New Zealand V India 1st Test, Auckland

Sky Sports NZ commentary team:

Ian Smith (presenter), Simon Doull, Craig McMillan, Mark Richardson, Craig Cumming, Scott Styris, Sunil Gavaskar.

Sky Sports NZ have adopted the three-commentators-on model this season.

Are one of the commentators still "Deep Extra Cover" (E.g Their version of Sky Uk's "Third Man") or is it a 3 voices at all times approach?

No, they've used a straight three-commentator team this season, both internationally and domestically. There have been a couple of games where they've only used two comms, but I presume that was due to the size of commentary box at grounds like Napier.

Eurosport2HD BDO World Trophy
Jonny Bryan is Main comm. He also did the BDO World Masters for the BDO website and Finals on Eurosport..
Scott Mitchell is co comm on first match

Sky Sports 1 Premier League Darts
Dave Clark with Wayne Mardle and John Part..
great to see Sky use Part from week 1

Agreed. Is Harrington being phased out? Part's picture is now shown alongside Mardle and Bristow when they promote the twitter address and of course he's not there tonight.

Friday 7th February - BBC Two Wales and BBC Red Button

Scrum V Live: Ireland Under-20s v Wales Under-20s

Ross Harries presenting from Dubarry Park, Athlone alongside Frankie Sheahan and Martyn Williams, with Sean Holley providing analysis from Cardiff

Commentators: Gareth Charles and Stuart Davies

Reporter: Phil Steele

I believe there's a Welsh language Red Button alternative commentary available this evening, but I have to be honest and say that I don't know who's on commentary duty there.

Mae'n Alun Jenkins a Mefin Davies ar y botwm coch.

Super League XIV - Wigan Warriors v Huddersfield Giants

Eddie Hemmings and Mike Stephenson presenting/commentating.

Phil Clarke on co-commentary, Jon Wells and Brian Carney as pundits, Bill Arthur is touchline reporter and special comments from Stuart Cummings.

Worcester Warriors v Leicester Tigers (BT Sport 1)

Craig Doyle presenting from Sixways alongside Tom Varndell and Lawrence Dallaglio. (I didn't catch the pre-match analysis so there may have been others involved.)

Commentators: Ali Eykyn, Lawrence Dallaglio and Austin Healey

Reporter: Sarra Elgan

Clever move to use the same big TV-screen on the Super League coverage for the pundits' pre-match, half-time & post-match analysis as well as the video-referees' analysis when their work's required during the game.

That should avoid a repeat of last year's video-clanger by Steve Ganson during the Magic Weekend when he was using a small monitor next to his seat in the grandstand and was therefore at a big disadvantage (despite being the actual decision-maker) compared to many tv-viewers watching their large screens at home !!

Just worth noting it seems that Jason Mohammed is part of the reporting team out in Sochi, hence why Ross Harries gets a network outing on the Six Nations tomorrow.

Jason Mohammed is presenting Final Score tomorrow. He has returned from Sochi already.

Interesting in the rugby league. The two video refs watched it pitchside, then after making the decision, one of the video refs announced it to the crowd, a la nfl and reasons given.

International Rugby: Scotland U20's v England U20's (From Netherdale, Galashiels) - Scottish Rugby Online

Presenter: Jim Mason. Was joined at half time by Bill Beaumont.
Commentator: Bill Johnstone

Again this was on youtube and is viewable to watch as-live too.

He definitely isn't and is in Sochi for the duration. (His twitter confirms this).

If he wasn't in Sochi he'd be in Dublin tomorrow.

And as the NFL has proved for many years, the requirement to explain key decisions live to the stadium-crowd only helps to encourage referees to use common-sense in their decision-making.

I think it was good. A mate of mine at the match said that the screen was too small (normally the whole screen shows the incident). I hope that is cleared up.

I think in rugby video ref works, but was used far too much last night (and has been recently)

Saturday 8th February - BBC One

Live Six Nations: Ireland v Wales

Ross Harries presenting from the Aviva Stadium alongside Keith Wood and Jonathan Davies

Commentators: Eddie Butler, Phillip Matthews and Martyn Williams

Reporter: Sonja McLaughlan

Women's Six Nations round-ups: Sara Orchard


Diolch yn fawr iawn.

John Boy Walton was co comm yesterday
and Bobby George was doing some co comm today..

Who are the red button continuity announces? I know about Colin Fray, who is usually with bbc radio Nottingham, he has done work with the French open in the past. any others?

France v Italy - 6 Nations - BBC 1
John Inverdale with Jeremy Guscott, Keith Wood and Jonathan Davies
Commentary: Andrew Cotter and Jonathan Davies
Pitchside: Jill Douglas and Serge Betsen


Scotland v England - Women's 6 Nations (From Rubislaw, Aberdeen) - Scottish Rugby Online
Jim Mason Presented with Nicky Ponsford from the RFU.
Commentary: Bill Johnstone and Nicky Ponsford

Sunday 9th February - BBC Two Wales

Scrum V: Six Nations Special

Ross Harries presented alongside Gwyn Jones, Kingsley Jones, Shane Byrne and Huw Bennett, with Sean Holley

Ireland v Wales - Eddie Butler, Phillip Matthews and Martyn Williams, with Sonja McLaughlan and S4C's Dot Davies conducting post-match interviews
Scotland v England - Andrew Cotter and Brian Moore
France v Italy - Andrew Cotter and Jonathan Davies

Ireland Under-20s v Wales Under-20s & Ireland Women v Wales Women - Lowri Morgan (reporting), with commentary clips on the Under-20s international from Gareth Charles
Pro12 round-up (games involving the Welsh regions only) - Phil Steele (reporting), including commentary clips on...
Ulster v Ospreys - Jim Neilly (as BBC Two Northern Ireland)
Munster v Cardiff Blues - Nick Webb (as S4C's Red Button)

Sean Holley joined them in the studio to do his excellent Stat Pad analytic pieces (one of the Ireland v Wales game and one on France). There was also a pre-recorded interview that Ross Harries conducted earlier in the day with Jonathan Davies from the Stade de France and the closing montage was once again voiced by Carolyn Hitt.

The Rugby League video ref on Friday Night was a massive cock up from where I was sat within the DW Stadium. An Epic Fail!

Just a couple of Winter Olympic notes,

Ronald McIntosh has been covering Slopestyle and Stuart Storey has been covering Long Track Speed Skating for the world feed