Memory failing - did John work for Radio Stoke?

yup, that's the one. think he now works for the BBC News channel and final score/5Live as a reporter.

Is Dants after a job on the BBC, his reverential fawning over the England team would fit in nicely on there. He has come over a bit starstruck in the last few weeks, surprising because generally he has been good on TS.

Personally I won't miss Ingham for the reasons above but there isn't much quality behind him these days on 5 Live.

Thursday 26th June - talkSPORT

World Cup Live presented by Mark Saggers from Rio de Janeiro (4-8pm) and Dan Lobb from London (8-11pm)

FIFA World Cup Group G
Portugal v Ghana - Nigel Pearson and Micky Quinn (5pm talkSPORT.com commentary)
USA v Germany - Jim Proudfoot and Stan Collymore (5pm AM and DAB commentary), with Mike Bovill producing

FIFA World Cup Group H
Algeria v Russia - Gary Taphouse and Matt Holland (9pm talkSPORT.com commentary)
Korea Republic v Belgium - Andrew McKenna and Ray Parlour (9pm AM and DAB commentary), with Jon Norman producing

Tennis: Wimbledon 2014
All-England Club - Katy Murrells

Ian Abrahams is today reporting from outside the Copacabana Grand Hotel in Rio, where the FIFA executive committee are staying, to gather reaction to the ban handed out to Luis Suarez. During Hawksbee & Jacobs, we heard Mike Bovill reporting from Recife on the flooding in the city which forced a pitch inspection at the ground. Portugal v Ghana is Nigel Pearson's final 2014 World Cup commentary for talkSPORT.

5Live today

USA vs Germany - Alan Green and Danny Mills
Ghana vs Portugal - Johnathan Overend and Pat Nevin

Algeria vs Russia - Darren Fletcher and Pat Nevin
S Korea vs Russia - ABB

ABB is at the ground as seen on Twitter but the Russia game is studio based so they clearly banked on the Belgium game being the main game tonight.

At least they've gone with the most important game unlike ITV and Talksport it seems

Alan Green is doing Brazil vs Chile

He clearly would have been with England had they gone through so 5Live have developed a plan to have the commentators at different games

Slight correction to the talkSPORT details I posted earlier - the presenter switch actually occurred at 7.30pm, rather than at 8pm as had been the case during the previous three days of final group phase matches.

Also to confirm for anyone wondering, talkSPORT decided to stick with Korea Republic v Belgium as their main game throughout their coverage this evening rather than switch to their online commentary of Algeria v Russia. With them doing the former game on-site and the other off-tube I can understand why they decided to stay with it, also due to the aforementioned set-up there may have been some technical issues in switching.

As someone who has listened to six of the eight final group games broadcast by talkSPORT.com via TuneIn (while watching the main games on TV in each case - I watched the secondary matches while listening to talkSPORT on AM for Groups A and E), I'm happy to report that there were no problems with talkSPORT's web feeds as far as I heard/am aware of. Making the secondary audio feed available to UK listeners on TuneIn as well as talkSPORT.com was a big plus as far as I am concerned. Now the clashing group games are over I hope they keep this stream alive (I'm currently listening to The Sports Bar through it) and use it when similar output splits occur in the future. It could air their weekly Bundesliga commentaries plus future rugby union commentaries that clash with live football coverage, those from the Aviva Premiership and next year's Rugby World Cup should they have rights to it as well.

A few talkSPORT broadcasters have already confirmed some of their second round assignments on Twitter:

Gary Taphouse wrote:


Andrew McKenna (who enjoyed a BBC Radio Nottingham reunion with Martin Fisher tonight) wrote:


Stan Collymore has written a number of messages indicating he will be doing:


So going by the above and by the recently-updated talkSPORT.com schedules (which lists Saturday to Tuesday's co-commentators, seemingly in order of kick-off time), it appears as if their second round commentary teams will be:

Brazil v Chile - Andrew McKenna and Ray Parlour
Colombia v Uruguay - Jim Proudfoot and Stan Collymore
Netherlands v Mexico - Alan Parry? and Micky Quinn
Costa Rica v Greece - Gary Taphouse and Matt Holland
France v Nigeria - Alan Parry? and Micky Quinn
Germany v Algeria - Gary Taphouse and Alvin Martin
Argentina v Switzerland - Jim Proudfoot and Stan Collymore
Belgium v USA - Gary Taphouse and Matt Holland

I've stuck the obligatory question marks next to Alan Parry, seeing as he's not on Twitter to confirm that he'll be doing any further games. But given that we know which matches Gary Taphouse is doing and that Nigel Pearson and John Anderson are both finished for the tournament (with Richard Connelly's single appearance surely a one-off), it seems a given that he'll do those two games with Micky Quinn (presuming the order the co-commentators are listed in is by kick-off time).

It's noticeable that Jim and Stan will be on-site for the last 16 ties at the Maracana and Arena de Sao Paulo - of the 15 commentaries done by the Proudfoot and McKenna pairings during the group stage, eight of these were the four matches played at each stadium (the two nearest the station's Rio base, which will be no coincidence). It's also no surprise Jim and Stan are on commentary duty for the Uruguay game given how came through England's group. I imagine they would also have been assigned to Costa Rica's fixture had England won Group D, but obviously that didn't happen and plans have probably changed.

Looking further ahead, we should hear Gary Taphouse commentating on a quarter-final for talkSPORT. We know he has five games remaining, three from the second round as listed and also the third place play-off (which he mentioned on Twitter ages ago). No idea which one that'll be other than it almost certainly won't be the one at the Maracana. Seeing as Macca and Ray Parlour aren't listed to do a second round tie beyond Saturday, I wonder if Brazil v Chile will be their last commentary and that the Proudfoot and Collymore pairing will do two quarter-finals (Parry getting the other), both semi-finals and the final. I hope that isn't the case though and that Macca and Parlour will get at least one quarter-final if not a semi-final as well.

I wonder if that was a last minute change of mind last night? I was listening to Wimbledon earlier in the day and I'm sure I heard them say they'd be commentating on the Belgium game. like you though, I'm glad they covered the Algeria v Russia game instead.
Thanks for posting the 5Live details by the way-- just to add that Mark Pougatch presented both matches.

Scratch the thought of Andrew McKenna and Ray Parlour returning home after Saturday's matches, as I've also noticed from the talkSPORT.com schedule that Parlour down to co-host 7-10pm show World Cup Kick Off from Rio on both rest days between the second round and the quarter-finals (on Wednesday with Mark Saggers and on Thursday with Jim Proudfoot), which suggests that their commentary team will be staying on to at least do one of the quarter-finals. It does seem surprising that they'll only be doing one of the eight second round games if they are staying on though, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility that one of the co-commentators listed for the four days ahead is incorrect and they'll actually be doing a second last 16 game.

Adrian Durham is scheduled to present today's World Cup Drive with Ray Houghton. Despite him being a long term talkSPORT regular, we rarely hear Houghton on the airwaves during World Cups and European Championships as he's otherwise committed as one of the main co-commentators for RTE television in the Republic of Ireland.

Phil Wye says it's Green, Murray and Kilbane for Brazil V Chile tomorrow. Thought Ingham might have got that game. Interesting that they're using 2 commentators. Good game for Kilbane too.

Just to add, Green mentioned his new contract a couple of times in the USA game he was covering, just goes to show Charles Sale is not always wrong, he predicted that 3 months ago, he said " Alan Green on the brink of signing a new 2 year contract" 5live have got a mole!

He was joking about his contract being on a goals per game basis (he hasn't seen many yet). I'm not sure if this meant he'd signed or not!

I've found all the 5Live commentaries for the 2nd round, I'll post tomorrow

I can't see any for Ian Brown or Johnathan Overend so that might mean all games on site but obviously other comms such as ABB and Darren Fletcher have done studio based games.

We'll be able to tell from Twitter from now as most comms are on and those who aren't have producers etc on there

Here are the last 16 games commentators for 5Live.

Saturday 28 June.

Brazil v Chili with commentary from Alan Green, John Murray and Kevin Kilbane.

Uruguay v Columbia With commentary from Mike Ingham, Ian Dennis and Chris Waddle.

Sunday 29th June:

Netherlands v Mexico with commentary from Conor Mcnamara and Pat Nevin.

Costa Rica v Greece Alistair Bruce-Ball and Jason Roberts.

Monday 30th June:

France v Nigeria with commentary from Darren Fletcher and Robbie Savage.

Germany v Algeria with commentary from John Murray and Chris Waddle.

Tuesday 1st July:

Argentina V Switzerland with commentary from Alan Green and Danny Mills.

Belgium v USA with commentary from Conor Mcnamara, Alistair Bruce-Ball and Pat Nevin.

So, 3 games with the 2 commentator set-up and all commentators except for Darren Fletcher getting 2 games.

sorry Bwfcol, didn't see this post-- that'll teach me to read properly before posting! if I've made any mistakes with my list, can you let us know as I didn't get the commentators from Twitter so may not be 100 % accurate.

That all looks good to me!

Phil Wye has Tweeted the first 4 games and all are from the ground, we'll see on the other 4

ESPN Radio:

Brazil vs Chile - Ross Dyer & ?
Colombia vs Uruguay - Tommy Smyth & Mark Donaldson

Saturday 28th June - talkSPORT

World Cup Live presented by Adrian Durham from Rio de Janeiro (2-7pm) and Mark Saggers from Estadio do Maracana (7pm-midnight)

FIFA World Cup Second Round
Brazil v Chile - Andrew McKenna and Ray Parlour (5pm commentary), with Jon Norman producing
Colombia v Uruguay - Jim Proudfoot and Stan Collymore (9pm commentary), with Ian Abrahams reporting and Mike Bovill and Dennie Morris producing

Tennis: Wimbledon 2014
All-England Club - Katy Murrells

Adrian was joined in talkSPORT's Rio studio by journalists Matt Hughes (The Times) and Raphael Honigstein (The Guardian and Suddeutsche Zeitung) between 2-4pm. Ian Abrahams has been doing the rounds on Copacabana beach this afternoon and Katy Murrells was talkSPORT's reporter at Wimbledon yesterday, as well.

Shep Messing was listed as the ESPN Radio co-commentator.

Confirmation. Shep Messing is with Ross Dyer on ESPN Radio,

John Murray has just confirmed all games will come from the grounds from now on

Also kilbane doing 2 more games after this, quarter final and semi final

Kilbane has really risen through the ranks quickly through radio & TV, he is good though and not likely to cause any controversy. Robbie Savage goes home after the QFs.

So, I'd imagine Mills, Waddle & Kilbane will share semis/final.

Murray & Green were superb also today. Really great stuff.

Alan announced his Dad is seriously ill in hospital so fair play to him for carrying on

The UK's top football commentator of the last 25 years is not quite the force he was, but he's still mighty fine.
And John Murray is just as good- and undoubtedly the top man for the future.
Peerless commentary tonight on an unbelievable spectacle.

I only switched to R5 at half time as I felt a game of this magnitude deserved better than Martin Keown's banal inanities and thankfully Kilbane was a big improvement.

Best wishes to Greeny's dad.

It was one of the best commentaries I've heard in a long time.

Nice to finally hear Ian Dennis commentating, I think he's wasted on England reports, any reporter could do that, there's no skill involved.