The final match of the afternoon

Men's Preliminary Round - David Cameron vs. Ted Hankey (Best of 5 Sets)

Presented from the Lakeside balcony again by Colin Murray and Bobby George, with additional reporting from Rob Walker.

Comms: Vassos Alexander and Tony Green

Players introduced by the BDO's Richard Ashdown with Marco Meijer as match referee

As your new - tip. Wait until the end of each session and list all the matches and commentators. We know Murray/George/Walker are all involved all day so they need listed once with a list of each game / commentators below - keeps it cleaner.

Thank you for your tip, I will do just that in the future, much appreciated

Adrian Lewis vs. Gary Anderson (Best of 13 Sets)

2016 William Hill PDC World Darts Championship FINAL
Live from Alexandra Palace, London on Sky Sports 1 & Sky Sports Darts

Presenter: Dave Clark
Studio Pundits: Eric Bristow, John Part and Wayne Mardle
Commentators: Rod Studd, John Part, Wayne Mardle

Rod Studd and John Part commentated together for sets 1-7
Rod Studd and Wayne Mardle commentated together for sets 8-12


Players introduced by the MC John McDonald, with George Noble as match referee.

Aviva Premiership Rugby – Sunday 3 January (BT Sport 1)

Round 8 – Worcester Warriors v Harlequins

Martin Bayfield in the studio with Ugo Monye and Glenn Delaney.

Commentators: Nick Mullins, Ben Kay & Andy Goode

Reporter: Sarra Elgan


Aviva Premiership Rugby – Sunday 3 January (ITV)

Round 8 Highlights

Mark Durden-Smith at Sixways with David Flatman.

SAR v LEIC: Nick Mullins, Lawrence Dallaglio & Paul Grayson (as BT Sport)

NEW v BAT: Jonathan Harris-Bass
NOR v EXE: Richard Henwood (reporting)

SAL v WAS: Alastair Eykyn, Ben Kay & Rob Vickerman (as BT Sport)
GLO v LIR: Martin Gillingham

WOR v HAR: Nick Mullins, Ben Kay & Andy Goode (as BT Sport)

Other full-match commentaries on premiershiprugby.tv:
GLO v LIR: Simon Ward

I do like Rod Studd as a darts commentator but I wish they would give some of the other big matches to the rest of the commentators, Stuart Pyke should have done the first half of the final for me. I wonder if its his ITV work that means Stuart doesn't get as many big matches as he used to.

I also miss John Gynne and Dave Lanning (I know John did a few matches early on but I didn't see them).

I think Colin Murray is the perfect darts presenter for the BBC. He clearly loves the sport, has a great knowledge, acknowledges both organisations and is a great front man. If this is the last year of the BDO on the BBC he will be a big miss for me.

That said the one good thing about BT's involvement (and ESPN before) is Ray Stubbs being back at the Lakeside.

I was very surprised that Rod Studd did the entire final also, I think Stuart should have done the first half, with Rod closing it up. Maybe Sky thought with the nature of Anderson's victory on Saturday that he could do it 7-0, meaning Studd would only call 1 set.
Maybe they could have had Pyke do the first 4 sets, Nigel Pearson the middle four, and Rod the final four, or even have gone a three-man comms for the final, incorporating Pyke in there.
I feel a bit for Pyke, he called some good matches, as did Pearson early on, and isn't John Gwynne the lead commentator for Eurosport on the BDO tour?

I think having too many different commentators gets a bit much, 3 at once wouldn't work and giving all of the 3 lead commentators doing a few sets would be bit much as well.

Thinking back last year Rod did the whole final but the year before that Stuart did the first half with John Part before Rod and Wayne took over.

Yes now John Gwynne has been the lead Europsport darts commentator since Sky decided they could do without him.

It looks like Peter Ebdon is joining the BBC's team for the Masters Snooker.

Hmm yes coming to think about it I agree, three's a crowd, and alternating would get just plain confusing, different voices everywhere.

I do like John Gwynne however, his comms on Eurosport have been excellent, knowledgeable and insightful throughout.

At the expense of any of the usual team?

Maybe Willie Thorne, who is not mentioned in the BBC Media Centre release. Being a one-table set-up I would not have thought they would need anyone new but no harm in giving Peter Ebdon a go, he is an interesting character. And the BBC do love a World Champion.

Just a note, although maybe not a surprise, with the cutbacks to some sports coverage Sky have had their usual studio coverage for European and particuarly PGA Tour events (even with the latter at 11pm start this week). PGA though probably hard to cutback there as with all the US gaps they need to fill.

The last 2 or 3 years Willie Thorne hasn't been used at the Masters anyway for exactly that reason.

Ooh, 'ello. Scrum V's score graphics have gone a fancy white and yellow.

Sky Sports have gone the same. It's a new graphics package Alston Elliot have rolled out today. They've said it's across three networks so I presume the other is S4C?

It’s a fine dividing line but I guess it could also be argued that the European Tour and the PGA Tour are the “main” golf content that Sky shows week in week out – it’s not like overseas cricket (ie non-England) or Top 14 rugby which are miles away from the “main” content for their respective sports each week.

Quite a lot of the stuff now without a studio is also in the night – eg most of the overseas cricket, the night-time NFL games.

Maybe a comparison could be made with some of the ATP 500 tennis where the studio has been ditched – but that is probably a bit lower profile given these events often have very few top players – whereas you get at least a decent number of top players week in week out on the PGA Tour.

I don’t often see much mention of golf on this thread but the above prompted me to post something that, whilst not up to date(!), I found very interesting.

Sky shows a lot of “PGA Tour Classics” - one hour highlights of old tournaments featuring all of the original commentary. These are generally from the 1990s or 2000s but the other day they showed the 1978 Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic.

The conclusion of the event is very exciting (featuring a tremendous Nicklaus charge from behind) but the commentary is even more interesting - featuring an absolute who’s who - and in their (relative) youth too!

The CBS team was:

Interviews (post 3rd round) - in vision - Pat Summerall

Hole Commentators:

15th - Pat Summerall
16th - Ben Wright
17th - Jack Whitaker
18th - Vin Scully

On course (all holes) - Ken Venturi (shown in vision on the 18th)

Not sure when Sky will next show it but they are generally repeated fairly often. If you love golf and are of a certain age then to say it’s worth watching is an understatement - it’s superb.

We've seen most PGA Tour events have a Sky Cart reporter minimum and for some PGA Tour events, WGC's and playoffs them being onsite presentation and commentary wise in the past two seasons, I wonder if they will cut back on that again and just maybe do the Tour Champ and Majors commentary/studio onsite with the WGC / Players Championship commentary done by Sky themselves but offtube again in London.

When Sky renewed its contract for the PGA Tour in Feb 2014 - a new 7 year contract for 2015 to 2021 (***) inclusive - they said amongst other things:

“From the 2014 FedExCup Playoffs Sky Sports will increase the amount of US PGA Tour events broadcast from on-site each year from five to 31.”

So it will be interesting to see whether Sky is actually contracted to do the above – which would reduce their scope for making any cuts.

(***) Despite Sky saying 2022, the PGA Tour say 2021 (2nd link) and I think it’s highly likely the PGA Tour is correct.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...159762,00.html

http://www.pgatour.com/company/2014/...agreement.html

Have Sky ever done on site presentation for a co-sanctioned European Tour event? I assumed this was because European Tour Productions isn't the host broadcaster.

You get interesting commentary combos too. Recently we had Ewen from Sky, Dougie and Ken from TGC and local South African, Dale Hayes.

I seem to remember us having a discussion about this on the golf thread last year. From memory Sky did the two Hawaii events from the studio and then had an onsite presence from what is now the CareerBuilder Challenge (old Humana Challenge)

Aviva Premiership Rugby – Saturday 9 January (BT Sport 1 / BT Sport Showcase)

Round 9 – Leicester Tigers v Northampton Saints

Craig Doyle at Welford Road with Austin Healey, Ben Kay and Tom May.

Commentators: Alastair Eykyn, Ben Kay & Austin Healey

Reporter: Martin Bayfield


European Rugby Champions Cup – Sunday 10 January (Sky Sports 2)

Pool 1 – Oyonnax v Ulster

James Gemmell in the studio with Pat Sanderson and Tyrone Howe.

Commentators: Johnnie Hammond & Dewi Morris


Aviva Premiership Rugby – Sunday 10 January (BT Sport 1)

Round 9 – London Irish v Newcastle Falcons

Martin Bayfield at the Madejski Stadium with Sean Maitland.

Commentators: Alastair Eykyn, Ben Kay & Paul Grayson


European Rugby Champions Cup – Sunday 10 January (BT Sport Europe)

Pool 5 – Toulon v Bath

Craig Doyle in the studio with Joe Worsley and Brian O'Driscoll.

Commentators: Nick Mullins, Lawrence Dallaglio & Ugo Monye

Reporter: Sarra Elgan

Friday 8 January

Pool 2: Bordeaux-Bègles v Clermont Auvergne (BT Sport Europe)
Commentators: Nick Mullins and Ugo Monye

Saturday 9 January

Pool 3: Racing 92 v Glasgow Warriors (Sky Sports 1)
Commentators: Mark Robson and Ieuan Evans

Pool 4: Stade Français v Munster (Sky Sports 1)
Commentators: Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes

Sunday 10 January

Pool 1: Oyonnax v Ulster (Sky Sports 2)
Commentators: Johnnie Hammond and Dewi Morris

Pool 5: Toulon v Bath (BT Sport Europe)
Commentators: Nick Mullins, Lawrence Dallaglio and Ugo Monye