Tying all of yesterday's talkSPORT details together...


Sunday 6th December - talkSPORT

The Jeremy Kyle Show with Jeremy and Chris Davies, followed by Football First on Sunday with Ian Danter, Alvin Martin (from Craven Cottage) and Ray Houghton

Premier League
Fulham v Sunderland - Andy Clarke and Alvin Martin
Everton v Tottenham Hotspur - Simon Humphreys

Championship
Scunthorpe United v Coventry City - Graham Courtney

Scottish Premier League
Hamilton v Hearts - Mark Donaldson*

Rugby Union: Guinness Premiership
London Wasps v Leicester Tigers - Simon Ward

Snooker: UK Championship
Telford International Centre - Geoff Peters


*Given the events at New Douglas Park yesterday (a game they usually wouldn't cover), just as well talkSPORT's Scottish Football Correspondent is also the Hearts Player commentator and so was on hand to give a full-time report from this one!

Monday 7th December - talkSPORT

Mark Saggers presenting Kick-Off: Monday Night Football alongside Stan Collymore, Brian Barwick and Matt Scott of the Guardian

Championship
Watford v Queens Park Rangers - Dan Freeman

Snooker: UK Championship
Telford International Centre - David Brady

Monday 7th December - BBC Five Live

Arlo White presenting Five Live Football League alongside Mark Clemmit

Championship
Watford v Queens Park Rangers - Mike Sewell and Peter Taylor (second half commentary)

Snooker: UK Championship
Telford International Centre - Philip Studd

Tuesday 8th December


Beacon 97.2FM/Gold 1152AM (Birmingham)

Tom Ross presenting The Black Country Goalzone from the Hawthorns

Championship
West Bromwich Albion v Cardiff City - Tom Ross and Tony Brown (commentary)



BBC WM

Mark Regan presenting The Football Phone-In, followed by Dan Wheeler

Championship
West Bromwich Albion v Cardiff City - Rob Gurney


Good to hear Mike Taylor back on WM this afternoon, reading the sports news on Paul Franks' drivetime show.

BBC Radio Wales

Steve James hosting with Jason Perry (watching the Champions League games via the studio monitors)

West Bromwich Albion V Cardiff City - Rob Phillips and Iwan Roberts (SE FM / Digital)
Jackland V Plymouth Argyle - Iain Gwyn Hughes and Kevin Ratcliffe (SW FM)

BBC Bristol / Somerset

Geoff Twentymann hosting

Leicester City V Bristol City - Richard Hoskin and Adam Baker (94.9FM / 95.5FM / 104.6FM / DAB)
Ipswich Town V Peterborough United - John Southall (R5L)
Middlesbrough V Blackpool - Peter Slater (R5L)
Sheffield United V Nottingham Forest - Niddel Adderley (R5L)

Real Radio South Wales

West Bromwich Albion V Cardiff City - Steve Flemming
Jackland V Plymouth Argyle - Mark Poyser

BBC Radio Five Live Sports Xtra

West Bromwich Albion V Cardiff City - George Riley (host) Jacqui Oatley and Tim Flowers

Swansea Sound

Jackland V Plymouth Argyle - Kevin Johns and Jonathan Wilsher (Media Officer) Antony O'Connell will commentate on the game later on as he is seeing to his son who is currently in Hospital.

Tuesday 8th December

Key 103 FM
Wolfsburg v Man Utd: Hugh Ferris & Mickey Thomas

BBC Manchester
Wolfsburg v Man Utd: John Murray (1-22), Simon Brotherton (23-45) & Pat Nevin (Commentary from BBC Radio 5 Live)*

*BBC Manchester getting named checked on air during the commentary

BBC Lancashire (103.9FM, 104.5FM & 855AM)
Middlesbrough v Blackpool: Ian Chisnall & Steve Canavan (Commentary)
Preston v Derby: Scott Reid (Updates)
Barnet v Accrington (FA Cup): Gary Hunt (Updates)
(Normal Jukebox programme on 95.5FM/DAB/1557AM/Online)

BBC Merseyside
Aldershot v Tranmere (FA Cup): Derek Jones (Commentary)

BBC Radio Five Live

Chelsea v Apoel Mark Pougatch (host)
Wolfburg v Manchester United John Murray, Simon Brotherton and Pat Nevin (commentary)
Ipswich v Peterborough John Southall
Leicester v Bristol City Alistair Bruce-Ball
Middlesbrough v Blackpool Peter Slater
Sheffield United v Nottingham Forest Nigel Adderley
WBA v Cardiff Pat Murphy (with commentary on Sports Extra by Jacqui Oatley and Tim Flowers)
Barrow v Oxford Nick Barnes
Leeds v Kettering Conor McNamara


BBC London 94.9

Chelsea v Apoel Nick Godwin and I assume Clive Walker (commentary)
Reading v Crystal Palace Phil Parry and Steve Brown (FM commentary)
Barnet v Accrington Barry Swain
Last edited by IanFergus : 08-12-2009 at 20:52

Wednesday 8th December - talkSPORT

Mark Saggers presenting Champions League Live alongside Ray Houghton

UEFA Champions League Group Stage: Matchday Six
Chelsea v APOEL Nicosia - Jim Proudfoot and Stan Collymore (commentary), with Andy Clarke at pitchside
Wolfsburg v Manchester United - Dom McGuinness (with Ray Houghton providing studio analysis)

Championship
Leicester City v Bristol City - Dave Rowe
Middlesbrough v Blackpool - Graham Courtney
Sheffield United v Nottingham Forest - Grahame Lloyd
West Bromwich Albion v Cardiff City - Nigel Pearson

FA Cup Second Round Replays
Barnet v Accrington Stanley - Ian Abrahams
Leeds United v Kettering Town - John Temple
Luton Town v Rotherham United - Tony Incenzo


A slight break from the norm for Champions League Live tonight.

talkSPORT wouldn't usually send reporters to Championship and FA Cup matches on Champions League nights, but tonight they've gone against the policy, probably because both of the English clubs in UCL action have already qualified.

BBC Radio Leeds
studio: Nick Hatton
Leeds United verses Kettering Town
commentator: Adam Pope
summariser: Andy Ritchie


Yorkshire Radio (DAB) and Minster FM
Leeds United verses Kettering Town
host: Michael Weadock
commentator: Thom Kirwin
summariser: Eddie Gray


BBC Radio Sheffield
host: Paul Walker

(FM)
Doncaster Rovers verses Sheffield Wednesday
commentators: Seth Bennett and Paul Walker
summarisers: John Buckley and John Pearson
Luton Town verses Rotherham United
reporter: Rob Staton

(AM and DAB)
Sheffield United verses Nottingham Forest
commentator: Andy Giddings
summariser: Keith Edwards

BBC Radio Leicester

Charles Dagnall presenting Sportstime Special live from the Walkers Stadium.

Championship
Leicester v Bristol City - Ian Stringer and John Sinclair (commentary)

Another shambolic performance for LCFC.

Wednesday 9th December


Mercia FM

Tom Ross presenting The Sky Blues Goalzone from the Ricoh Arena

Championship
Coventry City v Newcastle United - Tom Ross and Dave Bennett (commentary)



BBC Coventry & Warwickshire

Clive Eakin hosting The Sky Blues Live from the Ricoh Arena

Championship
Coventry City v Newcastle United - Geoff Foster and Clive Eakin (commentary)

Wednesday 9th December - talkSPORT

Mark Saggers presenting Kick-Off: Wednesday Night Football alongside Stan Collymore

UEFA Champions League Group Stage: Matchday Six
Liverpool v Fiorentina - Jim Proudfoot (with Stan Collymore providing studio analysis)
Olympiakos v Arsenal - Mike Bovill
Sevilla v Rangers - Mark Donaldson

Championship
Barnsley v Scunthorpe United - Graham Beecroft
Coventry City v Newcastle United - Dave Rowe

FA Cup Second Round Replay
Millwall v Staines Town - Ian Abrahams*

Snooker: UK Championship
Telford International Centre - David Brady


*Ian Abrahams has been covering for afternoon sports newsreader Andrew McKenna today (presumably a last minute arrangement), having already been on air reading the morning sports bulletins since 5am. So, a long day for The Moose!

What with him having read the 7pm sports bulletin, I'm surprised to hear him in place at the ground to do his match preview at 7.33pm. Even though talkSPORT Towers is only 15 minutes away from the New Den, that's quite a feat.

EDIT: Looks like they've decided against doing commentary on Liverpool v Fiorentina, despite having rights to the game, which is something that I wasn't expecting at all.

BBC Radio Sheffield (AM and DAB)
host: Andy Giddings
commentators: Andy Giddings and Adam Oxley
summariser: Derek Parker

BBC Radio Humberside
host: David Burns
commentators: Matt Dean and David Burns
summariser: Richard Kell

Dearne FM
coverage: Steve Pearson

5 Live

With Mark Pougatch at The Ricoh Arena

Liverpool v Fiorentina - Conor McNamara
Olympiakos v Arsenal - David Oates
Sevilla v Rangers - Roddy Forsyth

Barnsley v Scunthorpe - Mike Sewell
Coventry v Newcastle - Nigel Adderley, Mark Lawrenson & Darren Fletcher

Staines v Millwall - Jacqui Oatley (Alistair Bruce-Ball and Steve Claridge on Sports Extra)

Bob Ballard was Sports Extra's studio presenter.

I watched the Millwall v Staines game on TheFA.com tonight, and at one point during the second half the director cut to a shot of Alistair, Steve and Jacqui in the New Den commentary box.



With talkSPORT not doing commentary on the Liverpool match tonight (despite having the rights to do so), I'm wondering whether the station will even bother to cover their Europa League campaign (this all depends on whether they have commentary rights to Liverpool in Europe as a whole, rather than just their Champions League games).

I know tonight's game was a dead rubber, but say if Liverpool are drawn against unglamorous opponents and/or are involved in an early kick-off(s), I reckon they might opt to give certain commentaries a miss. Time will tell, I guess.

Despite not doing a commentary tonight, talkSPORT are still staying on until 10.30pm for post-match reaction.

After his monster stint of nearly 17 hours on talkSPORT yesterday, looks like Ian Abrahams has been given the day off. (Quite understandable!)

It's all change on the talkSPORT sports desks today, as Pete Abbott covered for Ian on the morning bulletins and Mike Bovill has just done the first afternoon update. (Edit - Boves has just said he's going to be reading the afternoon sports news for all of next week).

Anyone know what's happened to Andrew McKenna and why he had to leave early yesterday?

It's odd that they didn't do commentary, I like to listen to football whoever's on, more so than watching it. Poor old Jim must have done all his homework and all for nothing

Yes, it's very odd. I heard no trailers promoting Liverpool v Fiorentina during the week but despite this I still expected it to be their commentary.

As it was Jim Proudfoot reporting on the match, rather than one of the usual North West based reporters that we hear on Matchday Live and their other around the grounds shows, I think we can take it that talkSPORT must have originally been planning to do commentary on this - and would have had the game been meaningful.

As to when and why they changed their minds, I don't know, perhaps a studio-based show is cheaper and easier to do than a commentary?

I think Stan still lives in the Midlands so I guess it was a quick jaunt down the M40 rather than up the M6. I don't think they'd get a refund for not doing it though. As you say it would be one of the northern team reporting if it was for standard updates
Presumably Jim will have collected his full fee for the evening

5 Live didn't bother with any extensive Champions League coverage and talkSPORT didn't either because it meant absolutely NOTHING and was of little interest to anyone. I doubt this has any bearing on whether talkSPORT will do any Europa League commentaries so you over analysing a situation when there's a very simple explanation as to why it wasn't on despite having the rights to do so.

Time will tell with the Europea League coverage.


Again, I don't see why it's odd given that the match meant nothing.

Obviously I don't know the terms of his deal with talkSPORT, but I'd imagine he's contracted to do a certain number of games for them this season (i.e. the ones in the Champions League for them) and wouldn't have had other work that night with anyone else so would be doing the game as normal whether as commentator of just a reporter.

As to when and why they changed their minds - again - the match meant nothing and wasn't really of interest to anyone. It made perfect sense to do a different show covering other games.

Perhaps I am over analysing the situation, but even so I don't think Wednesday's decision was as clear cut as you make out.

Don't get me wrong, on a busy matchnight personally I would much prefer to listen to an around the grounds show than commentary on a game I have little interest in. But I recognise that Liverpool have a massive fanbase spread out across the UK, and with their game not widely available elsewhere (as you say it wasn't on Five Live and was televised on Sky rather than ITV), meaningful or not there surely would have been an audience keen to listen to commentary simply because Liverpool were playing.

Put it this way - in my opinion any commentary on Liverpool will get more people tuning in than it will get listeners to tune out.

Given how they had the rights to the game as part of a deal with the club (unlike Five Live, who went with a commentary game from a league which they have unlimited rights to), when you look at how they usually do commentaries when they have the rights to them, on that basis it is odd that they haven't done so in this instance - especially as on Tuesday they focused on a Chelsea game which was just as meaningless.

As for it having any bearing over their Europa League coverage, well I think the one thing it shows is that the station will not necessarily run with every commentary they have the ability to do.

This is not my view as I personally quite like the competition, but it does seem to be a widely held opinion in the UK that the Europa League is a bit second rate. So if Liverpool draw an unglamorous team who they are expected to roll over - would it be a great surprise if talkSPORT gave commentary on that tie a miss?

Of course a lot depends on their draw next Friday, as should they have rights to Liverpool in Europe beyond Christmas and the Reds draw someone like Atletico Madrid then I expect they'd cover that tie, but if they get a less appealing side and the away leg is a 6pm kick-off, would doing commentary really be worth bothering with if an evening home game with a Serie A side wasn't?

I understand what you mean, but such a game - whoever the opposition - *would be of importance to Liverpool*. Wednesday's game wasn't.

Personally, I have a hunch that in the 25th anniversary year of Heysel they'll get Juventus again, just as they did on the 20th anniversary.

Saturday 12th December


talkSPORT

Adrian Durham presenting Matchday Live, followed by Call Collymore with Stan Collymore at the Reebok Stadium

Premier League
Stoke City v Wigan Athletic - Dave Rowe
Birmingham City v West Ham United - Ian Danter
Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City - Nigel Pearson and Stan Collymore (commentary), with Simon Humphreys at pitchside
Burnley v Fulham - Ian Abrahams
Chelsea v Everton - Andrew McKenna and Bobby Gould
Hull City v Blackburn Rovers - Grahame Lloyd
Sunderland v Portsmouth - Graham Courtney
Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Andy Clarke
Manchester United v Aston Villa - Dom McGuinness

Championship
Barnsley v Newcastle United - John Temple
Ipswich Town v Blackpool - Kev Lawrence
Leicester City v Sheffield Wednesday - Geoff Peters

League One and Two
Preview - Mike Bovill

Scottish Premier League
Motherwell v Celtic - Mark Donaldson

Snooker: UK Championship Semi-Final
Ronnie O'Sullivan v John Higgins - David Brady



BBC WM

WM Sport hosted by Paul Franks at White Hart Lane (2-5pm) and Richard Wilford at Old Trafford (5-8pm)

Premier League
Birmingham City v West Ham United - Dan Wheeler and Rob Gurney (3pm commentary on DAB in Birmingham), with Jane France interviewing the fans outside St Andrews
Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Mark Regan and Paul Franks (3pm commentary on 95.6FM)
Manchester United v Aston Villa - Mike Taylor and Richard Wilford (5.30pm commentary on 95.6FM and DAB)*

League One
Millwall v Walsall - Andrew Dawkins, with Mick Kearns providing analysis

*Ron Atkinson was originally due to be WM's co-commentator at Old Trafford, but a sore throat has ruled him out



BRMB/Beacon 97.2FM/Mercia FM

Tom Ross presenting The Goalzone from St Andrews

Premier League
Birmingham City v West Ham United - Tom Ross and Jon McCarthy (BRMB commentary)
Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Bill Hatton and Robbie Dennison (Beacon commentary)
Manchester United v Aston Villa - Mikey Burrows and Pat Heard (BRMB commentary)

Championship
Coventry City v Peterborough United - Joe Holt and Dave Bennett (Mercia commentary)

BBC Lancashire (95.5FM/855AM/1557AM/DAB) - Host: Gary Hickson
Hull v Blackburn: Andy Bayes & Ian Bryson (Commentary)
Burnley v Fulham: Phil Cunliffe (Updates)
Notts County v Accrington: Gary Hunt (Updates)

BBC Lancashire (103.9FM/104.5FM) - Host: Gary Hickson
Ipswich v Blackpool: Scott Reid & Steve Canavan (Commentary)
Preston v Plymouth: Ian Chisnall (Updates)
Morecambe v Bournemouth: Derek Quinn (Updates)

BBC Merseyside
Chelsea v Everton: Gary Flintoff & Ronnie Goodlass (Commentary)
Southampton v Tranmere: Derek Jones (Updates)
Southport v Gainsborough (FA Trophy): Neil Turner (Updates)

City Sport
Chelsea v Everton: Alan Irwin & Graeme Sharpe

BBC Radio Wales

Steve James hosting

Jackland V Nottingham Forest - Rob Phillips and Andy Legg (SE FM / SW FM / Digital)
Wrexham V Altrincham (FA Trophy 1st round) - Ian Beddow and Kevin Ratcliffe (North FM / Online)
Farnborough Town V Newport County (FA Trophy 1st round) - Dave Dullin
Newtown V Bangor City - Jeremy Davis
Chelsea V Everton - Iwan Roberts
Neath V Llanelli (Principality Premiership RU) - Pete Shephard
Horse racing from Cheltenham - Ali Rowle

BBC Radio Cymru

Eleri Sion hosting

Jackland V Nottingham Forest - Dylan Ebenezer (host) Gareth Blainey and Osian Roberts (commentary from the 20th minute, after the Ospreys' game finished)
Wrexham V Altrincham (FA Trophy 1st round) - Alwyn Parry Griffiths
Newtown V Bangor City - Marc Lloyd Williams
Chelsea V Everton - Iwan Roberts

BBC bristol / Somerset

Geoff Twentymann hosting

Doncaster Rovers V Bristol City - Ed Hadwin and Adam Baker (94.9FM / 104.6FM / 1566MW / DAB)
Bristol Rovers V Swindon Town - Alistair Durden and Keith Brookman (1548MW)
Yeovil Town V Norwich City - Richard Hoskin and Chris Spittles (95.5FM)
Yate Town V Abingdon United - Mike Kay
Rotherham Titans V Bristol (National League 1 RU) - Andy Champion

Real Radio South Wales

Jackland V Nottingham Forest - Mark Threadgold
Bolton Wanderers V Manchester City - Tom Parker (IRN)
Stoke City V Wigan Athletic - Clive Edwards (IRN)
Horse racing from Cheltenham - Rupert Bell (IRN)

Swansea Sound

Jackland V Nottingham Forest - Anthony O'Connell
Neath V Llanelli - Gaelon Downes

BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra

Jackland V Nottingham Forest - Caroline Barker (Host) Mike Sewell and Clive Walker