Originally Posted by bwfcol:
“I forgot about Lawrenson to be honest, also many younger listeners will not be aware of Arnfield's career so he would not be classed as a big name by many people, as for Taylor he is their best pundit and why do they employ Pleat?”
I like Pleat.

For me he is probably their best top-line summeriser, just a shame he's lumbered with that clown Green more often than not.
I liked Graham Taylor when he worked on the World Cup in 2002 for ITV, commentating alongside Jon Champion ("very much so Jon"), but this could have more to do with Jon having an absolute blinder at that tournament - he was by far the best commentator at Korea/Japan 2002. I've gone off him since he's become a regular on Five Live, as he seems to have become much to opinionated as a summeriser in recent years.
For me, the best Five Live summeriser just has to be Super Donnie Goodman - but then I would say that, wouldn't I!
Originally Posted by IanFergus:
“West Ham v Man Utd - Andy Clark”
Sorry to be uber-pedantic here Ian, but it's actually Andy Clark
e with an 'e' at the end. Not that it particularly matters, it's just I'm a stickler for being precise!
Originally Posted by michael,76:
“Excellent commentary on Sports Extra...Steve Stone is turning out to be a very good co-commentator in my opinion. He's retired from playing now, so hopefully he will be a regular.”
I agree, and he retired from playing just this weekend as it happens. He should have broken on Sports Extra.
However, the Sports Extra broadcaster who's been most impressing me is their regular football presenter, and BBC Hereford & Worcester Breakfast Show host, Howard Bentham.
He's been doing this gig for a few seasons now, and has consistently impressed - so much so that I would say he is greatly superior to most of the regular Five Live Sports presenters, and deserves a chance to be used as a fill-in host at the very least. If he impressed on a Five Live programme, then I think the BBC should bite the bullet and bring him in as a regular Sport on Five host the next time a presenter moves on and a timeslot is available.
Originally Posted by michael,76:
“Good to see some familar names from the old 5Live station message board by the way.”
It certainly is Michael - although if I may ask, which username do you use on the old BBC Five Live The Station/the current Points Of View Radio board?
Do you use the same name as you do on here, or are you someone else with a more familiar username?
Originally Posted by Hayden:
“Mike Ingham doesn't seem to do as many games these days does he- is he winding down a bit?
Shame - I always enjoy his clear voiced, knowledgable work.”
As Bwfcol eludes to, Mike Ingham is actually having a bit of a Winter Break I believe. I'm told he usually has a bit of a break over the Christmas period, with him dissapearing at the end of November and returning in time for FA Cup Third Round weekend every year for the past 3 or 4 seasons.
Originally Posted by fortytwo:
“I thought tonight's commentators were poor, particularly Adderley.”
I don't know about them being poor last night, as I didn't listen to the game, but I would say that David Oates and Nigel Adderley are certainly Five Live's too most distinctive average football commentators.
They both have voices that are indistinguichable from others and unregonisable from anyone elses - they're not like other Five Live commentators in that you recognise their voices upon hearing it, even to someone who is a regular listener who listens out for commentators like me.
Having said that, neither of them are bad commentators, they have warm personalities and no their stuff. But whilst you would never get annoyed by them or want to switch them off, neither would either of them make a big impression on you or get you to want to stay switched on if it was a boring game as say John Murray or Ian Dennis would.
Going back to the subject of Five Live commentators, well as I was discussing why the 15 person football commentary roster the station has seems to be about the right size for the amount of games they cover in a weekend on Friday, I just thought it would be interesting to give a breakdown of how they allocated their commentators over the three day weekend just gone:
[list]Alan Green did one of the Sunday games, as well as fronting 606 on Saturday night (this is usually the case for him most weekends, although he does do the odd Saturday game - but never 3pm kick-offs, he'll either do the 12.45pm early kick-off if it's a big match, or the 5.15pm game if it's covered live on Five Live rather than Sports Extra leading into a 7.30pm start 606).[/list][list]Mike Ingham is currently on his winter break so didn't appear at all.[/list][list]John Murray did a Sunday game, plus 90 minutes commentary of the Saturday 3pm Five Live fixture (on which has become a regular over the past few seasons).[/list][list]Ian Brown and David Oates did two Five Live games each, with John Motson doing an occasional non-Saturday game as he does from time to time in a season.[/list][list]The only top line commentator without a weekend commentary at all was Ian Dennis, although he did report on a top Premiership game on Saturday for them, whilst Simon Brotherton did appear but did games for Match Of The Day on Saturday and Sunday.[/list][list]Nigel Adderley spent Friday in Switzerland covering the Champions League and UEFA Cup draw for BBC Sport online and Five Live, however he was back in time to commentate on the Monday night match.[/list][list]Conor McNamara (who also reported on the only Sunday non-live Premiership game for Five Live), Dave Woods, Roddy Forsyth, Darren Fletcher, Alistair Bruce-Ball, Mike Sewell and Jacqui Oatley all commentated on Five Live Sports Extra games this weekend.[/list]
So - although what with their being four live Sunday games as opposed to the usual two, and no Friday night commentary at all, this was not a typical weekend - that gives you a typical breakdown of how many commentators are used over the course of a weekend on Five Live - this weekend, they used 6 on Five Live (with three of these doing two commentaries, the other three just did one), with a further 7 doing games for Sports Extra. Only 3 of their regular 15 weren't used on commentary, with one of these doing TV games - ironically enough on a match where a BBC TV commentator did a guest spot on the radio.
Last edited by Walsall_Chris : 19-12-2006 at 17:25