premier League, Champions League, Europa League and Play-Off Finals, the season that has just concluded saw the station provide the largest number of fully national commentaries they have ever been able to do in a single campaign. They did a total of 138 live commentaries in 2012/13, up from 86 in 2011/12 (not including Euro 2012) and 93 in 2010/11.

    In terms of the number of matches they covered from each of the competitions they have access to, this breaks down as follows:

    Premier League - 62 games (23 on Saturdays at 5.30pm, 32 on Sundays and 7 on Wednesdays including one at 3pm on Boxing Day)
    FA Cup - 34
    UEFA Champions League - 17
    Capital One Cup - 9
    UEFA Europa League - 7
    International Friendlies - 5
    Play-Off Finals - 3
    FA Community Shield - 1

    While the majority of these matches were full, uninterrupted 90 minute commentaries, there were four games that were 3pm Sunday kick-offs joined in-progress at around the midway point of the first half and then broadcast to their conclusion, making up the second leg of Sunday Premier League double headers after 1.30pm kick-offs. There were also six matches that were classed as receiving "extended coverage", where talkSPORT had a commentary team on-site and took spells of commentary of varying lengths, with them having the rights accreditation to do this. However, in my list I've not included any matches that equated to lengthy updates on games they did not have commentary rights to but were covered by a reporter and an expert, such as their coverage of the Champions League Final or games on the final day of the Premier League and Championship seasons.

    With those caveats cleared up, I shall launch into the list…

    Presenters:

    Georgie Bingham - 47 games
    Mark Saggers - 32
    Adrian Durham - 30
    Ian Danter - 15
    Danny Kelly - 8
    Richard Keys - 6

    Commentators:

    Sam Matterface - 84
    Nigel Adderley - 25
    Nigel Pearson - 13
    John Roder - 11
    Ian Danter - 3
    Ian Abrahams - 2

    Co-commentators:

    Stan Collymore - 68
    Alvin Martin - 20
    Ray Parlour - 16
    Ray Houghton - 12
    Andy Gray - 9
    Michael Gray - 4
    Matt Holland - 4
    Jason Cundy - 3
    Steve Howey - 1
    Micky Quinn - 1
    Additionally, Bobby Gould (Milton Keynes Dons v AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup Second Round) and Robbie Fowler (Manchester City v Chelsea in the Premier League) provided on-site "expert comments" into one game each.

    Pitchside reporters:

    Ian Abrahams - 26
    Dom McGuinness - 16
    Mike Bovill - 9
    Graham Courtney - 9
    Graham Beecroft - 8
    Simon Humphreys - 8
    Dave Rowe - 6
    Tony Incenzo - 5
    Ian Danter - 4
    Roger Hughes - 3
    Kev Lawrence - 3
    John Anderson - 2
    John Temple - 2
    Elliot Cook - 1
    Alex Crook - 1
    Grahame Lloyd - 1
    Nigel Pearson - 1
    Geoff Peters - 1
    There was no pitchside reporter at 32 commentary games.

    For the statistics involving the presenters, those who hosted more than one game within the same programme/day have been counted as presenting of the number of live games they fronted that day, with all of the "extended coverage" games counted here, including the two FA Cup Replays that Mark Saggers hosted which were part of programmes that included full commentary games that went out semi-concurrently.

    The "extended coverage" matches were as follows: Bradford City v Arsenal in the Capital One Cup (Danter and Martin), West Brom v QPR (Pearson and Michael Gray), Arsenal v Swansea (Matterface and Holland) and Brighton v Arsenal (Abrahams and Holland) in the FA Cup, Bradford v Northampton (Abrahams and Holland) in the League Two Play-Off Final and Brentford v Yeovil (Adderley and Martin) in the League One Play-Off Final. Feel free to delete as appropriate from the above commentary numbers if you are keeping score at home and don't want to class these as commentary games!

    Of the games without a pitchside reporter, these included 17 of the 24 European games they covered (the exceptions being the six Chelsea home games - two in the Champions League and four in the Europa League - they covered plus the Europa League Final), the three England away friendlies and all six of their "extended coverage" matches including both lower league Play-Off Finals. The rest were FA Cup or Capital One Cup games.

    Looking at the list of names we heard on touchline duty this season, almost all of the reporters we regularly hear on Matchday Live, Sunday Exclusive and Kick Off got a chance to update pitchside proceedings on at least one occasion. The only reporter who was used in this capacity last season but not in 2012/13 is Andrew McKenna, who over the past 12 months has seen his live sports reporting commitments shift almost entirely to rugby union, with him becoming the host of weekly rugby show Full Contact, their main reporter at England rugby games, getting the chance to commentate on a handful of Aviva Premiership matches for them and now being their lead voice in Australia for the British & Irish Lions tour. The only newcomer to the pitchside reporter list is Alex Crook, who is primarily a commentator on international service talkSPORT Live but has covered a few games for the UK station.

    Steve Howey's solitary appearance on talkSPORT this season was as a late substitute for an ill Stan Collymore on the Newcastle United v Liverpool Premier League game in April.

    Moving onto individual statistics for Sunday Exclusive, these being for the presenters and the pundits in addition to the co-commentators used for the 46 live games that programme broadcast this season:

    Sunday Exclusive presenters:

    Georgie Bingham - 40
    Ian Danter - 6

    Sunday Exclusive pundits:

    Ray Parlour - 8
    Ray Houghton - 7
    Michael Gray - 4
    Matt Holland - 4
    Alvin Martin - 2
    Robbie Fowler - 1
    David Ginola - 1
    Bobby Gould - 1

    The pundit count totals 28, as on most occasions when there was more than one commentary in a day, Georgie or Dants were joined by just the co-commentators as opposed to an auxiliary studio or stadium-based pundit. This includes the five occasions when talkSPORT had double headers of Sunday Premier League commentaries, one of these being a triple header including the second FA Cup Semi-Final, plus FA Cup Fourth and Fifth Round Sundays which were also triple bills. I've included Robbie Fowler as a co-host for the aforementioned Manchester City v Chelsea match, but not the Capital One Cup Final which followed it. Georgie hosted three live games on-site (MK Dons v Wimbledon, the Capital One Cup Final and Chelsea v Swansea City) and hosted their coverage of Tottenham v Everton in April from Chelsea v Sunderland, while Ian Danter doubled up as presenter and pitchside reporter at Aston Villa v Liverpool in March.

    The other nine games Ian Danter hosted this season were Saturday evening Matchday Exclusive matches, the other 28 of which were presented by Adrian Durham. Dants filled in for Adrian during the post-Christmas period when the latter was suffering from laryngitis, during which time the former hosted their coverage of FA Cup Third and Fourth Round Saturdays. Only five Matchday Exclusive games were hosted from the studio, four of which came early on in the season before talkSPORT took the decision to commit to sending Adrian Durham to Saturday 3pm matches for Matchday Live on a weekly basis, the other being the FA Cup Sixth Round Replay between Chelsea and Manchester United on Easter Monday.

    From Community Shield weekend to the penultimate Sunday of the Premier League season (Matchday Live had the Sunday afternoon timeslot on the final day), there were only seven editions of Sunday Exclusive that didn't contain a live (football) commentary. These included three of the five Sundays in September, one of which fell during an international week, and a further two Sundays that fell during the international weeks in October and March.

    To conclude, here are full details of how talkSPORT covered the numerous finals they had commentary rights to this season:

    FA Community Shield - Georgie Bingham and Ray Parlour presented from the studio, Sam Matterface and Ray Houghton commentated with Dave Rowe at pitchside.

    Capital One Cup Final - Georgie Bingham presented from Wembley Stadium, Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore commentated with Ian Abrahams at pitchside and Mike Bovill and Matt Holland reporting from Wembley Way.

    FA Cup Final - Adrian Durham and Danny Murphy presented from Wembley Stadium, Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore commentated with Ian Abrahams at pitchside and reporting from Wembley Way during the build-up.

    UEFA Europa League Final - Mark Saggers presented from the studio, Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore commentated with Ian Abrahams reporting from the Amsterdam ArenA.

    League Two Play-Off Final - Georgie Bingham presented from the studio, Ian Abrahams and Matt Holland provided "extended coverage".

    League One Play-Off Final - Adrian Durham presented from West Bromwich Albion v Manchester United (on the final day of the Premier League season), Nigel Adderley and Alvin Martin provided "extended coverage".

    Championship Play-Off Final - Mark Saggers and Matt Holland presented from Wembley Stadium, Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore commentated with Ian Abrahams at pitchside.

    For the UEFA Champions League Final, Danny Kelly presented coverage from the studio with Nigel Adderley and Stan Collymore providing updates and Ian Abrahams reporting from Wembley Way. Ian Danter reported on the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final, Geoff Peters reported on the Scottish Cup Final and Graham Beecroft reported on the UEFA Under-21 Championship Final. talkSPORT didn't have reporters covering the UEFA Super Cup, the Scottish League Cup Final or the Conference Play-Off Final.

    For talkSPORT's coverage of England friendly internationals, Mark Saggers presented their coverage of the games against Brazil in February and the Republic of Ireland in May from Wembley Stadium, with Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore commentating and John Anderson at pitchside on both occasions. Sam Matterface and Ray Parlour commentated on the games against Italy in Berne in August and Brazil in Rio in June (Mark Saggers and Danny Kelly presented studio-based coverage respectively), while Nigel Pearson and Stan Collymore commentated on Sweden v England from Stockholm in November with Mark Saggers hosting from the studio.
  • ReadingfanReadingfan Posts: 10,211
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    Looking at the fixtures for next season it seems likely Talksport will get commentary for LIverpool V Man Utd (in week 3) and the Manchester derby (in week 5) as these will surely be 1.30 kick-offs on Sky. It's possible this might occur more regularly now as the Premier League might try and avoid these fixtures before Champions League weeks as Sky don't have the 12.45 slot (but can use a few picks there in emergencies); if the matches aren't before Champions League then Sunday 1.30 is the most obvious slot although if the midweek after is completely free then there's a chance for Mon 20.00 which would suit 5 Live (not applicable to these fixtures though.)

    Manchester United V Chelsea in week 2 is most likely to go to 5 Live as either a Sun 16.00 or Mon 20.00 match, although it's possible Sky might want to launch their new Sat 17.30 regular slot by placing a massive game there early on.
  • shaun_dshaun_d Posts: 1,693
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    Thanks The Difference for the talkSPORT info, great round up.
  • bwfcolbwfcol Posts: 13,670
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    5Live will have commentary on England Women's Euro Championship games which is good to see.

    My guess would be Ian Dennis as the commentator.

    Alistair Bruce-Ball & John Murray will be at the British Golf Open (I presume anyway)

    I think Darren Fletcher has done his last 5Live game now

    I'm also anticipating new 606 presenters with Fletcher & Green gone and Mark Chapman busier, it will be interesting to see if recent presenters Ian Dennis & Dan Walker will be involved
  • The DifferenceThe Difference Posts: 21,037
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    shaun_d wrote: »
    Thanks The Difference for the talkSPORT info, great round up.

    Very kind of you to say so and certainly this is reciprocated when it comes to the 5 Live info you have posted.

    I should add that I appreciate all of the help I have received in compiling all of the information from talkSPORT and other stations both on and away from this forum over the course of 2012/13.
    Readingfan wrote: »
    Manchester United V Chelsea in week 2 is most likely to go to 5 Live as either a Sun 16.00 or Mon 20.00 match, although it's possible Sky might want to launch their new Sat 17.30 regular slot by placing a massive game there early on.

    Now that the TV rights to the Saturday 5.30pm timeslot has shifted over from ESPN to Sky Sports, will we be getting games played at this time on more of a regular basis than has been the case over the past three seasons?

    I'm no expert on the television side of the Premier League's rights deals and TV's scheduling calls but I've read a few times on the various threads on this over in the Broadcasting section that it is expected that Sky Sports will air games at this time a bit more frequently than ESPN had done.

    Calling upon my stats for talkSPORT, there was only 23 games played in that timeslot in 2012/13 - contrasting with 27 matches played on Sunday at 1.30pm or 2pm (talkSPORT had five Premier League Sunday double headers last season to bring their Sunday total up to 32).

    While that might not sound that much, the difference between the number of games in the two timeslots is a month's worth of Saturday evenings and as a frequent listener to talkSPORT at weekends it is noticeable when they have to adjust their usual Saturday night schedule with extra editions of My Sporting Life normally filling the gap the lack of a live late game leaves. From a listener's perspective I'd like it if they were able to cover a live game on just about every Saturday barring those during international breaks in order to give the station's output a little bit more consistency (securing rights to the FA Cup has helped in this respect).

    I'm not expecting a great deal of change in the quality of matches talkSPORT are able to cover - they should still get their fair share of "blockbuster" local derbies in the Sunday 1.30pm timeslot with mostly less attractive games pitting the bigger clubs against smaller ones at 5.30pm on Saturdays - but it would be good if it looked like they would be more likely to exceed their quota of 64 Premier League commentaries than fall short of it, as has been the case over the past two seasons.
  • swansea steveswansea steve Posts: 1,404
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    Very kind of you to say so and certainly this is reciprocated when it comes to the 5 Live info you have posted.

    I should add that I appreciate all of the help I have received in compiling all of the information from talkSPORT and other stations both on and away from this forum over the course of 2012/13.



    Now that the TV rights to the Saturday 5.30pm timeslot has shifted over from ESPN to Sky Sports, will we be getting games played at this time on more of a regular basis than has been the case over the past three seasons?

    I'm no expert on the television side of the Premier League's rights deals and TV's scheduling calls but I've read a few times on the various threads on this over in the Broadcasting section that it is expected that Sky Sports will air games at this time a bit more frequently than ESPN had done.

    Calling upon my stats for talkSPORT, there was only 23 games played in that timeslot in 2012/13 - contrasting with 27 matches played on Sunday at 1.30pm or 2pm (talkSPORT had five Premier League Sunday double headers last season to bring their Sunday total up to 32).

    While that might not sound that much, it is a month's worth of Saturday evenings and as a frequent listener to talkSPORT at weekends it is noticeable that when have to adjust their usual Saturday night schedule with extra editions of My Sporting Life normally filling the gap the lack of a live late game leaves. From a listener's perspective I'd like it if they were able to cover a live game on just about every Saturday barring those during international breaks in order to give the station's output a bit more consistency (securing rights to the FA Cup has helped in this respect).

    I'm not expecting a great deal of change in the quality of matches talkSPORT are able to cover - they should still get their fair share of "blockbuster" local derbies in the Sunday 1.30pm timeslot with mostly less attractive games pitting the bigger clubs against smaller ones at 5.30pm on Saturdays - but it would be good if it looked like they would be more likely to exceed their quota of 64 Premier League commentaries rather than fall short of it, as has been the case over the past two seasons.

    I think you are right Diff. Talksport had both Manchester United v Liverpool games last season, as well as 1 Manchester derby and at least 1 Liverpool v Everton game so I don't see what they have next season as being much different.
  • Paul_CrawfordPaul_Crawford Posts: 5,860
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    hmm intresting stats for both talksport and 5live, i would have thought with Alan Green being king he would get the most matches, but he is beaten by Murray in that respect, has it been revealed why Alan Green was ditched from 606? 5live are extremly hush hush about it, people have tried to get an answer on the 5live blog, but to no avail.

    btw is Walsall_Chris around? He used to frequent the BBC forums, he always was really informative.I had my suspicions that he was a BBC football Commentator, maybe Ian Dennis....
  • swansea steveswansea steve Posts: 1,404
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    hmm intresting stats for both talksport and 5live, i would have thought with Alan Green being king he would get the most matches, but he is beaten by Murray in that respect, has it been revealed why Alan Green was ditched from 606? 5live are extremly hush hush about it, people have tried to get an answer on the 5live blog, but to no avail.

    btw is Walsall_Chris around? He used to frequent the BBC forums, he always was really informative.I had my suspicions that he was a BBC football Commentator, maybe Ian Dennis....

    I've got a feeling Chris posts in this very thread... but I'm not going to name him both because I could be wrong and because he's chosen to use another name on here.
  • ReadingfanReadingfan Posts: 10,211
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    I've got a feeling Chris posts in this very thread... but I'm not going to name him both because I could be wrong and because he's chosen to use another name on here.

    I agree with this...! (And don't think it's Ian Dennis!)

    In terms of the 5.30 matches, I think there will be more than 23 next season. Talksport are helped in that any big head to heads now before Champions League midweeks will be more likely to air at Sat 17.30 than Sat 12.45 (if they're on Sky - police permitting). So for instance last season Man Utd V Arsenal would have been a Sat 17.30 match instead of Saturday lunchtime. Sat 17.30 is also much better for Sky in terms of ratings/profile so there's a fair chance they'll be more willing to put decent matches in that slot than they were 12.45 (where often they simply had no other option).

    The flipside to this is that BT now have 1st pick games (the first time Sky haven't had them) and they only have the 1 weekend slot generally. This means that essentially any first pick BT get is going to be on 5 Live (we suspect the likes of Arsenal V Liverpool and Tottenham V Chelsea.)
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