Strangely, I heard Crofty talking on 5 Live a few days ago saying that he is from Stevenage, and was a supporter, which took me by surprise as he's always publically been a Hammers Fan. West Ham is in East London and Stevenage in Hertfordshire to the North, so how that works out, I know not! Maybe one League team and one non-league.

The BBC often sends reporters to their 'home' grounds so to speak - apart from at Spurs, where they seem to always send Arsenal supporters. Likewise talkSPORT, who usually send Mike Bovill, another Gooner!

BTW nice to hear Geoff Peters reporting on Danny Kelly's show last night at a match in the Midlands - I've forgotten which - but he should be on more often, and also do live commentaries on TS again. He's way better than Nigel Pearson.

Stevenage is in the Midlands these days, is it?

Oh was he at Stevenage too?!

I was cooking a stir fry and it was a bit noisy is my excuse.

He reported on the Stevenage v Portsmouth match, but I very much doubt he was at the ground.

BBC Radio Leicester

Charles Dagnall presenting Radio Leicester Sport live from the Walkers Stadium.

Carling Cup: First Round
Leicester City v Macclesfield - Ian Stringer and Richard Smith (commentary)

BBC Bristol and Zummerzet

Host Geoff Twentyman

Southend v Bristol City Ed Hadwin 94:9

Oxford v Bristol Rovers Rob Scanlon DAB and 1566

Yeovil v Crystal Palace Chris Spittles 95:5

Thanks for clearing things about David Croft and Stevenage up, La Rhumba. It was good of 5 Live to send him to his (second) team's first ever league game.

I agree with you about Geoff Peters, he's an excellent reporter and has been very good as a presenter and commentator as well. I think he has only done a few commentaries for talkSPORT, but has done lots for UEFA.com down the years.

That being said, I like Nigel Pearson a lot too. He has a great voice and real enthusiasm for the sports he covers.

Tuesday 10th August - talkSPORT

Danny Kelly presenting Kick-Off alongside Stewart Robson

Carling Cup First Round
Barnsley v Rochdale - Dom McGuinness
Chesterfield v Middlesbrough - Andy Clarke
Leeds United v Lincoln City - Graham Courtney
Leicester City v Macclesfield Town - Geoff Peters
Milton Keynes Dons v Dagenham & Redbridge - Ian Abrahams
Norwich City v Gillingham - Grahame Lloyd

Under-21 Friendly Match
England Under-21s v Uzbekistan Under-21s - Ian Danter

England press conference - John Anderson


Mercia

Tom Ross presenting The Sky Blues Goalzone from the Brindley Place studios

Carling Cup First Round
Morecambe v Coventry City - Joe Holt and Dave Bennett (commentary)


BBC WM

Mark Regan presenting The Football Phone-In and WM Sport from the Mailbox

Carling Cup First Round
Walsall v Tranmere Rovers - Rob Gurney

Tuesday 10th August 2010 - Carling Cup Round 1

BBC Lancashire - Host: Gary Hickson from Globe Arena, Morecambe
Stockport v Preston: Phil Cunliffe & Ian Bryson (Commentary)
Doncaster v Accrington: Adam Cottier (Updates)
Morecambe v Coventry: Derek Quinn (Updates)

BBC Manchester - Host: Ian Cheeseman from Hillsborough
Sheffield Wednesday v Bury: Ian Cheeseman & Fred Eyre (Commentary)
Barnsley v Rochdale: Phil Kinsella (Updates)
Stockport v Preston: Brian Clark (Updates)

BBC Merseyside
Walsall v Tranmere: Derek Jones & Ronnie Goodlass (AM/DAB Commentary)

BBC Stoke - Host: John Acres from Alexandra Stadium, Crewe
QPR v Port Vale: Matt Sandos & Mick Cullerton (FM Commentary)
Crewe v Derby: John Acres (1-22), Graham McGarry (23-45) & Pete Moores (AM/DAB Commentary)

Just to (slightly) clarify things with talkSPORT this season on behalf of Nigel Pearson, who I've worked with for several years on both football and speedway.
Nigel took the decision to stand down from his role as the station's main Premier League commentator, this being due to his expanding TV commitments on both speedway and darts, plus running a speedway club (Dudley) and trying to have a family life as well. Something had to give, especially with the commentary games this season primarily being on Saturday evenings and Sunday lunchtimes.
He'll still be available as cover and will still be heard on the station as a reporter on Matchday Live, and I'm sure he'll enjoy it - even when he's covering the Albion!

Thanks for clarifying things about Nigel's talkSPORT role for us Dave. It is much appreciated.

It's a shame that he's standing down from his commentary role but I guess it's not altogether that surprising given that he has a lot on his plate professionally and personally right now. I felt something like this might be coming given that he did so few World Cup commentaries over the summer. Still, he has had a very good run as a commentator and a presenter down the years which took him to two Champions League Finals and a World Cup Semi-Final.

I'll miss his football commentaries but I'm sure he'll continue to be a firm fixture on the reporting front at our favourite time of the week.

Dim ond am Radio Cymru. (Only on Radio Cymru)


BBC Radio Wales

Jackland V Barnet (Carling Cup 1st round) - Simon Davies hosting with commentary from Gareth Blainey and Matthew Jones (All frequencies)

Real Radio South Wales

Jackland V Barnet - Sam Fleet (whose 8pm report was cut short for the weather)

Swansea Sound

Jackland V Barnet - Antony O'Connell

So, that begs the question: who will be doing talkSPORT's Premier League commentary?

My money would now be on Sam Matterface being involved in some way, perhaps the Sunday commentator, with Ian Danter on Saturday evening?

All very interesting!

I think Ian Danter, Sam Matterface and John Rawling must be the favourites to land a share of the commentaries available.

When it comes to the crunch though, Dants deserves to be their number one commentator IMO.

The Southend United V Bristol City game now on all FM frequencies and DAB.

And, judging by the score, Rob Scanlon needn't have worried about any football shaped bumps on his Car parked in where the yet to be built West Stand should be

BBC Radio Leeds, and official websites of Huddersfield Town and Bradford City
studio: Gareth Jones
Carlisle United verses Huddersfield Town (92.4, 95.3 and 102.7 FM, and Huddersfield Town website)
commentator: Paul Ogden
summariser: Kieran O'Regan
Bradford City verses Nottingham Forest (AM and DAB, and official Bradford City website)
commentator: Derm Tanner
summariser: John Hendrie
Leeds United verses Lincoln City
coverage: Adam Pope and Andy Ritchie


Yorkshire Radio (DAB), official Leeds United website, and Minster FM)
Leeds United verses Lincoln City
host: Michael Weadock
commentator: Tom Kirwin
summariser: Eddie Gray


The Pulse
Bradford City verses Nottingham Forest
commentator: Tim Thornton
Summariser: Ian Ormondroyd

Tuesday 10th August:

Carling Cup

BBC Coventry and Warwickshire:

Morecambe v Coventry City, Stuart Linnell Presenting from Coventry Studios with Live Commentary at Globe Arena from Clive Eakin and Geoff Foster

Mercia:

Tom Ross Presenting, with Commentary from Joe Holt and Dave Bennett

I listened to the WM coverage of Martin O"Neills departure from Villa and a good job they made of it as well.

Thank you for replying to me earlier in the thread and good to see that if I am late getting home on Saturday, I will have a choice of stations to listen to the Baggies!

Surprising news for me in the LBC email this week (and disappointing news for those 5 Live listeners who were posting on DS last week that he is on a par with John Inverdale and Mark Pougatch as a top anchor and should return) but Ian Payne's Saturday's will be spent at LBC.


http://www.lbc.co.uk/page-12953

Payne's been doing Scores on LBC for the last few weeks.

And it looks like he'll be doing a long day this coming Saturday as he's down to present 5 Live Weekend Breakfast with Ranvir Singh between 06:00-09:00 and will then do Scores on LBC between 14:30-18:30 that afternoon. He's also down to do Sunday morning breakfast too.

I hear Sam Matterface WILL be the man alongside Stan Collymore on Saturday for talkSPORT's commentary of Chelsea v West Brom (17:30 kick-off).

Thanks for posting the news, I'm sure it'll come as a surprise to many listeners to hear his voice back on talkSPORT. I wonder if they'll unveil him on-air ahead of the big kick-off on Saturday evening?

Assuming he's going to be their regular Saturday evening Premier League commentator, you'd expect him to get the chance to do the Sunday afternoon fixtures as well, seeing as their other leading commentary contender Ian Danter has confirmed he will continue to present Football First on Sunday.

However, given his Sky Sports News presenting commitments during the week, I don't foresee Sam being talkSPORT's Champions League commentator. I hope this gig goes to Dants instead.

Sam Matterface ?! What the hell has he done to justify this position ?

Only good thing about him is his mrs.......jammy sod

Tom Ross is interviewing the Orion football pundits and co-commentators on Gold's Sports Bar tonight and it's going to be the same line-up as last season: - Pat Heard (Aston Villa), Jon McCarthy (Birmingham), Tony 'Bomber' Brown (West Brom), Robbie Dennison (Wolves) and Dave Bennett (Coventry).

The quintet now have a profile page on each of the Orion websites: click here (I've posted a link to the BRMB website but a version of the same page can be found on the Mercia, Beacon Black Country and Beacon Shropshire websites).

So despite Ian Taylor becoming a regular on The Sports Bar on Mondays, it doesn't look like he'll have a co-commentary role with any of the Orion stations.

This doesn't surprise me, as I know Tayls is still very involved in the game as an agent these days and will often go and watch his clients on matchdays.

I've spotted him at quite a few lower league games over the past few seasons when his players have been involved.


You'll have a good choice of listening on Saturday evening - commentary on Albion will be on talkSPORT, BBC WM, Beacon 97.2FM and Gold 1152AM.

To make matters better, all of those stations will have Midlanders in their commentary teams, in stark contrast to certain other national broadcasters when they cover the clubs from our area.


This might explain why Phil Blacker, who presented Scores last season and is (was?) LBC's Sports Editor, turned up on talkSPORT as their reporter at Charlton last Saturday.

If he's been replaced on Scores, I wonder if he'll become a regular reporter on Matchday Live this season? In my opinion he's plenty good enough, but it's difficult to see where he'd fit in as talkSPORT have more than enough London-based football correspondents as it is!

Interesting news, I missed that, though as he's not a native Londoner, maybe he'll go back to Leeds and be based there for TS?

Ian Abrahams was LBC's Sports Editor before leaving for TS, and Mike Bovill has worked for both stations.
John Cushing, the diminutive presenter of Scores and LBC Sport's Editor before Blacker took over, moved upstairs to be a part of Senior Management. Unusual that for a Sports Reporter.