A couple of observations about this weekend's radio sports coverage - one positive, one less so.
I really enjoyed hearing Tony Jardine used as a studio pundit on the Formula 1 for talkSPORT's excellent Football First on Sunday.
I'm not a big F1 fan but watch it from time to time (although I find the radio commentary a little overpowering due to the sheer noise of the engines!). As I was out on Sunday, I followed the race on the radio and hearing Tony's considered insight was superb. I used to like him on ITV's coverage and thought it was a shame when he took off to join the Sky Sports A1 Grand Prix team.
With Jenson Button having now won the Drivers Championship, I think it's unlikely talkSPORT will make a big deal of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (the only remaining GP this season), but after Sunday's successful trial I hope talkSPORT call upon Jardine as their F1 studio pundit whenever he's available next year.
One sports broadcaster who didn't impress me this weekend was Five Live boxing commentator Mike Costello.
I want to like him but he just doesn't cut it for me and I would much prefer to hear Simon Brotherton, Ron McIntosh or even David Croft used on Five Live Boxing instead of him.
I find his style quite strained, he always seems to extenuate that the British boxer is struggling and sounds panicked when he does this.
Admittedly I was drifting in and out of consensuses when I was listening (well, it was after 3am in the morning!) but the later the fight went, the more he sounded convinced that Froch had lost it on points. When the judge's decision came in, he soon changed his tune.
Not the first time I've been unimpressed by one of his commentaries - IMO he's nowhere near the same class as his excellent predecessors as Five Live's boxing commentator, Ian Darke and John Rawling.
