It's John Murray, Connor McNamara and Steve Claridge for the BSP PO Final

Great to see 2 senior comms on this too

If it does mean that I would hope they make full use of it. It could easily give then an extra 40 or 50 commentaries a season if they wanted.

If they did a match from Tuesday/Wednesday for each round of the League Cup and then the final that's 15 matches. In the early rounds there's enough variety that they wouldn't neccessarily have to do the same matches as 5 Live and you often get big match ups from the QF's onwards that would surely be worth covering.

In the FL over the course of a significant number of matches in their non-PL slots ie Friday nights, Saturday lunchtime, Monday nights and midweek rounds so again some decent opportunities for commentary if they wish.

In my opinion would be great to see them adding more commentaries to their portfolio.

I was going to say that, I'm pleased they're doing this game and I'm pleased they've got some of their big names involved, I'm enjoying the coverage. Would have enjoyed it more if Wrexham had been in it, natch,

Further to the previous post about Ian Danter's commentaries on talkSPORT, he's listed these on Twitter:

Agreed, it's good so far, good research from both commentators. I don't like Claridge so just putting up with him.

BBC Radio Scotland - Sunday 20th May 2012

Sportsound presented by Richard Gordon live from Excelsior Stadium.

Commentary
Airdrie United v. Dumbarton - Rob MacLean and Billy Dodds with Chick Young pitchside.

Bryan McLaughlin also brought some updates from the Hearts trophy presentation at Tynecastle

Tony Incenzo reporting for talkSPORT.

..with Juliette Ferrington pitchside. Bit strange really, you'd have thought maybe Caroline Barker (host of BBC London's Non-League show) might have been involved.

Others for 5 Live:-

Widnes Vikings V Catalan Dragons (Stobart Super League RL) - Dave Woods
Hull Kingston Rovers V Castleford Tigers (Stobart Super League RL) - Alistair Yeomans
WTA Final, Rome - Lee James
England V West Indies Test match Cricket, Lords - Alison Mitchell
Some Trophy being paraded around West London - Jonathan Legard and Ian Payne (eventaully)

Oh, and Conor, It's Newport County who played York City in last week's Trophy final

Panic over...

talkSPORT just trailed "all the build up and live commentary" of the League One Play Off Final between Sheffield United and Huddersfield next Saturday.

John Murray also did the half-time sequence because Ian Payne was supposed to be at Chelsea's victory parade but was stuck in traffic. I'm sure more people are listening to this coverage than watching it on the telly, thanks to the stupid Conference TV deal which is based on the idea half a dozen matches on a channel lots of people have is worse than umpeen matches on a channel nobody has.

BBC Radio York
host: Sharon Shortle
commentator: Barry Parker
summariser: Chris Jones
reporter: Rob Wilson

The talkSPORT provisional schedule for the next two Saturday's:

01:00 Extra Time with Matt Forde
06:00 Fisherman’s Blues with Keith Arthur
08:00 The Weekend Sports Breakfast with Mark Saggers & Micky Quinn
12:00 Matchday Live with Adrian Durham, Alvin Martin & Matt Holland – live commentary of the League One Play-Off Final: Huddersfield v Sheffield United
15:00 Full Contact Live: Premiership Final - Harlequins v Leicester - live online commentary
17:00 Transfer Tavern with Georgie Bingham
19:00 Kick-Off: International Special – coverage of Norway v England
22:00 Sam Delaney’s Sports Bar

01:00 Extra Time with Matt Forde
06:00 Fisherman’s Blues with Keith Arthur
08:00 The Weekend Sports Breakfast with Jason Cundy & Ray Houghton
12:00 Euro 2012 Countdown with Sam Matterface
16:00 Kick-Off: International Special – coverage of England v Belgium from Wembley
19:30 Call Danny Kelly
21:00 Football First with Ian Danter & Michael Gray

The League 1 play-off final kicks off at 3pm

indeed, but as 4-4-2 states in his post, the rugby is going to be online. so, while at 15:00 on am/dab you'll be able to listen to the league 1 play-off final, you'll also be able to listen to the rugby premiership final live online. for the sake of not getting confused, best to choose one or the other though, I'll be going with the football.
it's been mentioned on the talksport chat thread but I don't see the point of TS having the rugby rights as, only one game out of the 2 semi finals and finals will be broadcast on am/dab.

My mistake, see 5Live are doing the rugby. Makes sense for TS to do the national commentary of the Playoff final.

I suppose the BBC assume listeners will chose BBC Leeds or Sheffield. I am not sure if they are allowed to stream their commentaries for the playoffs or watch it on telly.

You'd like to think that the "non-exclusive" reference in that article on the Football League website indicates that talkSPORT at the very least will be continuing their deal to broadcast commentary on the League Cup Final and the three Play-Off Finals into next season. I'd like talkSPORT to add commentary rights to the Play-Off Semi-Finals and perhaps the earlier rounds of the League Cup to their portfolio too (as I always say on here at this stage of the season).

It's been a good few days for talkSPORT news, what with us getting confirmation that they'll be doing commentary on the League One Play-Off Final and that Ian Danter will be commentating on Euro 2012 for them, after there had been suggestions that neither of these things would happen. I'm pleased on both counts.


Tony's reports on Luton Town v York City in the Conference Play-Off Final came during Sunday Exclusive's Season Review, which Georgie Bingham presented alongside Alvin Martin and Tony Cascarino. Jack Bannister was reporting on the cricket as per usual.

Saturday 26th May - talkSPORT

Adrian Durham presenting Matchday Live alongside Matt Holland with Alvin Martin from Wembley Stadium

League One Play-Off Final
Huddersfield Town v Sheffield United - Sam Matterface and Alvin Martin (3pm AM and DAB commentary), with Ian Abrahams at pitchside and Carl Ralley producing

International Friendlies
Republic of Ireland v Bosnia and Herzegovina - David Brady, with Matt Holland providing analysis from the studio
Norway v England - John Anderson

Rugby Union: Premiership Grand Final
Harlequins v Leicester Tigers - Andrew McKenna and Richard Hill (3pm talkSPORT.co.uk commentary), with Mike Bovill at pitchside and Russell Hargreaves reporting on AM and DAB

Cricket: Second Test Match
England v West Indies - Jack Bannister

Golf: BMW PGA Championship
Wentworth Club - Rupert Bell

BBC Radio Leeds, and official Huddersfield Town website
host: Gareth Jones
commentator: Paul Ogden
summariser: Kieran O'Regan
reporters: Adam Pope (by the pitch) and Tim Steer (at Huddersfield Town's training ground)


BBC Radio sheffield
studio: Jamie Campbell
host: Paul Walker
commentators: Andy Giddings and Paul Walker
summariser: Keith Edwards
reporter: Rob Staton

Other people were involved in the coverage on both stations, interviewing fans etc.

Sunday 27th May - talkSPORT (early hours of the morning)

Mike Bovill presented Extra Time with Sohail Sahi

International Friendly
USA v Scotland - Graham Beecroft

Boxing: IBF World Super Middleweight Championship
Carl Froch v Lucian Bute - Dom McGuinness

On Saturday night, John Anderson's reports on Norway v England came during a Football First International Special with Ian Danter and Tony Cascarino. Following this was The Sports Bar phone-in special with Sam Delaney and Martin Allen.

Sunday 27th May - talkSPORT

Georgie Bingham presenting All Sports Sunday alongside John Cross from The Mirror with Alvin Martin from Wembley Stadium, followed Howzat! with Ronnie Irani

League Two Play-Off Final
Cheltenham Town v Crewe Alexandra - Ian Danter and Alvin Martin (partial commentary: "extended coverage")

Rugby Union: International Match
England v Barbarians - Russell Hargreaves

Cricket: Second Test Match
England v West Indies - Jack Bannister

Golf: BMW PGA Championship
Wentworth Club - Rupert Bell

Formula 1: Monaco Grand Prix
Circuit de Monaco - Graham Courtney

I don't think talkSPORT are due to have a pitchside reporter at Wembley Stadium or updates from the Pro 12 Grand Final, I will update if I am wrong on either count.

BBC Radio Gloucestershire

Cheltenham Town V Crewe Alexandra (L2 Play-off Final) - Steve Kitchen (host) Peter Matthews and Mark Halliwell (commentary), with Ian Randall pitchside and Paul Furley doing pre-match Interviews midweek (95.0FM / 95.8FM / 104.7FM / 1413 MW) (Not Online)

The coverage of today's match has been pathetic from both 5 Live and TS, though 5 Live is giving it more attention.

Why not talk cricket when there is no live sport for TS to commentate on? What are they doing tomorrow night, for example?

I thought both had "live" commentry on the game?

Alistair Bruce-Ball, Conor McNamara and Steve Claridge provided full commentary on Five Live.

I knew this post was coming - I seem to remember you making similar ones in past years when talkSPORT haven't provided as thorough coverage of League One/Two Play-Off Finals as they could have done. I take it Radio 5 Live didn't provide a commentary from Wembley this afternoon either? EDIT: According to Ian above they did, so fair play to them for doing that.

talkSPORT's "extended coverage" amounted to little more than lengthy reports rather than much in the way of commentary. They had the usual three updates per half plus pre-match, half-time, full-time and goalflash reports, although in fairness each of these lasted around 2-3 minutes with one encompassing commentary on the first goal and thus lasting about 5-6 minutes. Had the game been close towards the end or had it gone to extra time or penalties I suspect they would have taken further spells of commentary at the crucial points late on in the game. Short of actually doing a full commentary (which would have been preferable), I'm not sure how they could have given it much more attention than that.

The scheduling was a bit frustrating, I agree. The League Two Play-Off Final seemed to be at the forefront of All Sports Sunday, albeit they weren't doing commentary on it they were crossing regularly between that and the cricket, golf and rugby union (they didn't have a reporter at the Pro 12 Grand Final for the record, nor did they have anyone pitchside at Wembley). However coverage of the second half during Howzat with Ronnie Irani and Gareth Batty seemed to be a little less frequent.

Personally I'd have liked them to at least put commentary online as they did with Premiership Grand Final in the rugby yesterday, perhaps on DAB too, or failing that at least extend All Sports Sunday to 12noon-6pm. That being said, I can understand how they are trying to build up an audience for Howzat which debuted last week - although I'm not sure how successful this show will be, given that most potential listeners will surely be watching/listening to the England test match elsewhere and that it'll likely be taken off the air during June and Euro 2012.

Still, given that they had commentary rights and carried a good 15-20 minutes of the game live I'm going to count it as talkSPORT's 86th commentary game of the season. Some of you will be pleased to know I've compiled detailed statistics and analysis of talkSPORT's football commentaries from 2011/12, which I'll post later.