Tuesday 10th July - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Mike Carlson (in London) and Josh Chetwynd (in Tucson, Arizona)

Baseball: 83rd All-Star Game
National League @ American League - Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton (commentary provided by ESPN Radio)

Marc Kestecher was ESPN Radio's on-site host, with John Rooney and Peter Pascarelli being their on-field interviewers at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

Back to the regular season and 5LSE will be broadcasting a Sunday night game this evening. They'll be covering Philadelphia Phillies @ Colorado Rockies from 8pm.

Saturday 14th July - talkSPORT

Mark Saggers presented Boxing Special: Haye v Chisora from ringside at Upton Park alongside Gareth A. Davies and the commentary team

Boxing: WBA & WBO International Heavyweight Championship match
David Haye v Dereck Chisora - Ron McIntosh, Richie Woodhall and Duke McKenzie (10pm commentary)

talkSPORT's ringside reporters were Ian Abrahams and Warren Haughton. Judging by what Saggers was saying when sorting out pairs of headphones for the boxers and managers after the fight ahead of the interviews he conducted, I think Haughton had a production role too.

Daily Telegraph boxing correspondent Gareth A. Davies (who yes Steve, I did get mixed up with fellow journalist Chris Davies who I was listening to on Friday, well noticed!) was involved during the first two hours of the lengthy build-up between 7-10pm and was also called upon at about 11.30pm during their post-fight phone-in.

During overnight show Extra Time with Jonny Gould and John Kreger, although they didn't have a specific reporter covering the Amir Khan v Danny Garcia fight, they did have immediate reaction once it concluded including a post-fight phone-in after 5am, which is around the time when Radio 5 Live's live coverage of that fight ended to hand over to Morning Reports. Speaking of which...


Sunday 15th July - BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Local Radio

5 Live Boxing from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada as part of Up All Night with Dotun Adebayo

Boxing: WBA & WBC World Light-Welterweight Championship unification match
Amir Khan v Danny Garcia - Dave Farrar and Paulie Malignaggi (4am commentary)

I listened to both commentaries live last night/this morning and thoroughly enjoyed both broadcasts. talkSPORT's coverage sounded very much like 5 Live Boxing of old and I thought Dave Farrar had a very impressive commentary on the other side. Was it his debut for 5 Live Boxing? It's good that they have a regular Stateside analyst in Paulie too. Not only does it save the BBC costs but this time around it allowed their regular pundits Richie and Duke to co-commentate for talkSPORT!

thanks for this Difference. like you, I listened to both fights and enjoyed them. Yes, it was Dave Farrar's first outing on 5live boxing-- in fact, possably his first radio boxing commentary. I thought he did well. they've used Paulie for 3 fights I believe, so its becoming something of a regular gig for him now. Khan v Peterson and Froch v Ward where he partnered Mike Costello and last night's fight. no doubt he would have done the re-match with Khan/Peterson had it happened. presume he was used as a freelancer. I guess that so close to the olympics, costello didn't fancy/5live didn't want him to make the trip with things like the athletics grand prix in London going on and being so important to the final preparations for London 2012.

turning to TS, I agree, it did have a very 5live feel which, for boxing, was good. in the past the summeriser used to provide in-fight analysis while the round was going on which was very anoying and meant the listener didn't get a real feel for the punches being landed. glad to say that last night they did things in the 5live style, with the pundits giving their views at the end of the round. where it not for the station mentions, you could have easily been listening to 5live. I'm hoping the coverage was well-received so that we might get more boxing in the future on the station... but I won't hold my breath!

talkSPORT have reports from Huddersfield v Warrington in the Rugby League Challenge Cup Semi Final from Mark Wilson, although it is via phone.

Did they have someone at Leeds v Wigan?

In fact, have they ever had reports from the competition before?

Sunday - 5 Live - Scottish Open Golf

Russell Fuller presenting from Castle Stuart.

Commentary from Iain Carter, Conor McNamara + Andrew Coltart.

Sunday - 5 Live Sports Extra - Challenge Cup Rugby League

Warrington v Huddersfield - Stuart Pyke, Keith Senior + Dave Woods.

I had a scan through Saturday's Transfer Tavern and Boxing Special programmes (the ones that were on air when Leeds v Wigan was taking place) and I didn't catch any updates at all on the Challenge Cup. They also didn't have reports from the Scottish Open golf or any of the Saturday afternoon football friendlies.

The coverage Warrington v Huddersfield received on Sunday's Press Pass literally amounted to half-time and full-time reports done via a phone line, which were either done off-tube or broadcast from a very quiet part of the stadium. For those who don't know the name, Mark Wilson is a sports commentator on two local stations owned by talkSPORT's parent company UTV Radio. He covers Bolton Wanderers for Tower FM and Wigan Warriors for Wish FM. It's not the first time I've heard him on talkSPORT; he spoke about Fabrice Muamba's collapse on various programmes and I heard him talking about Bradford Bulls' financial predicament on Hawksbee & Jacobs last month. I wouldn't be surprised if he's used again on the station around his local radio commitments (which is how Sam Matterface first appeared on talkSPORT) as he sounds quite a good broadcaster. Perhaps they'll use him as a reporter on the Challenge Cup Final should his Bolton commitments permit it.

I should imagine talkSPORT had coverage of the Challenge Cup in their first few years after rebranding in 2000, when they seemed to have some coverage on every sport under the sun and at one point had commentary rights to the Super League which they quickly dropped. More recently, they took Talking Rugby updates on the 2009 Super League Grand Final with Simon Ward reporting from Old Trafford and in 2011 they took IRN's updates on the SLGF with Lee Stott reporting. But those are the only two rugby league games they've covered in terms of updates for many years before Sunday, certainly since the UTV Radio buyout in 2005.

Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd July - @TheOpen Radio

Richard Kaufman presenting coverage of The 141st Open Championship from Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Lancashire

Commentators: Richard Kaufman, Ron Jones, Matt Adams and Robert Lee

Summarisers: Paul Eales, Ross McFarlane and Gordon Brand Jr

Reporter: Rob Nothman

Coverage is available via the European Tour and Open Championship's official websites through this link - http://home.opengolf.endavadigital.o...LiveAudio.aspx - and on 87.7FM in the Lytham St Annes area. So far the commentary pairings have been Jones & Eales, Adams & McFarlane and Lee & Brand Jr, with Kaufman linking it all together interspersed with bits of commentary of his own. The coverage, and Kaufman's stewardship in particular, is sounding excellent so far.

That's not quite true as I heard an update during the Press Pass mid-way through the second-half. I don't think they were off-tube either as during this update, I heard crowd noise. I'm surprised Warrington didn't have a spare ISDN line he could use.

Nothman also appears to be working for the BBC too as I heard a couple of his interviews on Radio Leicester last night.

Thanks for the correction - I just skimmed through The Press Pass and could only find the half-time and full-time updates. Nonetheless it wasn't as if they were taking regular reports in the same way they would a typical football or rugby union match.

Sunday 15th July - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Mike Carlson (in London) and Josh Chetwynd (in Tucson, Arizona)

Baseball: National League
Philadelphia Phillies @ Colorado Rockies - Jack Corrigan and Jerry Schemmel (commentary provided by 850 KOA - "the Rockies radio network")

5LSE had a transmission problem at the start of the programme, meaning they joined the game during the bottom of the first inning about half an hour after they were due to come on air. First time we've heard the Rockies radio feed I think, Corrigan and Schemmel are another pairing who swap between the play-by-play and colour roles every few innings.

5LSE will be broadcasting the Chicago Cubs @ St. Louis Cardinals match-up at 7.15pm on Sunday. There was no baseball last night as 5LSE were covering the Great Britain v USA Olympic warm-up match in the basketball, but 5 Live Baseball is down in the station's schedule for Thursday of next week.

The Open 2012
IRN Updates: Rupert Bell

Does anyone know why Jonathan Legard, rather than James Allen, is commentating on F1 today? This has happened a few times recently.

BBC Radio 5 Live/Sports Extra/Online - Tour de France 2012

Commentary from Simon Brotherton, Peter Slater + Graham Jones.

Brilliant call on the end of the race from Brotherton.

BBC Radio 5 Live - The Open 2012

Hosted by John Inverdale.
Commentary from Iain Carter, John Murray, Alistair Bruce-Ball, Conor McNamara, Vassos Alexander + Clare Balding with Mark Roe, Jay Townsend, Bernard Gallacher, Andrew Coltart, Andrew Murray + Karen Stupples.
Interviews by Rob Nothman and reports from Mark Chapman.

It was well known, from when James Allen took over as 5 Live's commentator, He wouldn't commentate on every race. He was missing 2 races out of the first 10 and a few towards the end of the season.

Partly to do with his family/wife not wanting him traveling around to every race.

For the sake of posterity (hence why I've added the dates), Peter and Graham were BBC Radio's commentary team on the first week of the Tour with Simon joining them in France to assume the lead commentary role from Stage 10 (which took place on Wednesday 11th July after the first rest day) onwards. Peter stuck around in France to the end of the Tour however, with him becoming their reporter. It's possible that he and Simon may have swap roles for the odd stage (although I must admit that as good as 5LSE's coverage is, I watched the Tour on ITV4 for the most part so wouldn't know).

Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd July - talkSPORT

Golf: The 141st Open Championship
Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Lancashire - Rupert Bell and Bob Bubka, with Darren Gough conducting interviews and providing "colour" on the weekdays*

Cricket: First Test Match
England v South Africa - Jack Bannister, with Ronnie Irani providing analysis on Sunday

Formula 1: German Grand Prix
Hockenheimring - Graham Courtney (for both qualifying on Saturday and the main race on Sunday)

Cycling: Tour de France 2012
Stage 19 (Saturday) - Elliot Cook
Stage 20 (Sunday) - Toby Gilles

*In addition, Rupert Bell and Bob Bubka have just finished presenting a Golf Show Special from Lytham St Annes between 8-10pm. Last Sunday at that time, Rupert presented an Open preview show alongside @TheOpen Radio analyst Ross McFarlane. At the end of tonight's show, Rupert said that he and Bob will be reporting on this year's Ryder Cup from Medinah, Illinois for talkSPORT.

Cricket: England v South Africa

IRN Updates for the test: Bob Black

As an educated guess I believe this reporter may actually be Bob Platt.

Guy Swindells normally does IRN's updates on England cricket internationals, which are provided by Guy's company World Sports Communications (who are also responsible for organising IRN's Premier League and FA Cup updates), although when he was away working for Radio Wimbledon last summer it was Bob who covered part of a Test match that took place during Wimbledon fortnight in his absence.

Sunday 22nd July - BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

5 Live Baseball with Nat Coombs (in London) and Josh Chetwynd (in Tucson, Arizona)

Baseball: National League
Chicago Cubs @ St. Louis Cardinals - Mike Shannon and Mike Claiborne (commentary provided by KMOX 1120AM - "The St. Louis Cardinals radio network")

5 Live Baseball began at the end of TMS and just in time for first pitch. John Rooney usually works with Mike Shannon as the Cards' alternating play-by-play/colour radio commentators, but with John on national radio duty, Mike Claiborne - normally KMOX's studio host - took his place.

John Rooney and Jim Bowden commentated on Saturday and Sunday's Texas Rangers @ Los Angeles Angels games for ESPN Radio in the absence of their usual MLB commentary duo of Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton.

Thursday's 5 Live Baseball commentary will be Tampa Bay Rays @ Baltimore Orioles, with coverage due to begin at 5.30pm. On Sunday they are set to cover a west coast match-up, Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants, from 9.30pm.

Thanks for that, It sounded like he said Bob Black every time. His reports where awful, up there with Graham Lovett, mumbling away

Talksport's Mike Bovill and Andrew McKenna have both tweeted saying the station is now an official broadcaster of the Premiership. They say full details will follow. Wonder if that means live commentary, updates or anything else. I guess it is a case of watch this place.

Further to the above:

It also appears there will be some live commentaries in rugby this coming season too as Mike Bovill responded to a question on Twitter about live games with: "have got some planned, yes".

I hope that doesn't mean they'll be online only and they'll be on, perhaps, weeks when there's no live football on a Sunday i.e. international weekends.

Thanks for the information 4-4-2.

talkSPORT does seem a very good fit for the Aviva Premiership: until now the competition hasn't received any kind of extensive free-to-air coverage outside of ITV4's weekly highlights show. As has been mentioned on DS in the past, Radio 5 Live's commentaries on the competition outside of the play-offs have been fairly thin on the ground in recent seasons; talkSPORT seem to match them in terms of updates and through Full Contact probably give more hours of coverage to the league.

As an educated guess I'd imagine talkSPORT would now have a similar arrangement for the Aviva Premiership as they do football's Premier League; where they are to provide commentary on every league game for international audiences from the forthcoming season. The Media Guardian article announcing that PL deal at the time speculated that UTV would like to strike a similar deal with the RFU so you could see them providing online commentaries on six games a weekend, which may extend to them having more updates on games on the main station (and no longer relying on Talking Rugby to provide them either).

But it's difficult to see where Premiership commentaries could fit into talkSPORT's AM and DAB schedule. Obviously football is king and even in light of recent rights deals, their exclusivity over 64 Premier League commentary games each season is the deal most crucial to the overall success of the station. So while you wouldn't expect them to tinker with the existing Saturday and Sunday schedule, perhaps they may look to broadcast games on Friday nights - although the Friday Kick-Off programme with Danny Kelly is highly regarded and IMO it would be a shame to lose it - or as 4-4-2 states on Sundays with no live football where often they'll be a fairly makeshift schedule with no Call Collymore.

With this deal, you'd hope they'll cover the Aviva Premiership Play-Offs a bit more fully than they did this year but potential clashes with the Football League Play-Offs may give them a headache if something has to give, as was the case this year when the League One Play-Off Final clashed with the Premiership Grand Final. Not a call I'd envy making.

In other rugby rights news, I see Sky Sports have struck a deal with the British & Irish Lions to provide television coverage of next year's tour to Australia. I wonder if a deal for UK radio rights is imminent? Hopefully talkSPORT would consider purchasing rights: outside of the three tests, the tour schedule is the strongest for a while with the Lions facing all five Australian Super 15 teams plus the Barbarians. Having the ability to do the midweek tour games on AM when 5 Live may be forced to put them on Sports Extra due to their current affairs remit would give talkSPORT an obvious USP.

The Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

5 Live - Mark Pougatch presenting with Darren Campbell + Karen Pickering. John Murray + Gordon Faqhuar commentating.

5 Live Olympics Extra - Nick Mullins.

John Murray has written a short blog on the 5 Live website about his preparation for the ceremony, including listening to previous coverage. As a bit of historical info is always of interest though I'd post them as well. He lists

1988 - Peter Jones
1992 - John Inveradale, Terry Wogan + Caron Keating
1996 + 2000 - Jon Champion
2004 + 2008 - Nick Mullins