Thursday 2nd June - talkSPORT

Mark Saggers presented Kick Off: International Special from Wembley Stadium alongside Stuart Pearce

International Friendly
England v Portugal - Jim Proudfoot and Stuart Pearce (7.45pm commentary), with Nigel Adderley at pitchside and James Savundra producing

Tennis: French Open
Roland Garros Stadium - Lisa O'Sullivan


talkSPORT 2

Mark Wilson presented Super League Live from Belle Vue

Rugby League: Super League
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats v Hull Kingston Rovers - Mark Wilson and Luke Robinson (8pm commentary), with Richard Shaw-Wright reporting

I'm not exactly sure what capacity Richard Shaw-Wright was working in (i.e. if he was heard reporting on pitchside matters during the match), but Mark thanked him at the end of the coverage. Earlier on, Russell Hargreaves (morning) and Andrew McKenna (afternoon) presented talkSPORT 2's French Open coverage with commentary coming from the usual Radio Roland Garros team.

Many thanks to Shaun for posting this season's BBC Radio 5 Live commentary statistics. With them airing their final commentary of the season, I'll post the final numbers for talkSPORT and talkSPORT 2 in the next few days.

Thanks Shaun for the stats and everyone that has posted all commentary details & stats & all contributors!

The reason Steve Claridge may get more games than we often think he does are because of his involvement in the Monday Night Club. often if there is a Monday 8 PM premier league game, he ends up staying on to co-commentate on it sadly. obviously this was not always the case, for example, Robbie Savage did Leicester v Chelsea but it might go some way to explaining Steve's prominence.

only other thing that was interesting for me with the 5Live details was Conor McNamara. maybe reading too much in to this but had Conor not been unavailable for commentary during the 5 weeks of the rugby world cup, he'd have done more commentaries than Alan Green and Ian Dennis. I know Dennis has other duties that mean he probably doesn't commentate as much as he might but might this suggest Conor could be a number 2 either in his own right or with Ian Dennis after Alan Green leaves?Thanks to Shaun for the 5Live details and the Difference for Talksport-- the effort involved in tracking that many commentaries over a 9 month period is very impressive-- I only just kept up with a 4 week international tournament 2 years ago.

Like a number of members of Aston Villa's in-house media team and other staff, AVTV lead commentator Jack Woodward has announced he is leaving Villa after nearly 15 years working for them upon the club's relegation: The voice of Aston Villa announces his departure.

I rate Jack highly as a broadcaster and it will be interesting to see where he turns up next, whether he goes into television or back into radio on a more regular basis. He often popped up as a reporter on talkSPORT on Saturdays and busy weeknights when Villa were not playing over the past few years and he's also done a few bits for BBC WM (I know they shared AVTV's commentaries on Villa's away games the last time they were in Europe) and Free Radio 80s in recent seasons, with him having first joined the club after commentating on them for BRMB at the turn of the century. Had he left Villa a year ago, I think he'd have been an ideal shout to become talkSPORT's main reporter in Birmingham now that Ian Danter is based in the south, but they've had that base covered since bringing in Tom Ross at the beginning of the season just finished, so I'm not sure if regular reporting gigs on that station would be on the cards, at least in the West Midlands.

Prior to his stint at Aston Villa, Jack worked on loads of different stations - Hallam FM, TFM, BRMB, BBC Radio Sheffield, Swan FM, Real Radio, Big Blue and The Saint - and had also done bits for the ITV Sport Channel during its brief spell on air. If he's going to go into TV, I think he'd be good at doing the voiceovers on something like Football League Tonight, as he's one of the wittier commentators around at the moment. In any case, he's someone to listen out for at the start of next season - I'm sure he'll pop up somewhere and will do well wherever he goes.

talkSPORT

Since pre-season in mid-July until their final live international friendly last night at the beginning of June, talkSPORT provided commentary on 157 matches this season - a 10 game increase on 2014/15. These commentaries came from the following competitions:

Premier League - 65 (28 on Saturdays at 5.30pm, 30 on Sundays before 4pm, 5 on Wednesdays, 1 on Thursday and 1 on Friday)
FA Cup - 29
UEFA Champions League - 22
UEFA Europa League - 12
Capital One Cup - 9
International Friendlies - 8 (7 involving England and 1 Wales)
UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifiers - 8 (2 involving England, 2 Northern Ireland, 2 Wales, 1 Republic of Ireland and 1 Scotland)
Football League Play-Off Finals - 2
FA Community Shield - 1
Premier League Asia Trophy Final - 1

While I'm including matches that were billed as being full live commentaries yet weren't carried in full due to overlaps with other games - which this season only accounted for Liverpool's comfortable 3-0 victory over Manchester City on Wednesday 2nd March, which they left for approximately seven minutes during the second half to take the conclusion of the earlier West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur kick-off - I've not included eight games that talkSPORT primarily gave reports-only coverage to, but then carried extended spells of commentary on either the closing stages or on penalty shootouts.

These were the aforementioned West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur Premier League game, with Ian Abrahams and Mark Saggers being at Upton Park that Wednesday, plus Dan Freeman's commentary on the last two and a half minutes of stoppage time in Oxford United's upset victory over Swansea City in the FA Cup Third Round. talkSPORT also carried commentary on six penalty shootouts at the end of games they hadn't covered live - three of which were done by Simon Humphreys in the Capital One Cup, on West Bromwich Albion v Port Vale (Round 2), Preston North End v AFC Bournemouth (R3) and Stoke City v Chelsea (R4). Graham Beecroft commentated on the Liverpool v Carlisle United Round 3 shootout, Geoff Peters and Danny Higginbotham were behind the mics for the spot-kicks after Manchester United v Middlesbrough in Round 4, while in the FA Cup, Laurence Mora called the penalties after the Yeovil Town v Carlisle United Third Round Replay.

With that cleared up, here are this season's statistics…

Presenters:

Mark Saggers - 94 games
Adrian Durham - 34
Ian Danter - 9
Danny Kelly - 7
Ray Stubbs - 5
Matt Smith - 4
Geoff Peters - 2
Matt Holland - 1
Colin Murray - 1

Match commentator Jim Proudfoot presented the half-time segment of their 4pm FA Cup commentaries on both Third and Fourth Round Sundays, but Saggers and Smith respectively have been credited for anchoring the build-up to kick-off in those games. As usual presenters who hosted more than one game within the same programme have been counted as anchoring the number of live games they fronted that day. There were four Premier League Sunday double headers this season and there were also preceding top flight commentaries on Capital One Cup Final and FA Cup Semi-Final Sundays.

Commentators:

Sam Matterface - 73
Jim Proudfoot - 50
Nigel Adderley - 17
Ian Danter - 6
Andrew McKenna - 4
John Roder - 3
Gary Taphouse - 2
Richard Connelly - 1
Nigel Pearson - 1

Co-commentators:

Stan Collymore - 66
Ray Houghton - 17 + 1 as an in-game analyst
Danny Higginbotham - 17
Michael Gray - 14
Alvin Martin - 11
Clive Allen - 10
Ray Wilkins - 6 + 1 as an in-game analyst
Stuart Pearce - 5
Matt Holland - 2 + 1 as an in-game analyst
Paul McVeigh - 2
Danny Murphy - 2
Jack Collison - 1
Bobby Gould - 1
Chris Iwelumo - 1
Ray Parlour - 1
Micky Quinn - 1
Graeme Sharp - 1

The eagle-eyed among you will notice the co-commentary total (not including the three in-game analyst berths, which are detailed at the end of the message) add up to 158. This is because both Clive Allen and Stan Collymore co-commentated on Leicester City v Everton, Clive from the commentary box and Stan as a third man at pitchside for the Premier League trophy presentation. While providing not in-game analysis, talkSPORT's Republic of Ireland correspondent David Brady provided pre-match, half-time and full-time analysis around their commentary on Eire's Euro 2016 qualifier in Poland back in October. In August, Stuart Pearce missed the start of their Friday night Premier League commentary between Aston Villa and Manchester United, so their presenter at Villa Park Mark Saggers and the studio-based Sports Bar co-host Jason Cundy joined Sam Matterface for a spot of co-commentary during the first 13 minutes before Pearce arrived. For the record, I've not included Danny Higginbotham's co-commentary on the Manchester United v Middlesbrough penalty shootout that I mentioned earlier in his total.

Reporters:

Ian Abrahams - 15
Graham Beecroft - 12
Graham Courtney - 10
Dom McGuinness - 7
Nigel Adderley - 5
Tom Ross - 3
Dave Rowe - 3
Olly Wilson - 3
Ian Danter - 2
Tony Incenzo - 2
Laurence Mora - 2
Mike Bovill - 1
Stan Collymore - 1
Geoff Peters - 1

The list of reporters includes all those who were present with the commentary teams at live games - I've not differentiated between those who monitored pitchside activity and those who merely conducted post-match interviews. The total comes up to 67 games, a substantial increase of 17 matches on last season's number. Some new names were used in this capacity: Nigel Adderley's five games were all of 2016's England friendlies (Ian Danter was used in this role at November's game v France), Tom Ross and Laurence Mora were new additions to the talkSPORT reporting team this term while Olly Wilson returned to it on a regular basis after spending most of the previous season freelancing elsewhere. As mentioned earlier, Stan Collymore doubled up as a pitchside reporter and co-commentator at Leicester City's Premier League trophy presentation game against Everton. Mike Bovill's only appearance was back in August, long before he became talkSPORT 2's managing editor. 7 of Ian Abrahams' 15 pitchside reporting jobs came from Wembley Stadium, on all the showpiece finals plus both FA Cup Semi-Finals. He was also the only pitchside reporter talkSPORT 2 used this season on their final game, the League Two Play-Off Final. Which is a good point to move onto that station's statistics…


talkSPORT 2

talkSPORT 2 launched on Tuesday 15th March, airing its first football commentary that night in the form of Atletico Madrid v PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 Second Leg. Since then and until the end of the 2015/16 season, they have carried a total of 37 live commentaries.

The usual rules apply for the presenters - those who have hosted more than one game in a programme/day are counted as having anchored the number of matches they fronted that day. This includes both concurrent games that took place during the final two rounds of La Liga fixtures, which Russell Hargreaves and Andrew McKenna hosted respectively, as the two featured games on both days were classed as being full match commentaries (and indeed all four were repeated in full overnight), even though they mostly stuck with the Barcelona matches rather than the Real Madrid ones. I'm also counting Deportivo La Coruna's April games against Celta Vigo and Barcelona which were joined in-progress during the first half, plus their second half commentary on Real Sociedad v Real Madrid and the talkSPORT Trophy friendly between Welsh League club Pontypridd Town and a talkSPORT All Stars XI. So the competition breakdown was:

La Liga - 27
UEFA Champions League - 6
Copa del Rey Final - 1
Football League Play-Off Final - 1
International Friendly - 1
talkSPORT Trophy - 1

Presenters:

Will Gavin - 10
Ray Stubbs - 6
Ian Danter - 5
Russell Hargreaves - 5
Andrew McKenna - 5
John Anderson - 1
Alex Crook - 1
Alex Dibble - 1
Colin Murray - 1
Geoff Peters - 1
Dan Windle - 1

John Anderson, Alex Crook and Ian Danter all hosted 1 La Liga game each that they would also commentated on, while Colin Murray presented the talkSPORT Trophy friendly that he arranged and would co-commentate on. I should mention that Andy Brassell was a studio-based pundit for 6 La Liga matches, including 2 on the final day of the league's title race.

Commentators:

Alex Crook - 11
Olly Wilson - 7
John Anderson - 6
Ian Danter - 3
Tim Long - 3
Nigel Adderley - 1
Phil Blacker - 1
Adam Bridge - 1
James Fielden - 1
Jim Proudfoot - 1
Callum Williams - 1
Dan Windle - 1

Co-commentators:

Adam Virgo - 10
Matt Lawrence - 7
Paul Mortimer - 4
Clive Walker - 4
Chris Perry - 3
Adrian Clarke - 2
Danny Gabbidon - 1
Jason Euell - 1
Alvin Martin - 1
Colin Murray - 1

3 live games had no co-commentary, with John Anderson flying solo twice and Phil Blacker once, with all such fixtures being 11.30am Sunday La Liga kick-offs. In contrast, only the League Two Play-Off Final had on-site presentation (from Geoff Peters) and pitchside reports (from Ian Abrahams).

Shifting back to talkSPORT, here is how they covered the numerous showpiece games and finals this season:

FA Community Shield - Mark Saggers presented from Wembley Stadium alongside Matt Holland, Sam Matterface and Michael Gray commentated with Holland providing in-game analysis and Ian Abrahams at pitchside.

Capital One Cup Final - Mark Saggers presented from Wembley Stadium alongside Ray Wilkins, Jim Proudfoot and Stan Collymore commentated with Wilkins providing in-game analysis and Ian Abrahams at pitchside.

Leicester City v Everton - Premier League trophy presentation game - Ray Stubbs presented from the King Power Stadium, Sam Matterface, Clive Allen and Stan Collymore commentated with Collymore at pitchside.

UEFA Europa League Final - Mark Saggers presented from the studio alongside Ray Houghton, Jim Proudfoot and Stan Collymore commentated with Houghton providing in-game analysis.

FA Cup Final - Mark Saggers presented from Wembley Stadium, Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore commentated with Ian Abrahams at pitchside.

Championship Play-Off Final - Adrian Durham presented from Wembley Stadium, Sam Matterface and Stan Collymore commentated with Ian Abrahams at pitchside.

UEFA Champions League Final - Ian Danter presented from the studio, Jim Proudfoot and Danny Higginbotham commentated.

League One Play-Off Final - Geoff Peters presented from Wembley Stadium, Sam Matterface and Michael Gray commentated with Ian Abrahams at pitchside.

League Two Play-Off Final (talkSPORT 2) - Geoff Peters presented from Wembley Stadium, Jim Proudfoot and Alvin Martin commentated with Ian Abrahams at pitchside and reporting for talkSPORT.

Ian Abrahams also reported on the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Final, the FA Vase Final and the FA Trophy Final for talkSPORT, but they didn't have reporters covering the UEFA Super Cup, the Scottish League Cup Final, the Scottish Cup Final, the FA Women's Cup Final or the National League Promotion Final.

BBC Radio Scotland Sportsound, 3/6/16

Presented by Geoff Webster.

UEFA Women's Euro 2017 Qualifying - Group 1
Scotland v Iceland (7pm) - Richard Gordon, Julie Fleeting and Craig Paterson (commentary) with Chick Young pitchside

And from Sunday (better late than never)...

BBC Radio Scotland Sportsound, 29/5/16

Presented by Richard Gordon with Darren Jackson and Steven Thompson.

International Friendly
Italy v Scotland (7.45pm) - Liam McLeod (commentary) with occasional comments from Darren Jackson and Steven Thompson

Bizarre setup to be honest. Surely the BBC budget could have stretched to sending one of the studio pundits as a co-commentator.

BBC Radio Scotland Sportsound, 4/6/16

Presented by Richard Gordon, with Peter Houston and Derek Ferguson.

International Friendly
France v Scotland (8pm) - Liam McLeod (commentary) with occasional comments from Peter Houston and Derek Ferguson

Saturday 4th June - talkSPORT

Nat Coombs presented The Transfer Tavern alongside Andy Brassell, followed by The Season Ticket with Danny Kelly and Gareth A Davies from The Daily Telegraph

International Friendly
Slovakia v Northern Ireland - Graham Courtney

talkSPORT don't have a reporter covering France v Scotland. Tonight's Season Ticket show is a tribute to the late, great Muhammad Ali. RIP.

Earlier...

Ian Danter presented Saturday Scoreboard alongside Martin Lipton from The Sun (1-4pm)

Tennis: French Open Women's Singles Final
Serena Williams v Garbine Muguruza - Lisa O'Sullivan

Horse Racing: The Derby Festival
Epsom Downs - Rupert Bell and Lee McKenzie (commentary on the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Cup at 3.10pm and The Derby itself at 4.30pm)

On Friday, Rupert Bell provided commentary on The Oaks at 4.30pm during Drive Time with Sam Matterface and Darren Gough, with Alan Brazil and Jason Cundy having presented that morning's Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast from Epsom Downs. Also from yesterday...

Rugby League: Super League
Leeds Rhinos v Catalans Dragons - Richard Shaw-Wright


talkSPORT 2

Toby Gilles presented Matchday Live 2

Tennis: French Open Women's Singles Final
Serena Williams v Garbine Muguruza - Gigi Salmon and Matt Brown (2pm commentary, as Radio Roland Garros)

Will Gavin presented T20 Blast Live

Cricket: T20 Blast Group Stage
Leicestershire v Durham - Andrew McKenna and Derek Pringle (5.30pm commentary)

Yesterday...

Ian Danter presented T20 Matchday Live from Edgbaston

Cricket: T20 Blast Group Stage
Kent v Gloucestershire - Jon Norman
Lancashire v Yorkshire - Andrew McKenna and Alex Tudor (6.30pm commentary)
Warwickshire v Durham - Ian Danter

Dants did bits of commentary from Edgbaston during the break of innings at Old Trafford and once that game had concluded. Earlier, Russell Hargreaves (morning) and Lisa O'Sullivan (afternoon) anchored talkSPORT 2's French Open coverage on Friday, with Lisa also reporting on play for talkSPORT.

Sweden v Wales (International friendly prior to our glorious Championships run)

BBC Radio Wales - Ian Hunt hosting from Solna, with Rob Phillips and Kevin Ratcliffe commentating. Iwan Roberts joined them for the Call Rob programme afterwards.

BBC Radio Cymru - Owain Llyr hosting with Dylan Griffiths and Iwan Roberts on commentary/whimsy

BBC Radio 5 Live - Alistair Bruce Ball and John Hartson (updates)

I just thought I'd share a bit of a further analysis from the talkSPORT 2015/16 statistics I posted in #1930.

Regarding the presenters, Mark Saggers and Adrian Durham are roughly in the same position as they were in 2014/15 - Saggers hosting the same amount of live games, 94, as last term, with Durham seeing a three-match increase to 34. Saggers is clearly the main host on Sundays and in midweek, and has hosted games from all competitions including all of England's international friendlies. Durham is talkSPORT's main Matchday Live host on Saturday afternoons, and he hosted 25 of their 28 Saturday 5.30pm Premier League commentaries - with Colin Murray and Ray Stubbs hosting one each from 5.15pm after Ade had hosted the earlier Around the Grounds segment. He also hosted five Saturday afternoon FA Cup games - including half-time in the Wycombe Wanderers v Aston Villa match where commentator Nigel Adderley had to host the build-up after Adrian needed to switch from Eastleigh's third round game to Southampton due to technical issues at the former.

Ian Danter's presenting total dropped by 8 games to 9, with Danny Kelly's number rising by 5 to 7 and Ray Stubbs (who primarily anchored Euro 2016 qualifiers on talkSPORT and Champions League games plus the La Liga fixtures that bookended his Stubbs on Sunday show for talkSPORT 2), Matt Smith (4 FA Cup ties), Geoff Peters, Matt Holland and Colin Murray all entering the live match presenting ranks this season.

Lead commentary-wise, while there's still a clear 1-2-3 pecking order in terms of the final totals, Sam Matterface's dominance over Jim Proudfoot has narrowed from 82 games to 45 in 2014/15 to 73-50 this term. Matterface called 50 of talkSPORT's 65 live Premier League commentaries, with Proudfoot getting four in comparison, but they were pretty evenly matched when it came to other competitions, Matterface edging live FA Cup games 11-10, Proudfoot getting 6 League Cup ties to Sam's 3 and Jim was also 6-4 up on the Champions League front. Proudfoot however commentated on all nine England qualifiers and friendlies plus 10 of talkSPORT's 12 Europa League games (Andrew McKenna did the other two). If you include talkSPORT 2's coverage of the League Two Play-Off Final, both Jim and Sam commentated on four finals each.

Nigel Adderley is very much talkSPORT's third most prominent commentator - with his live game total rising by 10 to 17 in 2015/16. These included 7 Premier League games, - 4 of these coming from Sunday double headers - 8 FA Cup ties, 1 Champions League match and 2 Euro 2016 qualifiers. Nigel's increase came despite Ian Danter and John Roder's returns to the commentary fold this season, with Gary Taphouse and Richard Connelly both debuting for the station on regular season matches. Andrew McKenna's live game total fell from 9 in 2014/15 to 4 in 15/16, while Nigel Pearson called a single game for the second season running.

Stan Collymore still dominates the co-commentary ranks, while his number dipped 1 from 2014/15 to 66 he bossed their Premier League co-commentaries - doing 47 of their 65 live games from that competition. He commentated on 7 FA Cup ties, with these all coming from the business end of the competition - the last Fifth Round tie, two Quarter-Final plus a Sixth Round Replay, both Semi-Finals and the Final. Similarly, he only did 3 ties from Football League competitions - but these included the League Cup and Championship Play-Off finals - and his 3 European games were the away legs of Liverpool's Europa League Quarter-Final and Semi-Final plus the Final. He co-commentated on four finals for talkSPORT this term.

As regards their other co-commentators - Danny Higginbotham saw the biggest increase in matches, going from calling 8 games in 2014/15 to the joint-second most with 17 in 2015/16, with these fixtures including the Champions League Final. Ray Houghton's number increased by 2 to 17, Michael Gray's rose by 1 to 14 (and included the Community Shield and League One Play-Off Final), Alvin Martin's remained at 11 (not including the League Two Play-Off Final he covered for talkSPORT 2) as did Clive Allen's at 10. Those were the only co-commentators who reached a double figure total in either 2014/15 or 15/16. The new/returning additions to the co-commentary ranks - Paul McVeigh, Bobby Gould, Jack Collison, Chris Iwelumo and Graeme Sharp - were all used on Euro 2016 qualifiers involving the Celtic nations, except for Sharp who covered that FA Cup Fourth Round tie between Carlisle United v Everton, seemingly a sensible geographical appointment of an Evertonian who I think is based in southern Scotland.

In wrapping up this message, I'll note that talkSPORT didn't have reporters covering either the Sweden v Wales international friendly or the Soccer Aid match which they usually cover, with them respectively taking place while pre-recorded programmes and a rugby union magazine show were airing on the station (the only reporter talkSPORT had yesterday was Lisa O'Sullivan covering the men's singles final from the French Open tennis). That should mark the end of 2015/16. The Euro 2016 thread is here: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2151304