Nigel Pearson is an excellent commentator and grabs your attention from the first kick. I am disappointed he seems to have been overhauled by 'outsiders' eg Sam Matterface and Nigel Adderley who were brought in over his head, though I appreciate Nigel Pearson has his Sky TV commitments and this may have prevented him taking on the full season's work for Talksport commentaries.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about Nigel Pearson - he's an excellent commentator with a brilliantly enthusiastic and assured style.
As for why he doesn't do as many live commentaries for talkSPORT these days; when Sam Matterface arrived at the station after the 2010 World Cup and their contract to 3pm Premier League commentaries expired (which for the previous three years had been Nigel's main role at the station), Nigel himself posted on his website to say that he had decided to take a step back from regular radio commentaries and was returning to his role as a West Midlands football correspondent on Saturdays. By that point, in addition to his regular commentary commitments on speedway and darts for Sky Sports, he had also just become the chairman of the Dudley Heathens speedway team and his wife had recently given birth to his second child. So you can understand why he would have wanted to scale things back on the football front and why he no longer travels out to the major international football tournaments. I think the change of contracts and the movement of other commentators to and from talkSPORT gave him an opportunity to do that.
That said, like you I'd like there to be a bit more of an even balance between him and Nigel Adderley when it comes to covering the matches that Sam Matterface (by some distance their established number one commentator) can't cover. It was good to hear Nigel P back on England duty for the Sweden game in the first half of the season, a sensible call given that he knew the stadium in Stockholm well from the speedway, but in the second half of the season Nigel A seemed to have overtaken him a bit as their go-to guy on Sundays when there were Premier League or FA Cup double headers as well as for weeks with more than one midweek game.
If I'm honest, I'd also like to see Sam Matterface becoming a bit less dominant over the live games - it's somewhat of a shame that he got to commentate on all four of the major finals talkSPORT covered as commentaries in 2012/13 (FA Cup Final, League Cup Final, Europa League Final and Championship Play-Off Final), as in previous seasons there's been a much more of an even distribution over them with Pearson typically getting the League Cup Final and/or the Championship Play-Off Final.
I also agree about Ian Danter, a very good commentator, second only to Pearson, and an equally good presenter when standing in on Matchday Live or the Breakfast show when I prefer him to Brazil. Ronnie Irani's current holiday? seems to have breathed new life into that programme too as others have come in and done well. Irani doesnt seem to contribute any original thought.
After poor RAJAR figures, new programme director Liam Fisher had told him he didn't plan to renew his contract in August, upon hearing the news Ronnie decided to leave the show ahead of time, although he is still presenting Sunday cricket show Howzat during the summer. For the time being, Alan Brazil's co-hosts on the Sports Breakfast have been a rotation of different guest hosts from various different sports. It's typically been a different person every one or two days, ranging from talkSPORT regulars to complete newcomers, and as a listen the show has been all the better for this IMO.
Part of the reason I asked who you would like to see being promoted from the reporting team to become a part of the commentary team is because I have high hopes for the tenure of Liam Fisher, who started at talkSPORT 13 years ago as a producer on shows like Hawksbee & Jaoobs and has slowly worked his way up the ranks.
I'm hoping he affords opportunities to people who've been similarly loyal to the station - a good recent sign was seeing Dants, who like you I rate highly as a very versatile broadcaster, getting the call to do a pre-arranged substitute stint on H&J when Paul Hawksbee was away, rather than previous Moz Dee favourites Andy Goldstein or Sam Delaney. Another positive is that they have entrusted Andrew McKenna with the mic to lead all the commentaries on the British & Irish Lions tour. He is a fine presenter on Full Contact, impressed as a commentator at the Rugby World Cup and on the Premiership games he has covered for them and IMO is much more deserving of this chance than someone who has just been plucked from television or another radio station to do a six-week stint and then never to be heard on talkSPORT again.
One of the things I really wasn't keen on during Moz Dee's tenure as talkSPORT's programme director (although generally my impressions of the job he did is very favourable) was the short-term hiring of people from outside the station to commentate on certain events over the heads of existing and more than capable broadcasters, only for these new voices never to be heard again. You had John Rawling doing half a dozen games during the second half of the 09/10 season, then being named as their number three commentator on the 2010 World Cup only never to be heard again on talkSPORT. And why appoint Ron McIntosh - who had never worked for them before and hasn't since - to commentate on the Haye v Chisora fight when you have Beeky and Dom McGuinness? I'm not against bringing in people like Adderley, John Roder and John Anderson who seem to be in it for the long haul, but in the two examples I have given I felt Moz undermined the many talented sports broadcasters they already have at their disposal.
I realise I've gone off on a tangent here but I hope under Liam Fisher's direction we hear more things like Macca getting the chance to commentate on major rugby union internationals and Dants being first choice to cover the main weekday shows and less occasions of people we've never heard on talkSPORT before getting called in out of the blue to cover major events for them.
Geoff Peters is normally very sharp and impressive with good intonation and worth a go as a commentator.
Agreed. I particularly enjoy his Championship round-ups on Friday's Kick Off, during the 1-2pm hour of Matchday Live on Saturday and during the Sunday morning Extra Time show when I hear that. Perhaps more so than on commentary, I'd like to hear him back in the studio either co-hosting with Saggers or Danny Kelly on the nights they have journalists in for Kick Off or even as a presenter again - the Call The Doc show he hosted with Tommy Docherty on Sundays during the very early days of talkSPORT after the rebrand was a great listen all those years ago.
Dave Rowe is fine but needs to slow down his delivery a bit which makes me breathless too!
He is fast-paced, that is true, but I think that's an asset as he gets a lot into his reports and is lively with it. Dave is another talkSPORT reporter who has a distinctive voice (at least to me - perhaps because when he's from is not a million miles down the road to where I grew up) and so stands out.
Roger Hughes is OK but occasionally seems a bit lost.
I think Roger Hughes is a top draw reporter. I was familiar with him prior to him joining the talkSPORT reporting team as he used to commentate for BBC Radio Wales during the time I lived in Wales, although during the two years I dipped into Radio Wales Sportstime on a semi-regular basis he was number three in their pecking order of covering the then-three Welsh league teams behind Rob Phillips and John Hardy. But he has really come into his own on talkSPORT - his work in the Wales camp during the 2011 Rugby World Cup was particularly excellent and I'm a little disappointed that he doesn't seem to be out in Australia for the Lions tour, if not for talkSPORT for sister station Swansea Sound instead. I also like the rapport he has with Sam and Stan when they're commentating on Swansea (and from next season Cardiff) games he's at pitchside for.
Simon Humphreys is better but lacks the quality of Pearson and Danter in my view.
The thing that always strikes me about Simon Humphreys is his Stokie accent. You don't often hear that accent in mainstream broadcasting so it is good to hear that part of the world being represented on a national station. I always enjoy his reports, full of enthusiasm and life, and I liked what I managed to hear of his commentaries for Signal 2 on Stoke's Europa League run last season.
It will be interesting to see who covers Hull in the Premier League, Grahame Llloyd got quite a few Hull games last season, I would like £5 for every time he said the Tigers are roaring, and at least it cant be the Tigers v The Lions again!
John Temple's coverage of the pivotal Huddersfield v Barnsley game on the final day was detailed and exciting and as you say maybe he will get his chance to cover Premier League matches at Hull. It's perhaps significant that Talksport appointed him to such a key game at Huddersfield.
Again, I think a large part of the reason why John Temple got Huddersfield v Barnsley on the final day of the Championship season was because he's based in that part of the world and covers a lot of games involving Yorkshire's Championship clubs for talkSPORT. That's not to say he wasn't a good choice though, like you I listened on the day and thought he did such a big game justice.
I think that next season's reporting duty on non-commentary Hull City games will be shared out fairly evenly between Temple, Grahame Lloyd and Graham Courtney, due to their geography more than anything else. Temple should be most prominent if Lloyd continues to share Norwich and Ipswich games with Kev Lawrence and Courtney continues to mostly cover Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough. If Naz Premji becomes a regular fixture, perhaps we'll hear him covering Hull too as I believe he is Yorkshire-based.
I know it had been reported on here (on the basis of upcoming schedules that had been released last month) that talkSPORT would be doing commentaries on the England matches at the European Under-21 Championship, but it sound as if that won't be happening after all.
Peter Lansley from The Times (who is Israel covering the tournament) was interviewed during the last hour of Lions Live, at the end of which Mark Saggers concluded by saying that talkSPORT will have "all the news and reports" on the England v Italy game during Kick Off with Ian Danter tonight - were they to be doing more than that, then I'm certain he would have said so. There's no longer any mention of Under-21s commentary on the talkSPORT.co.uk schedule (The Transfer Tavern is listed at the time when England play Norway on Saturday) and coverage hasn't been trailed on-air, so I guess they won't be doing commentaries but we'll know one way or the other soon enough.
Danny Mills seems to have a bit of a following among the Radio 5 Live listeners on here - those who like him might be interested to hear that he'll be co-hosting talkSPORT's Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil next Tuesday, which I believe will be his debut on that station. Neil Warnock is co-hosting tomorrow morning's show with Alan, reprising their presenting combination from the first season of Sunday Exclusive in 2010/11. I think I'm right in saying that this will be Neil's first proper return to talkSPORT as a co-host since he left his role on their Premier League coverage when QPR were promoted at the end of that season.
I thought Fletcher and Pleat did well tonight on the England disallowed goal chaos. They realised as the game was restarting that it hadn't been given, heard the announcement over the crowd and were altogether a lot sharper/quicker than Sky in realising what had happened.
I'm out of the country at the moment and will be in the air when Scotland inevitably lose to Croatia on Friday, so if someone else is able to fill in the BBC Radio Scotland details, I'd be very grateful.
I thought Fletcher and Pleat did well tonight on the England disallowed goal chaos. They realised as the game was restarting that it hadn't been given, heard the announcement over the crowd and were altogether a lot sharper/quicker than Sky in realising what had happened.
agreed. they did well overall in that game with some pretty odd decisions from the ref for them to try and get their heads around.
I hope we here Fletcher sometimes still on 5Live next season as I think he's matured in to a top-draw commentator since joining from commercial radio.
I could certainly envisage Fletcher contributing to 5 Live's coverage of major tournaments in the future. I'd imagine they'll need at least 6 regular commentators for the World Cup next summer for instance: you'd imagine Green and Murray would be certainties but it becomes a bit trickier after that. If England qualify then Ingham and Dennis will presumably be dispatched to England reporting again primarily, and the same might be true for McNamara if the Republic of Ireland qualify. I presume Bruce-Ball will commentate too but they might be a bit stretched after that, presuming that Simon Brotherton continues his BBC TV duties which there's no reason to suspect won't happen. So I wouldn't be surprised to see Fletcher involved.
Thanks The Difference for your in depth thoughts and for the news re Irani's departure. Full marks to Liam Fisher for making such a big change which may have upset Brazil and perhaps the odd other person in the higher echelons of Talksport. The listening figures clearly encouraged him to make the change, what are the listening figures like for Match Day Live? If they are good, Liam may well be inclined to leave well alone. Certainly Adrian Durham's position as the presenter must be unquestioned. Micky Gray has got stronger as the season went on and is a good addition. Ray Parlour is a big name but gabbles and doesnt have a great voice. Alvin Martin presumably spends his time now watching his sons play but I would love to see him back on the programme as his views are insightful and succinct. Matt Holland is intelligent and should be given more air time. Parlour shouldnt retain his place just because he is a bigger name.
We have discussed the various merits of the reporters but I think the great variation in reporting styles helps make the show so entertaining. As I have said, Tony Incenzo and John Temple are the pick of the lot for me, both very accurate, fluent and descriptive, but I can see how Ian Abrahams may be other people's cup of tea with his inimitable style which sometimes overshadows some very good reporting that he contributes. I have also made the odd criticism of some reporters, and while I am not going to criticse individuals further, there was the odd weak link who wasnt up to standard, obviously so. Liam perhaps needs to take a close look at his reporting team to ensure they do not let the quality drop through complacency. I have seen healthy businesses soon fail when they take things for granted.
The 5 Live reporters are all perfectly OK but the Talksport programme on a Saturday afternoon is, IMO, a clear winner.
Talksport have a lot of talent to call on and it must be disheartening for their reporters if they are not given opportunities while others are brought in from outside. There seems to be a lot of experience and good quality in their team and it should be used to the full.
Mark Saggers presenting a Kick Off: British & Irish Lions Special
FIFA World Cup 2014 European Zone Qualifiers
Croatia v Scotland - Graham Courtney
Republic of Ireland v Faroe Islands - David Brady
Rugby League: Super League
Widnes Vikings v Wigan Warriors - Mark Wilson
Good to read your thoughts again Toon Geordie. I have to disagree with you on Ray Parlour, I think he has done really well on Matchday Live since becoming a regular on it in the season before the one that has just concluded. I know his accent and speaking impediment comes in for criticism, but if you listen to what he has to say I think it's hard to deny that he is positive, fair minded and thinks before speaking in order to construct reasonable arguments. He has also shown a genuine interest in lower levels of football to the one he spent most of his career playing at, something which I particularly appreciate. I hope Ray remains a fixture on Matchday Live for many years to come.
Like you, I rate Alvin Martin highly and would like to hear much more of him on talkSPORT than is the case at present - but it is his decision to support his sons on Saturday afternoons which I respect and I think the typical Matchday Live presenting line-up of Adrian and Ray with either Michael Gray or Matt Holland works well. I don't have many dislikes among the 20 or so football reporters they call upon on a regular basis, although I agree that Ian Abrahams' weekday morning persona can detract from him being a very good broadcaster when playing it straight as he (usually) does on Saturdays. I fully agree with the last few sentences you have written.
FIFA World Cup 2014 European Zone Qualifying Group A
Croatia v Scotland - Richard Gordon and Peter Houston (7.15pm commentary on 810MW), with Al Lamont at pitchside
I'm not 100 per cent sure about some of these details (particularly the surname of the studio pundit) as I only caught bits of the second half and their post-match section, with last night's edition of Sportsound having yet to be uploaded to the iPlayer. I do know they took post-match interviews conducted by their own reporter Al Lamont and some of the TV ones done by BBC Two Scotland's Jonathan Sutherland.
RTE 2fm
Damien O'Meara presented Game On from the Aviva Stadium alongside Pat Fenlon and John McDonnell
FIFA World Cup 2014 European Zone Qualifying Group C
Republic of Ireland v Faroe Islands - Adrian Eames and Brian Kerr (7.45pm commentary), with John Kenny at pitchside
Austria v Sweden - John Fallon
British & Irish Lions tour update - Michael Corcoran European Men's Boxing Championship (Minsk) - Hugh Cahill Friday Night Racing - Liam Nash
Newstalk 106-108FM
Adrian Barry presented Off The Ball alongside Alan Mathews, Cian Murtagh and Colm Parkinson
FIFA World Cup 2014 European Zone Qualifying Group C
Republic of Ireland v Faroe Islands - Stewie Byrne
FIFA World Cup 2014 European Zone Qualifying Group A
Croatia v Scotland - Richard Gordon and Peter Houston (7.15pm commentary on 810MW), with Al Lamont at pitchside
I'm not 100 per cent sure about some of these details (particularly the surname of the studio pundit)...
UEFA Under-21 Championship Group A
England Under-21s v Norway Under-21s - Graham Beecroft
Cricket: ICC Champions Trophy Group A
England v Australia - Jack Bannister
BBC Radio 5 Live had Darren Fletcher and David Pleat on commentary duty on the England Under-21s as per Wednesday's game.
With tonight's result confirming their elimination from the tournament, I'd be very surprised if England's final group game against hosts Israel - a 5pm BST kick-off on Tuesday - is a commentary game on Radio 5 Live as it is currently scheduled to be. Given how live commentary on other sporting events - Champions League or Europa League games kicking off at 5/6pm which they have full rights to, full internationals involving Celtic nations, midweek games from the 2009 Lions tour, indeed matches from previous editions of this tournament involving more successful England teams - haven't been allowed to encroach into the usual 4-7pm Drive slot, I'd be amazed to see this game given pride of place on 5 Live, especially given the state of play in it.
It seems Richard Keys and Andy Gray won't be on talkSPORT's morning slot come August.
Keys has just tweeted:
Wouldn't and couldn't 'walk out' on TS. I owe them too much. Best work place I've ever been in. Doesn't try to be something it isn't. Back in August with a new Friday evening show. Going to be concentrating on tv work going forward. TS feels like family. That won't change.
Is Gray returning with him?
Who will present the 10:00-13:00 slot now?
Will it be Danny Kelly?
My personal feelings....they present a very good programme together and have enjoyed their show so I hope talkSPORT continue to broadcast quality in that slot and not give us Micky Quinn.
For those who haven't clicked through to the talkSPORT press release, Richard Keys and Andy Gray will be presenting the Friday night edition of Kick Off from next season.
It's worth mentioning that the presenter they are taking over from, Danny Kelly, will be presenting his new TV show with Danny Baker on the BT Sport channel on Friday evenings, so this move makes sense as a change was needed on that programme anyway.
I presume they'll be broadcasting their end of the show from a radio studio in Qatar - I know there are a few English language stations over there (former talkSPORT host Rob McCaffrey presents a football show on Dubai-based Coast FM for example) so perhaps their new show might be a simulcast with a station over there, as the Saturday morning Sports Breakfast show that Alan Brazil and Mike Parry co-hosted with Costa del Sol-based broadcaster Paul Breen-Turner was during the early 2000s.
Do Al-Jazeera have rights to the World Cup? If so, presumably Keys and Gray will be working for them next summer. But if not maybe they'd still do work for Talksport instead?
Drive Time with Adrian Durham and Darren Gough, followed by Kick Off with Ray Stubbs and Gabriele Marcotti
UEFA Under-21 Championship Group A
Israel Under-21s v England Under-21s - Graham Beecroft
I presume BBC Radio 5 Live had Darren Fletcher reporting on this game rather than doing commentary on it (what with coverage of the ICC Champions Trophy being on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra this afternoon). I noticed that any reference to commentary on this match being on Radio 5 Live had been removed from the 5 Live website since the weekend, which seemed fairly inevitable.
Does anyone know if any Irish radio stations (presumably either RTE Radio 1 Extra or RTE 2fm) are covering the Spain v Republic of Ireland international late tonight/early tomorrow morning at 1am?
Mike Graham presented Extra Time alongside Jake Robson
International Friendly
Spain v Republic of Ireland (Yankee Stadium) - David Brady
Although he wasn't reporting live for them, the Extra Time show would speak to Tony Incenzo from Yankee Stadium after the game, who was in New York City on perhaps his most epic "groundhop" yet!
Does anyone know if any Irish radio stations (presumably either RTE Radio 1 Extra or RTE 2fm) are covering the Spain v Republic of Ireland international late tonight/early tomorrow morning at 1am?
To answer my own question, none of the Irish radio stations that usually cover football did. RTE Radio 1 Extra was simulcasting the BBC World Service, RTE 2fm and Newstalk 106-108FM were broadcasting pre-recorded "best of" programmes and Today FM had an automated music show with none of their usual hourly news breaks. Given that Radio 5 Live don't always cover the Republic of Ireland's home qualifiers and how they seem have an aversion to covering anything off-tube, I didn't bother dipping into Up All Night as I felt checking that for updates would likely prove to be a fruitless exercise. talkSPORT seemed to be the only English language station updating the match live.
I listened to bits of the commentary (of sorts) provided by Spanish national radio station Cadena COPE, whose team were clearly working off-tube and using artificial crowd effects rather than an official stadium feed. My Spanish is far from brilliant but it was clear they were taking their coverage of this game less than seriously, at points in the game they were playing in bits of music for comic effect and joking about insomnia!
Perhaps the relative efforts in covering this international friendly from the Spanish and Irish national radio stations who would normally cover their national teams on home soil is food for thought for those who were keen to criticise talkSPORT for doing an off-tube commentary on last month's England friendly in Brazil.
51 commentaries (simulcasts of local coverage not included)
Matches
8 Premier League
30 Football League
5 FA Cup
5 League Cup
2 Internationals
1 Community Shield
Commentators
10 Ian Brown, Alistair Bruce-Ball
08 Mike Sewell
06 John Acres
04 David Oates
03 Adam Pope
02 Conor McNamara, Dave Woods, Paul Walker, Seth Bennett
01 Alastair Durden, Darren Fletcher, Jacqui Oatley, John Murray, Simon Brotherton
Summarisers
Clive Allen 1; Craig Burley 1; Danny Higginbotham 1; Dean Ashton 1; Dean Kiely 5; Dion Dublin 1; Jimmy Armfield 4; Keith Andrews 2; Kevin Gallacher 7; Kevin Kilbane 1; Kevin Radcliffe 1; Kit Symons 1; Leroy Rosenior 1; Mark Bowen 1; Mark Bright 6; Mark McGee 1; Matt Jackson 1; Michael Gray 1; Nigel Worthington 1; Pat Nevin 2; Paul Jewell 1; Phil Brown 1; Steve Claridge 4; Steve Froggatt 2; Steven Reid 2 & Tim Flowers 1
5 Live 2012 - 2013
232 commentaries
Matches
115 Premier League
27 Football League
32 FA Cup
14 League Cup
19 Champions League
7 Europa League
15 Internationls
2 Scottish FA Cup
1 SPL
Commentators
66 John Murray
58 Alan Green
45 Darren Fletcher
41 Mike Ingham
34 Ian Dennis
32 Conor McNamara
10 Alistair Bruce-Ball
06 Simon Brotherton
05 Ian Brown, John Motson
03 Roddy Forsyth
02 Dave Woods
01 Mike Sewell, Jonathan Pearce
Summarisers
Chris Coleman 3, Clive Allen 3, Craig Brown 2; Craig Burley 8; Craig Levein 2; Danny Mills 24; David Moyes 1; David Pleat 16; Dean Ashton 1; Dean Kiely 3; Dion Dublin 3; Graeme Le Saux 12; Graham Taylor 13; Jan Molby 1; Jason Roberts 1; Jimmy Armfield 7; Joe Jordan 2; John Hartson 2; Kevin Gallacher 3; Kevin Kilbane 14; Mark Bowen 2; Mark Bright 4; Mark Lawrenson 14; Martin Keown 8; Mick McCarthy 2; Nigel Spackman 6; Nigel Worthington 1; Pat Nevin 18; Paul Jewell 2; Peter Reid 1; Phil Brown 12; Robbie Savage 21; Steve Claridge 17 & Steve McLaren 4.
Due to the overlap with the last internationals of the season I've included the 2 commentaries from the Under 21 tournament in the stats.
There were 3 Saturday 3pm PL commentaries in the Autumn that started on Sports Extra and ended on 5 Live. The match, the summariser and the 5 Live commentator are included in the 5 Live stats but the Sports Extra commentator is listed in that section.
As always thanks to everyone who contributes information during the season
I'd like to see - or hear! - slightly more of Brotherton, Taylor and Armfield next season. I wonder if Chris Waddle might appear next season now ESPN have effectively finished?
I put this in the wrong thread.
ABC Local Radio Grandstand Australia v Iraq Ned Hall, Paul Wade and Debbie Spillane (commentary)
Ned Hall has a (what sounds to me) a Birmingham accent and is a name I am sure I know from BBC Local Radio in the past.
I put this in the wrong thread.
ABC Local Radio Grandstand Australia v Iraq Ned Hall, Paul Wade and Debbie Spillane (commentary)
Ned Hall has a (what sounds to me) a Birmingham accent and is a name I am sure I know from BBC Local Radio in the past.
London 94.9 I think in the early 2000s. if memory serves he might also have covered Middlesex cricket for the station.
BBc
Belated thanks for posting such great statistics on Radio 5 Live and Sports Extra's football coverage this season Shaun. It is always greatly appreciated.
I'm in the process of putting together the numbers and a full breakdown of talkSPORT's football coverage during 2012/13, which hopefully I'll be able to post at some point tonight or tomorrow.
Comments
I wholeheartedly agree with you about Nigel Pearson - he's an excellent commentator with a brilliantly enthusiastic and assured style.
As for why he doesn't do as many live commentaries for talkSPORT these days; when Sam Matterface arrived at the station after the 2010 World Cup and their contract to 3pm Premier League commentaries expired (which for the previous three years had been Nigel's main role at the station), Nigel himself posted on his website to say that he had decided to take a step back from regular radio commentaries and was returning to his role as a West Midlands football correspondent on Saturdays. By that point, in addition to his regular commentary commitments on speedway and darts for Sky Sports, he had also just become the chairman of the Dudley Heathens speedway team and his wife had recently given birth to his second child. So you can understand why he would have wanted to scale things back on the football front and why he no longer travels out to the major international football tournaments. I think the change of contracts and the movement of other commentators to and from talkSPORT gave him an opportunity to do that.
That said, like you I'd like there to be a bit more of an even balance between him and Nigel Adderley when it comes to covering the matches that Sam Matterface (by some distance their established number one commentator) can't cover. It was good to hear Nigel P back on England duty for the Sweden game in the first half of the season, a sensible call given that he knew the stadium in Stockholm well from the speedway, but in the second half of the season Nigel A seemed to have overtaken him a bit as their go-to guy on Sundays when there were Premier League or FA Cup double headers as well as for weeks with more than one midweek game.
If I'm honest, I'd also like to see Sam Matterface becoming a bit less dominant over the live games - it's somewhat of a shame that he got to commentate on all four of the major finals talkSPORT covered as commentaries in 2012/13 (FA Cup Final, League Cup Final, Europa League Final and Championship Play-Off Final), as in previous seasons there's been a much more of an even distribution over them with Pearson typically getting the League Cup Final and/or the Championship Play-Off Final.
Ronnie Irani has actually left the Sports Breakfast permanently. This happened two weeks ago. Click here for more information: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2329991/Ronnie-Irani-sacked--Charles-Sale-column-TalkSport-axe-breakfast-host.html
After poor RAJAR figures, new programme director Liam Fisher had told him he didn't plan to renew his contract in August, upon hearing the news Ronnie decided to leave the show ahead of time, although he is still presenting Sunday cricket show Howzat during the summer. For the time being, Alan Brazil's co-hosts on the Sports Breakfast have been a rotation of different guest hosts from various different sports. It's typically been a different person every one or two days, ranging from talkSPORT regulars to complete newcomers, and as a listen the show has been all the better for this IMO.
Part of the reason I asked who you would like to see being promoted from the reporting team to become a part of the commentary team is because I have high hopes for the tenure of Liam Fisher, who started at talkSPORT 13 years ago as a producer on shows like Hawksbee & Jaoobs and has slowly worked his way up the ranks.
I'm hoping he affords opportunities to people who've been similarly loyal to the station - a good recent sign was seeing Dants, who like you I rate highly as a very versatile broadcaster, getting the call to do a pre-arranged substitute stint on H&J when Paul Hawksbee was away, rather than previous Moz Dee favourites Andy Goldstein or Sam Delaney. Another positive is that they have entrusted Andrew McKenna with the mic to lead all the commentaries on the British & Irish Lions tour. He is a fine presenter on Full Contact, impressed as a commentator at the Rugby World Cup and on the Premiership games he has covered for them and IMO is much more deserving of this chance than someone who has just been plucked from television or another radio station to do a six-week stint and then never to be heard on talkSPORT again.
One of the things I really wasn't keen on during Moz Dee's tenure as talkSPORT's programme director (although generally my impressions of the job he did is very favourable) was the short-term hiring of people from outside the station to commentate on certain events over the heads of existing and more than capable broadcasters, only for these new voices never to be heard again. You had John Rawling doing half a dozen games during the second half of the 09/10 season, then being named as their number three commentator on the 2010 World Cup only never to be heard again on talkSPORT. And why appoint Ron McIntosh - who had never worked for them before and hasn't since - to commentate on the Haye v Chisora fight when you have Beeky and Dom McGuinness? I'm not against bringing in people like Adderley, John Roder and John Anderson who seem to be in it for the long haul, but in the two examples I have given I felt Moz undermined the many talented sports broadcasters they already have at their disposal.
I realise I've gone off on a tangent here but I hope under Liam Fisher's direction we hear more things like Macca getting the chance to commentate on major rugby union internationals and Dants being first choice to cover the main weekday shows and less occasions of people we've never heard on talkSPORT before getting called in out of the blue to cover major events for them.
Agreed. I particularly enjoy his Championship round-ups on Friday's Kick Off, during the 1-2pm hour of Matchday Live on Saturday and during the Sunday morning Extra Time show when I hear that. Perhaps more so than on commentary, I'd like to hear him back in the studio either co-hosting with Saggers or Danny Kelly on the nights they have journalists in for Kick Off or even as a presenter again - the Call The Doc show he hosted with Tommy Docherty on Sundays during the very early days of talkSPORT after the rebrand was a great listen all those years ago.
He is fast-paced, that is true, but I think that's an asset as he gets a lot into his reports and is lively with it. Dave is another talkSPORT reporter who has a distinctive voice (at least to me - perhaps because when he's from is not a million miles down the road to where I grew up) and so stands out.
I think Roger Hughes is a top draw reporter. I was familiar with him prior to him joining the talkSPORT reporting team as he used to commentate for BBC Radio Wales during the time I lived in Wales, although during the two years I dipped into Radio Wales Sportstime on a semi-regular basis he was number three in their pecking order of covering the then-three Welsh league teams behind Rob Phillips and John Hardy. But he has really come into his own on talkSPORT - his work in the Wales camp during the 2011 Rugby World Cup was particularly excellent and I'm a little disappointed that he doesn't seem to be out in Australia for the Lions tour, if not for talkSPORT for sister station Swansea Sound instead. I also like the rapport he has with Sam and Stan when they're commentating on Swansea (and from next season Cardiff) games he's at pitchside for.
The thing that always strikes me about Simon Humphreys is his Stokie accent. You don't often hear that accent in mainstream broadcasting so it is good to hear that part of the world being represented on a national station. I always enjoy his reports, full of enthusiasm and life, and I liked what I managed to hear of his commentaries for Signal 2 on Stoke's Europa League run last season.
Again, I think a large part of the reason why John Temple got Huddersfield v Barnsley on the final day of the Championship season was because he's based in that part of the world and covers a lot of games involving Yorkshire's Championship clubs for talkSPORT. That's not to say he wasn't a good choice though, like you I listened on the day and thought he did such a big game justice.
I think that next season's reporting duty on non-commentary Hull City games will be shared out fairly evenly between Temple, Grahame Lloyd and Graham Courtney, due to their geography more than anything else. Temple should be most prominent if Lloyd continues to share Norwich and Ipswich games with Kev Lawrence and Courtney continues to mostly cover Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough. If Naz Premji becomes a regular fixture, perhaps we'll hear him covering Hull too as I believe he is Yorkshire-based.
Peter Lansley from The Times (who is Israel covering the tournament) was interviewed during the last hour of Lions Live, at the end of which Mark Saggers concluded by saying that talkSPORT will have "all the news and reports" on the England v Italy game during Kick Off with Ian Danter tonight - were they to be doing more than that, then I'm certain he would have said so. There's no longer any mention of Under-21s commentary on the talkSPORT.co.uk schedule (The Transfer Tavern is listed at the time when England play Norway on Saturday) and coverage hasn't been trailed on-air, so I guess they won't be doing commentaries but we'll know one way or the other soon enough.
Danny Mills seems to have a bit of a following among the Radio 5 Live listeners on here - those who like him might be interested to hear that he'll be co-hosting talkSPORT's Sports Breakfast with Alan Brazil next Tuesday, which I believe will be his debut on that station. Neil Warnock is co-hosting tomorrow morning's show with Alan, reprising their presenting combination from the first season of Sunday Exclusive in 2010/11. I think I'm right in saying that this will be Neil's first proper return to talkSPORT as a co-host since he left his role on their Premier League coverage when QPR were promoted at the end of that season.
Ian Danter presenting Kick Off alongside Michael Calvin from The Independent on Sunday
UEFA Under-21 Championship Group A
England Under-21s v Italy Under-21s - Graham Beecroft
Cricket: Third One-Day International
England v New Zealand - Jack Bannister
It's going to be updates-only coverage of the England Under-21s for talkSPORT after all.
England U21 v Italy 21 - Darren Fletcher + David Pleat (commentary)
agreed. they did well overall in that game with some pretty odd decisions from the ref for them to try and get their heads around.
I hope we here Fletcher sometimes still on 5Live next season as I think he's matured in to a top-draw commentator since joining from commercial radio.
We have discussed the various merits of the reporters but I think the great variation in reporting styles helps make the show so entertaining. As I have said, Tony Incenzo and John Temple are the pick of the lot for me, both very accurate, fluent and descriptive, but I can see how Ian Abrahams may be other people's cup of tea with his inimitable style which sometimes overshadows some very good reporting that he contributes. I have also made the odd criticism of some reporters, and while I am not going to criticse individuals further, there was the odd weak link who wasnt up to standard, obviously so. Liam perhaps needs to take a close look at his reporting team to ensure they do not let the quality drop through complacency. I have seen healthy businesses soon fail when they take things for granted.
The 5 Live reporters are all perfectly OK but the Talksport programme on a Saturday afternoon is, IMO, a clear winner.
Talksport have a lot of talent to call on and it must be disheartening for their reporters if they are not given opportunities while others are brought in from outside. There seems to be a lot of experience and good quality in their team and it should be used to the full.
Mark Saggers presenting a Kick Off: British & Irish Lions Special
FIFA World Cup 2014 European Zone Qualifiers
Croatia v Scotland - Graham Courtney
Republic of Ireland v Faroe Islands - David Brady
Rugby League: Super League
Widnes Vikings v Wigan Warriors - Mark Wilson
Good to read your thoughts again Toon Geordie. I have to disagree with you on Ray Parlour, I think he has done really well on Matchday Live since becoming a regular on it in the season before the one that has just concluded. I know his accent and speaking impediment comes in for criticism, but if you listen to what he has to say I think it's hard to deny that he is positive, fair minded and thinks before speaking in order to construct reasonable arguments. He has also shown a genuine interest in lower levels of football to the one he spent most of his career playing at, something which I particularly appreciate. I hope Ray remains a fixture on Matchday Live for many years to come.
Like you, I rate Alvin Martin highly and would like to hear much more of him on talkSPORT than is the case at present - but it is his decision to support his sons on Saturday afternoons which I respect and I think the typical Matchday Live presenting line-up of Adrian and Ray with either Michael Gray or Matt Holland works well. I don't have many dislikes among the 20 or so football reporters they call upon on a regular basis, although I agree that Ian Abrahams' weekday morning persona can detract from him being a very good broadcaster when playing it straight as he (usually) does on Saturdays. I fully agree with the last few sentences you have written.
Will Perry presenting
Croatia v Scotland - John Murray + Craig Burley (commentary) with Roddy Forsyth also contributing to the coverage.
Kenny Macintyre presented Sportsound from Pacific Quay alongside Derek ? (Ferguson?)
FIFA World Cup 2014 European Zone Qualifying Group A
Croatia v Scotland - Richard Gordon and Peter Houston (7.15pm commentary on 810MW), with Al Lamont at pitchside
I'm not 100 per cent sure about some of these details (particularly the surname of the studio pundit) as I only caught bits of the second half and their post-match section, with last night's edition of Sportsound having yet to be uploaded to the iPlayer. I do know they took post-match interviews conducted by their own reporter Al Lamont and some of the TV ones done by BBC Two Scotland's Jonathan Sutherland.
RTE 2fm
Damien O'Meara presented Game On from the Aviva Stadium alongside Pat Fenlon and John McDonnell
FIFA World Cup 2014 European Zone Qualifying Group C
Republic of Ireland v Faroe Islands - Adrian Eames and Brian Kerr (7.45pm commentary), with John Kenny at pitchside
Austria v Sweden - John Fallon
British & Irish Lions tour update - Michael Corcoran
European Men's Boxing Championship (Minsk) - Hugh Cahill
Friday Night Racing - Liam Nash
Newstalk 106-108FM
Adrian Barry presented Off The Ball alongside Alan Mathews, Cian Murtagh and Colm Parkinson
FIFA World Cup 2014 European Zone Qualifying Group C
Republic of Ireland v Faroe Islands - Stewie Byrne
Thanks for getting the details.
Nat Coombs presenting The Transfer Tavern
UEFA Under-21 Championship Group A
England Under-21s v Norway Under-21s - Graham Beecroft
Cricket: ICC Champions Trophy Group A
England v Australia - Jack Bannister
BBC Radio 5 Live had Darren Fletcher and David Pleat on commentary duty on the England Under-21s as per Wednesday's game.
With tonight's result confirming their elimination from the tournament, I'd be very surprised if England's final group game against hosts Israel - a 5pm BST kick-off on Tuesday - is a commentary game on Radio 5 Live as it is currently scheduled to be. Given how live commentary on other sporting events - Champions League or Europa League games kicking off at 5/6pm which they have full rights to, full internationals involving Celtic nations, midweek games from the 2009 Lions tour, indeed matches from previous editions of this tournament involving more successful England teams - haven't been allowed to encroach into the usual 4-7pm Drive slot, I'd be amazed to see this game given pride of place on 5 Live, especially given the state of play in it.
Keys has just tweeted:
Is Gray returning with him?
Who will present the 10:00-13:00 slot now?
Will it be Danny Kelly?
My personal feelings....they present a very good programme together and have enjoyed their show so I hope talkSPORT continue to broadcast quality in that slot and not give us Micky Quinn.
EDIT: now an article about it: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2338761/Richard-Keys-Andy-Gray-TV-Shamed-duo-sign-Al-Jazeera-comeback-Qatar.html
...and a press release: http://press.talksport.co.uk/post/52616426335/keys-and-gray-to-present-new-friday-night-show
It's worth mentioning that the presenter they are taking over from, Danny Kelly, will be presenting his new TV show with Danny Baker on the BT Sport channel on Friday evenings, so this move makes sense as a change was needed on that programme anyway.
I presume they'll be broadcasting their end of the show from a radio studio in Qatar - I know there are a few English language stations over there (former talkSPORT host Rob McCaffrey presents a football show on Dubai-based Coast FM for example) so perhaps their new show might be a simulcast with a station over there, as the Saturday morning Sports Breakfast show that Alan Brazil and Mike Parry co-hosted with Costa del Sol-based broadcaster Paul Breen-Turner was during the early 2000s.
Drive Time with Adrian Durham and Darren Gough, followed by Kick Off with Ray Stubbs and Gabriele Marcotti
UEFA Under-21 Championship Group A
Israel Under-21s v England Under-21s - Graham Beecroft
I presume BBC Radio 5 Live had Darren Fletcher reporting on this game rather than doing commentary on it (what with coverage of the ICC Champions Trophy being on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra this afternoon). I noticed that any reference to commentary on this match being on Radio 5 Live had been removed from the 5 Live website since the weekend, which seemed fairly inevitable.
Does anyone know if any Irish radio stations (presumably either RTE Radio 1 Extra or RTE 2fm) are covering the Spain v Republic of Ireland international late tonight/early tomorrow morning at 1am?
Mike Graham presented Extra Time alongside Jake Robson
International Friendly
Spain v Republic of Ireland (Yankee Stadium) - David Brady
Although he wasn't reporting live for them, the Extra Time show would speak to Tony Incenzo from Yankee Stadium after the game, who was in New York City on perhaps his most epic "groundhop" yet!
To answer my own question, none of the Irish radio stations that usually cover football did. RTE Radio 1 Extra was simulcasting the BBC World Service, RTE 2fm and Newstalk 106-108FM were broadcasting pre-recorded "best of" programmes and Today FM had an automated music show with none of their usual hourly news breaks. Given that Radio 5 Live don't always cover the Republic of Ireland's home qualifiers and how they seem have an aversion to covering anything off-tube, I didn't bother dipping into Up All Night as I felt checking that for updates would likely prove to be a fruitless exercise. talkSPORT seemed to be the only English language station updating the match live.
I listened to bits of the commentary (of sorts) provided by Spanish national radio station Cadena COPE, whose team were clearly working off-tube and using artificial crowd effects rather than an official stadium feed. My Spanish is far from brilliant but it was clear they were taking their coverage of this game less than seriously, at points in the game they were playing in bits of music for comic effect and joking about insomnia!
Perhaps the relative efforts in covering this international friendly from the Spanish and Irish national radio stations who would normally cover their national teams on home soil is food for thought for those who were keen to criticise talkSPORT for doing an off-tube commentary on last month's England friendly in Brazil.
51 commentaries (simulcasts of local coverage not included)
Matches
8 Premier League
30 Football League
5 FA Cup
5 League Cup
2 Internationals
1 Community Shield
Commentators
10 Ian Brown, Alistair Bruce-Ball
08 Mike Sewell
06 John Acres
04 David Oates
03 Adam Pope
02 Conor McNamara, Dave Woods, Paul Walker, Seth Bennett
01 Alastair Durden, Darren Fletcher, Jacqui Oatley, John Murray, Simon Brotherton
Summarisers
Clive Allen 1; Craig Burley 1; Danny Higginbotham 1; Dean Ashton 1; Dean Kiely 5; Dion Dublin 1; Jimmy Armfield 4; Keith Andrews 2; Kevin Gallacher 7; Kevin Kilbane 1; Kevin Radcliffe 1; Kit Symons 1; Leroy Rosenior 1; Mark Bowen 1; Mark Bright 6; Mark McGee 1; Matt Jackson 1; Michael Gray 1; Nigel Worthington 1; Pat Nevin 2; Paul Jewell 1; Phil Brown 1; Steve Claridge 4; Steve Froggatt 2; Steven Reid 2 & Tim Flowers 1
5 Live 2012 - 2013
232 commentaries
Matches
115 Premier League
27 Football League
32 FA Cup
14 League Cup
19 Champions League
7 Europa League
15 Internationls
2 Scottish FA Cup
1 SPL
Commentators
66 John Murray
58 Alan Green
45 Darren Fletcher
41 Mike Ingham
34 Ian Dennis
32 Conor McNamara
10 Alistair Bruce-Ball
06 Simon Brotherton
05 Ian Brown, John Motson
03 Roddy Forsyth
02 Dave Woods
01 Mike Sewell, Jonathan Pearce
Summarisers
Chris Coleman 3, Clive Allen 3, Craig Brown 2; Craig Burley 8; Craig Levein 2; Danny Mills 24; David Moyes 1; David Pleat 16; Dean Ashton 1; Dean Kiely 3; Dion Dublin 3; Graeme Le Saux 12; Graham Taylor 13; Jan Molby 1; Jason Roberts 1; Jimmy Armfield 7; Joe Jordan 2; John Hartson 2; Kevin Gallacher 3; Kevin Kilbane 14; Mark Bowen 2; Mark Bright 4; Mark Lawrenson 14; Martin Keown 8; Mick McCarthy 2; Nigel Spackman 6; Nigel Worthington 1; Pat Nevin 18; Paul Jewell 2; Peter Reid 1; Phil Brown 12; Robbie Savage 21; Steve Claridge 17 & Steve McLaren 4.
Due to the overlap with the last internationals of the season I've included the 2 commentaries from the Under 21 tournament in the stats.
There were 3 Saturday 3pm PL commentaries in the Autumn that started on Sports Extra and ended on 5 Live. The match, the summariser and the 5 Live commentator are included in the 5 Live stats but the Sports Extra commentator is listed in that section.
As always thanks to everyone who contributes information during the season
Thanks for the stats.
ABC Local Radio Grandstand
Australia v Iraq Ned Hall, Paul Wade and Debbie Spillane (commentary)
Ned Hall has a (what sounds to me) a Birmingham accent and is a name I am sure I know from BBC Local Radio in the past.
BBc
I'm in the process of putting together the numbers and a full breakdown of talkSPORT's football coverage during 2012/13, which hopefully I'll be able to post at some point tonight or tomorrow.