5 Live

With Colin Murray

R/U Northampton v Saracens Jonny Saunders
R/L Huddersfield v Wigan Dave Woods

Cricket England v Australia Jonathan Agnew, Tony Cozier, Ian Bishop, Ian Chappell & Simon Doull with Alison Mitchell reporting


Sports Extra

R/U Leicester v Bath Alastair Eykyn (1st half), Matt Dawson & Ian Robertson (2nd half)

Cricket Australia v New Zealand Alison Mitchell, Jonathan Agnew, Ian Chappell & Melanie Jones

and Simon Doull

Exeter Chiefs V Bristol (RFU Championship Playoff Final 1st Leg)

BBC Radio Bristol / Somerset - Richard Hoskin (host) commentary from Damien Derrick (0-22) Andy Champion (22-45) and Mark Hoskins (94.9FM / 95.5FM / 104.6FM / Online)

BBC Radio Devon - Nigel Worand *I think* and Ben Breeze (95.7FM / MW / DAB / Online)

Cricket: Scotland v Kent (CB40, Grange, Edinburgh)
BBC Radio Kent Mike Stanger


Cricket: Warwickshire v Hampshire (CB40, Edgbaston, Birmingham)
BBC WM Ed Dawes
BBC Radio Solent Kevan James and Adam Blackmore (commentary)

Sunday 23rd May - talkSPORT

The Jeremy Kyle Show with Jeremy and Chris Davies, followed by Football First on Sunday with Ian Danter, Alvin Martin and Neil Ashton

Rugby Union: Amlin Challenge Cup Final
Cardiff Blues v Toulon - Russell Hargreaves

Golf: PGA Championship
Wentworth - Rupert Bell

5 Live

With George Riley at Wentworth

Rugby Union: Amlin Challenge Cup Final
Cardiff Blues v Toulon - Nick Webb

Golf: PGA Championship
Wentworth - Iain Carter, Conor McNamara & Paul Eales

Rugby League Super League
Warrington v Huddersfield - Alistair Yeomans & John Wilkin

Bradford v Leeds - Dave Woods & John Wells

BBC London 94.9
Host Simon Watts
R/U: IRB Sevens (Twickenham) Andy Rowley and Sara Orchard
R/L: Wakefield v Harlequins Andy Giddings and Simon Fitzjohn (commentary)
Golf: BMW PGA Championship (Wentworth) Rupert Bell
Cricket: CB40 - Netherlands v Middlesex (Amstelveen) Kevin Hand
Cricket: CB40 - Lancashire v Surrey (Old Trafford) Mark Church


BBC Radio Leeds
Host James Deighton
R/L: Bradford v Leeds Gary Price and Mark Wilson (commentary)
R/L: Castleford v Hull Harvey Wiles
R/L: Wakefield v Harlequins Tony Rennison
R/L: Warrington v Huddersfield Dave Fletcher
R/L: Keighley v Halifax Dave Gilbank
R/L: Widnes v Batley Tim Stear

Cardiff Blues V Toulon (Challenge Cup RU Final)

BBC Radio Wales - Steve James (hosting from Llandaf) commentary by Nick Webb and Adrian Hadley

BBC Radio Cymru - Dylan Ebenezer (hosting from Llandaf) commentary by Huw Lewellyn Davis and a happy Garan Evans (Cardiff's win allows the Scarlets into next years Heineken Cup)

Surprised to see that Nick Webb was preferred to Gareth Charles as BBC Radio Wales' commentator on the Cardiff Blues' Amlin Challenge Cup Final win.

Also, I think it is a bit disappointing that BBC national radio didn't do commentary on the final on either Five Live or Sports Extra. The latter wasn't being used at the time it was taking place, so as they hold the rights at the very least they should have simulcasted Radio Wales' commentary onto Sports Extra.

Does anyone know if Talking Rugby (and so stations like talkSPORT, BBC Radio London, Real Radio South Wales etc) had a reporter at Saturday's Heineken Cup Final? I think it was Iain Robertson who was there for Five Live.

I wasn't at home to listen at the time but Sports Extra was due to have commentary on the Heineken Cup on Saturday night. From twitter it seems as if Alastair Eykyn was there.

Sports Extra

French Open Tennis
Andy Murray vs Richard Gasquet Jonathan Overend, Alastair Eykyn, Ross Hutchins & Neil Harman

If that was the case, then it's totally mental that they would make the effort to send a team to Paris to do commentary on an all-French Heineken Cup Final, but decide against rerouting them to Marseille to cover a Welsh region in the Challenge Cup Final the following day.

Indeed they didn't even have their own reporter at the Stade Velodrome - they were reliant on BBC Radio Wales' Nick Webb (I'm guessing they were only able to call upon him for pre-match, half-time and full-time reports).

Bizarre decision making once again by the powers that be at Five Live.

He was talkSPORT's news and sports newsreader last night.

Possibly off-topic, although hopefully of interest to some on here nevertheless, but when talkSPORT stopped taking their evening and most weekend news updates externally from Sky News Radio in Osterley in order to do all of their bulletins in-house back in early March, I thought it would lead to opportunities for some of their London-based sports reporters who don't usually read bulletins during the week (the likes of Mike Bovill, Andy Clarke, Lisa O'Sullivan etc).

Nearly three months on and it has turned out that rather than using their own sports reporters talkSPORT have called upon sports newsreaders and reporters who are usually heard on other London-based stations (BBC Radio London, LBC, Absolute Radio etc). Names familiar to readers of this thread include Russell Hargreaves, Mark Scott, Ian Beech, James Gibson, Nigel Bidmead, Simon Watts, Simon Owen, Katy Murrells, Sean Allen-Moy and Rick Kelsey.

Bristol V Exeter Chiefs (RFU Championship Playoff Final 2nd Leg)

BBC Bristol - Richard Hoskin (hosting from the ground) with Dan Albutt pitchside. Commentary from Damien Derrick (0-20), Andy Champion (20-40) and David Egerton (94.9FM / 104.6FM / DAB / Online)
Last edited by Ian Cleverly : 26-05-2010 at 19:59

Monday 24th to Wednesday 26th May - BBC WM

WM Sport with Mike Taylor and Rob Gurney

Three evenings of live speedway commentary on WM Sport this week, starting at the beginning of the week in Essex.

On Monday, Rob anchored from the Mailbox with Mike commentating from Purfleet on Lakeside Hammers v Wolverhampton Wolves in the Elite League.

They were closer to home on Tuesday night, as Mike presented and commentated on the Dudley Heathens v Bournemouth Buccaneers in the National League. Rob was in the pitlane and with the fans at Monmore Green.

It was the same arrangement on Wednesday when Rob and Mike travelled to Perry Barr for the Birmingham Brummies v Redcar Bears clash in the Premier Trophy.

Great to hear WM continuing with their commitment to live speedway so soon into the new season, their coverage is public service broadcasting at its best.

Russell Hargreaves will be at Twickenham this weekend for both Leicester v Saracens in the Premiership Final on Saturday (17:30) and England v Barbarians on Sunday (17:00).

As there is live England football commentary on 5 Live, and live cricket commentary on 5 Live Sports Extra, there is no room for the Turkish Grand Prix. Here is a message on the 5 Live website:


I wonder what this means for the quality of audio for the remaining BBC stations and the BBC5LF1 temporary station itself. It can't be that high a quality!

4-4-2 Many thanks for that,I'm off to Dublin on Sunday morning and was going record the England match using me DABBY radio

Looks like I'll have to find an alternative to recording the England commentary

It just shows you the stranglehold the FIA seem to have over Five Live when it comes to coverage, that even in a situation when there are both England football and cricket internationals taking place at the same time as a Grand Prix, the BBC still has to make provisions to incorporate F1 commentary somewhere on their national radio platforms.

I used to get annoyed that Sunday early kick-offs from the Premier League were often marginalised/not done due to the Formula 1 (and am happy that of the Premier League contracts they could of lost, it was the pre-3pm Sunday one talkSPORT purchased from Five Live so avoiding this clash in the future) but things like this show you that there's clearly not a great deal the BBC can do about it, short of cancelling/not renewing their deal with the FIA.

Are there any other sporting governing bodies that force the broadcasters' hand to the point that they are obligated into airing every commentary regardless of other commitments when selling the radio rights?

BBC Radio Leicester

Martin Ballard presenting Premiership Final Sportstime live from Twickenham.

Guinness Premiership Final, Twickenham
Leicester Tigers v Saracens - Bleddyn Jones and Steve Johnson, with Martin Ballard (FM, DAB & online commentary)

Leinster V Ospreys (Magners League RU Final)

BBC Radio Wales - Steve James hosting - commentary from Gareth Charles and John Devereux
BBC Radio Cymru - Gareth Rhys Owen hosting - commentary from Cennydd Davies and Huw Harries

What a game it was! An absolute classic.

I especially liked the closing sequence of the coverage last night with the match highlights over music. It must've taken, whoever did that, a great deal of time and effort!

I listened to the game on BBC Radio Wales' internet stream, while watching the S4C TV stream of the game with the sound down. The audio was about a minute ahead of the pictures!

Additionally, S4C's Sarra Elgan was heard interviewing Lee Byrne at the end of the match (most probably lifted directly from their coverage although I had turned the TV stream off by then).

Congratulations to both the Tigers and the Os - and I'm with Steve James on this, lets have a "Battle of Britain" champion v champion clash akin to the Community Shield!

talkSPORT


Thursday 27th to Monday 31st May

Cricket: First Test Match
England v Bangladesh - Jack Bannister


Saturday 29th May

Rugby Union: Guinness Premiership Final
Leicester Tigers v Saracens - Russell Hargreaves


Sunday 30th May

Rugby Union: International Friendly
England v Barbarians - Russell Hargreaves

Formula 1: Turkish Grand Prix
Istanbul Park - Dom McGuinness


Judging by 4-4-2's post earlier in the week, it doesn't look as if Talking Rugby sent anyone to Leinster v the Ospreys in the Magners League Final yesterday (if they did, then talkSPORT didn't take these reports).

Was this the case, and if so did Real Radio South Wales send a reporter under their own arrangements to the RDS last night?

With England v Japan on 5 Live & Test Match Special on Sports Extra, their is an extra "5 Live Formula One" option for the Turkish Grand Prix on DAB.

Murrayfield Sevens (IRB World Sevens)

BBC Radio Scotland - Gary Parker hosting, main commentary from Bill Johnstone with Simon Cross and Mike Blair 'helping out'.