Well, it's Chris Cooper. From www.talksport1089.co.uk

TODAY:

Chelsea v Wigan 1500 Elliot Cook
Blackburn v Arsenal 1715 Chris Mallaband
Bolton v Manchester City 1500 Tom Parker
Charlton v Middlesbrough 1500 Jamie Hill
Manchester United v Aston Villa 1500 Peter Smith
Sheffield Utd v Portsmouth Nick Johnson
Watford v Liverpool 1245 Paul Ashton
West Ham v Fulham 1500 Russell Hargreaves

TOMORROW:

Everton v Reading 1330 Tom Parker
Tottenham v Newcastle 1600 Andrew Cheal

BBC Radio Five Live:

Watford v Liverpool - Ian Brown, Mike Ingham and Steve Claridge (commentary)
Bolton v Man City - Conor MacNamara
Charlton v Mboro - Alistair Bruce-Ball
Chelsea v Wigan - Darren Fletcher (with Ron Jones, Jacqui Oatley and Leroy Rosenior commentating on Sports Extra)
Man Utd v Aston Villa - John Murray and Chris Waddle (commentary)
Sheff Utd v Portsmouth - Ian Dennis
Barnsley v Preston - Kevin Howells
Colchester v Leicester - Chris Dennis
Derby v Sheff Wed - Peter Slater
Stoke v Wolves - Jon Driscoll
Scunthorpe v Oldham - Mike Sewell
Hartlepool v MK Dons - Mick Lowes
Rangers v Dundee Utd - Andy Gillies


Talk Sport:

Watford v Liverpool - Mike Bovill
Bolton v Man City - Graham Beecroft
Charlton v Boro - Andrew McKenna
Chelsea v Wigan - Andy Clarke
Man Utd v Villa - Dave Rowe
Sheff Utd v Portsmouth - Geoff Peters
West Ham v Fulham - Ian Abrahams
Colchester v Leicester - Grahame Lloyd
Norwich v Plymouth - Kev Lawrence
Southampton v Burnley - Paul McDowell
Sunderland v Ipswich - John Temple
Stoke v Wolves - Ian Danter
West Ham v Fulham - Mike Sewell
Last edited by IanFergus : 13-01-2007 at 15:50

Today FM / RTE Radio

Watford v Liverpool - Graham Millar / Mike Bovill
Man Utd v Villa - Tom Tyrrell and Mick Martin (commentary) / Pete Smith
Bolton v Man City - Jake Katborg / Tom Parker
Charlton v Boro - Nigel Bidmead / Steve Jackson
Chelsea v Wigan - Ian Beech / Andy Clarke
Sheff Utd v Portsmouth - Alan Tolley / Nick Johnson
West Ham v Fulham - Russel Hargreaves / Ian Abrahams

Yes ironically he was meant to be at Old Trafford for TalkSport today but in the end was there as sports editor of Century.

Once again, both Ian and Aphrodite are spot on with the information they give about the "main" radio stations. Thanks very much for the details to both of you.

Just to flesh out the bones on today's national radio coverage, with some local radio details as well.

For the late game between Blackburn and Arsenal:

BBC Radio Five Live - Dave Woods, Alan Green & Jimmy Armfield (commentary)
talkSPORT - Dom McGuinness
Today FM - Steve Roberts

- Mark Saggers was presenting today's Five Live Sport, with Mark Pougatch still in Australia and Arlo White joining up with the TMS team to commentate on the ODI's. Over on Five Live Sports Extra, no Howard Bentham with commentator Jacqui Oatley anchoring.

- One man back from the Australia is Mark Scott. IRN seem to have made the (wise) decision that it is not worthwhile in keeping him out there for the ODI Series, so he was back on Capital Gold London - however not in his usual studio role, instead he was at Stamford Bridge as the reporter on their featured game between Chelsea and Wigan (all the other reporters were IRN guys). With Newcastle playing tommorow, it was Phil Blacker who was alongside Eamonn Kelly in the Capital Gold studios.

- On talkSPORT, with Nigel Pearson in the studio were Alvin Martin (watching Manchester United vs Aston Villa) and Gary Stevens (watching Bolton vs Manchester City).

Local Radio coverage:

BBC Radio Wales:

Steve James presenting, with the main MW featuring from 3pm being commentary on the Cardiff Blues' Heiniken Cup match. They had a featured Premiership match though, Chelsea vs Wigan, with Malcolm Allen reporting.

FM Commentaries:
Cardiff vs Southend - Roger Hughes & Ian Walsh
Bradford vs Swansea - Rob Phillips & Kevin Ratcliffe
Swindon vs Wrexham - John Hardy & Jason Perry.

BBC Radio Scotland:

Richard Gordon presented the show from Ibrox before the feature MW game, with Jim Traynor there as well to present the post-match phone-in.

Commentary teams:
Aberdeen v Inverness CT - Scott Davie & Brian Irvine
Falkirk v Dunfermline - Jim Spence & Allan Preston
Rangers v Dundee Utd - David Begg & Gordon Smith, with John Barnes the touchline reporter.

BRMB:

For last night's West Brom vs Luton game - Tom Ross & Tony Brown
For Manchester United vs Aston Villa today - Tom Ross & Pat Herd

BBC Radio WM:

Manchester United vs Aston Villa - Mark Regan & Paul Franks (commentary)
Stoke City vs Wolves - Rob Gurney (reports)

Last night, WM had reports access only to West Brom-Luton, with Mike Taylor providing updates during a 'special' Sportsnight with Daz Hale (WM usually have pre-recorded programmes in the 8-10pm Friday slot).

National reporters on this game were Darren Fletcher for Five Live, and Nigel Pearson for talkSPORT.


Thanks for the details.

I figured something like this could be the case, as for today's game at Old Trafford we had the West Midland based reporter Dave Rowe - someone who is new to the station and isn't usually afforded games this big (or indeed outside his region).

What with the Blues game having been called off on Friday night, and with Coops having heard on talkSPORT as recently as Tuesday night when he reported on Liverpool vs Arsenal, I reckon it could have been a case of Cooper being scheduled to be at Old Trafford, Rowe at St Andrews - before the obvious change was made in accordance to developments.

Having heard the news, I actually tuned into Century FM's coverage today (until the stream was cut off just before 3pm) - and not only was Chris Cooper leading the coverage, it was interesting to note that the show was quite different to how it usually sounds.

For a start, there was no Gary Weaver again - Chris Cooper anchored the programme, and I believe he was also the commentator on the Manchester United vs Aston Villa match alongside Micky Thomas (confirmation needed).

However, there was no sign of any of the 'Legends' reporting on the matches involving the other regional teams as is usually the case, with the station just talking the usual IRN reports that are taken by other stations in the group (for example Paul Ashton at Watford vs Liverpool, in past weeks Liverpool legend Alan Kennedy would have reported on that one).

Having had a look at the Century 105.4FM website, I've noticed that the 'Legends' section has been changed since I last looked on the website, with no mention of Gary Weaver on it whatsoever. This could have more to do with the recent changes to the schedule and therefore the website though, or perhaps changes to the football output could go hand in hand.

When I first heard the news of Cooper's rearivial at Century FM, I thought he'd come in simply to lighten the load on Weaver - for example, when Manchester United have a Saturday lunchtime/evening kick-off, I often think it sounds messy having Weaver presenting the 3-5pm output from Old Trafford/United's away ground, before doing the commentary. With Cooper on board, Weaver can anchor the programme from the studio before handing over to Cooper to lead commentary, and vice versa. However now I'm not too sure...

One more thing on Chris Cooper. I see he's 'returning' to Century 105.4 FM's football coverage, however how much of a role did he have on it when he was there before?

I can't imagine he'd have been on Century for long, as the station only launched in 1998, and by 2002 Cooper had become a talkSPORT regular - signing a contract not from GCap, but from TWG owned station The Pulse of West Yorkshire, where he had been their long-standing Bradford City commentator.

I imagine Cooper was only on Century for a short while in it's early days, before returning to The Pulse in about 2000-ish. However, from the discussion we have had in the first few pages of the thread, from the beginning Century already had a number of top commentators, with Jim Proudfoot (now Setanta and talkSPORT) as lead commentator in 1998-99, Dominic Johnson (Virgin Radio) taking over from him the following season, with Mark Regan (BBC Radio WM) playing second fiddle as the stations deputy commentator to both of them. By 2001 Fraiser Dainton, now a Sky Sports News reporter, was leading their Manchester United coverage and also coverage of England Internationals for them and the two other Century stations.

So was Cooper only Century's Third Choice commentator, presumably getting few live games? Was he extensively only used as a reporter? Or was he used to cover a particular club - as in those days Century covered more teams than just Manchester United as they do now?

Mark Scott was in Oz for Capital not IRN.

BTY it's nice to hear Capital doing a proper scores service on a Saturday afternoon again.

Cooper was down to do ManU yesterday, with Rowe at Stoke and Danter at Birmingham. The very late departure of Cooper from Talk and postponement at Brum meant Dants went to Stoke and Rowe to ManU. Cooper was down to do ManU as late as Wednesday... he emailed colleagues on Thursday to say he was leaving.

Cooper's move means that Danter is probably favourite to be the 3pm Saturday afternoon Premiership commentator on Talk next season with Nigel Pearson anchoring from the studio.

With Chris Cooper going to Century FM, what happens to Gary Weaver? Looking at other threads, there seems to be some changes at Century in the North-West.

Chris Cooper used to present a phone-in on Century with Jan Molby in the late 90s as well as reporting on Premiership matches.

At the time Jim Proudfoot was their lead commentator before Steve Bower took over on United games

I think Gary Weaver may be moving across to XFM.

Interesting - although I presume that whilst he was out their for GCap, he was also an available freelancer to call upon for various other non-GCap stations too?

I say that because I heard one of his end-of-day's-play reports used during the news on Classic FM, of all stations.


This is very interesting if it's true - although I don't see why talkSPORT decided to overcomplicate things by changing Dave Rowe's schedule despite the game he was doing being unaffected.

As Ian Danter is a more senior reporter, you'd have thought that with his game being called off, he would have been the perfect choice to fill the breech left by Cooper without rearranging anyone else's schedule. The only explanation I can think of is that maybe Dants was playing a gig with his band somewhere in the Midlands on Saturday night, and therefore a trip to Manchester was out of the question.

If anyone's interested, I believe Chris Cooper's last game for talkSPORT was Arsenal's 6-3 League Cup Quarter Final win at Liverpool on Tuesday 9th January.


Hmmm...I'm not so sure about that.

I think Cooper's departure put's Graham Beecroft's name back in the frame to become talkSPORT's Saturday Premiership commentator.

Beeky was talkSPORT's second choice live match commentator from 2002-2004 (at that point they only really used him on their regional Premiership Live coverage as they made up the majority of the live football commentary rights they held at that time) until he landed the Breakfast Show gig on a full-time basis. What with that and his UEFA.com and TV commitments, Graham was pulled from just about all of his commentary/reporting duties.

However, ever since Mike Parry replaced him on Monday's Breakfast Show at the start of the season, Beeky has returned to his reporting role on the station, specifically at weekends when he almost always gets either a Saturday or Sunday game. I don't think Beeky has many non-talkSPORT commitments these days, so as a 'name' with various radio awards for his commentary credentials, you'd have to say he was in-line.

What with the stations' Number 1 Jim Proudfoot' Setanta Sports commitments almost sure to prevent him from commentating on the Premiership for them, I could see Graham as either talkSPORT's regular Saturday match commentator from next season, or as their Football First studio presenter, with current host Nigel Pearson taking up the commentary reigns (or perhaps they may swap between the two roles from week to week).

However, personally I would like to see a wider variety of commentators used on their Premiership coverage, with different voices doing live games on a Saturday as you hear on Five Live. As well as Beecroft, Pearson and Ian Danter - talkSPORT have excellent commentators like Tim White, Geoff Peters, Graham Courtney, Grahame Lloyd and Dom McGuinness on their books - a pretty impressive roster in my opinion.


Ah, I'd forgotten about Steve Bower - he was a commentator on Century FM in their early days. He went onto commentate/report on Manchester United for talkSPORT, I believe this was by 2000-01, before going permenant on MUTV at the start of the 2002-03 season.

Interesting news on Gary Weaver - what will he be doing on Xfm? Would he be becoming a sports newsreader distanced from any real live coverage, ala Dominic Johnson on Virgin Radio, or will they be using him in some kind of presenting role?

Or as he did Friday Kick-Off and finished at 10:00pm and then probably had to drive hole for a couple of hours, he probably didn't want to drive all the way up to Manchester the next morning. Therefore sending Rowe to Manchester and Danter locally as he would have been was easier.

But then Classic fm is a GCap station Chris!

Also as an outsider for Talk Radio's Premiership coverage what about Peter Martin, currently at Radio Clyde?

It is indeed true. Dave Rowe was shifted to Man Utd early on Friday morning, before the Birmingham game was called off.

Thanks for the confirmation on Rowe's situation George, and for the explanations as to why they might not have wanted to just directly switch Danter 4-4-2. Makes a bit more sense now.


You'd think I would have known that!


Can't see it happening I'm afraid Archie. talkSPORT have a pretty impressive line-up of commentators on their books at the moment, so I can't see them bringing in someone new to be their Premiership commentator - particularly someone, with all due respect to Martin, who is a complete unknown to the vast majority of talkSPORT listeners.

Beeky regularly does the world radio feed of Premiership games for TWI - which incidentally is where you'll find Ian Payne most weekends these days.

Gary Weaver will be used as a sports reporter for XFM
Last edited by Whymark : 19-01-2007 at 21:07

Liverpool v Chelsea:
BBC Radio Five Live - Ian Brown, Alan Green and Chris Waddle (commentary)
Talk Sport - Graham Beecroft
BBC Radio Merseyside - Ian Kennedy and Gary Gillespie (commentary)
Radio City 96.7FM - Steve Hoversal and John Aldridge (commentary)
Smooth 102FM - Sam Mattaface and Graham Stuart (commentary)
IRN, Today FM and BBC London 94.9 FM to follow

No IRN details have been published this weekend so I shall publish what I can.

Liverpool v Chelsea - Jonathan Breeze
Aston Villa v Watford - Dan Freeman
Fulham v Tottenham - Jamie Hill
Newcastle v West Ham - Dave Donaldson
Middlesbro v Bolton - Stuart Boyd
Portsmouth v Charlton - Elliot Cook
Reading v Sheff Utd - Paul Ashton


Today FM / RTE Radio One

Liverpool v Chelsea - Steve Roberts / John Keith
Aston Villa v Watford - Alan Tolley / -
Fulham v Totenham - Ian Beech / Ian Abrahams
Middlesbro v Bolton - Gordon Cox / -
Newcastle v West Ham - Jon Driscoll and Craig Brown (commentary) / John Anderson
Portsmouth v Charlton - Andrew Cheal / John Hughes
Reading v Sheff Utd - Mike Lawrence / Paul Ashton

BBC Radio Five Live / Talk Sport

Aston Villa v Watford - Darren Fletcher / Ian Danter
Fulham v Tottenham - David Oates / Ian Abrahams (studio - Gary Stevens)
Middlesboro v Bolton - Peter Slater / John Temple
Newcastle v West Ham - Ian Dennis / Graham Courtney
Portsmouth v Charlton - John Murray and Mark Bright (commentary) / Andrew McKenna (studio - Alvin Martin)
Reading v Sheffield Utd - Nigel Adderley / Mike Bovill
Ipswich v Colchester - / Kev Lawrence
Leeds v WBA - Mike Sewell / Grahame Lloyd
Preston v Stoke - Kevin Howells / Eamonn Watson
QPR v Southampton - Steve May / Tony Inchenzo
Southend v Derby - John Southall /
Doncaster v Scunthorpe - Mark Clemmett (in crowd) /
Macclesfield v Hereford - Charlie Lambert /
Celtic v St Mirren - Andy Gillies /
Hearts v Falkirk - Brian McLaughlin /


BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra

Fulham v Tottenham - Alistair Bruce-Ball and David Armstrong (commentary)


BBC London

Liverpool v Chelsea - Mark Taylor
Aston Villa v Watford - Clive Edwards
Fulham v Tottenham - Phil Parry and Paul Parker (commentary on FM)
Newcastle v West Ham - Nick Godwin (commentary on 765AM (BBC Essex) and DAB)
Portsmouth v Charlton - Jonathan Beck (commentary on 774AM, BBC Radio Kent)
Crystal Palace v Hull - Andy Rowley
QPR v Southampton - Nigel Bidmead
Leyton Orient v Blackpool - Dave Victor
MK Dons v Barnet - Barry Swain
Millwall v Rotherham - Deano Standing
Yeovil v barnet - Drew Savage

Looks like he may have done Sky TV commentary at Newcastle today.

Yes, I was going to mention this - I've actually just brought up what's been discussed in here up on the Martin Tyler thread!

Maybe the ambitions signing by Century FM of Chris Cooper was not simply to usurp an already strong lead commentator/presenter in Gary Weaver, but to find a replacement.

Weaver was clearly highly-rated within the Capital Gold Network's sports team - he lead their Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006 coverage - so maybe it was his choice to move on to bigger and better things with Sky Sports (his debut Football First game was Newcastle United vs West Ham), and therefore Cooper was 'poached' from talkSPORT because there was a vacancy rather than to replace Weaver.

The other big radio football commentary news of note from yesterday was that it was excellent to hear the return of Richard Wilford to BBC Radio WM's football coverage.

After not having been used at all as even a reporter on their football coverage for nearly a year - that's including either side of his short-lived move to BBC Hereford & Worcester to present their drivetime show - Wilford was back in the commentary hotseat for their main Saturday 3pm game between Leeds and West Brom, with Sports Editor and Saturday regular since 2004 Mark Regan reducing himself to a reporting role.

Here is the BBC WM commentary details from yesterday:

Wolves v Cardiff - Rob Gurney on commentary, presumably with Daz Hale (didn't hear the game myself, could have been non-commentary or even a different summeriser, what with the Blues game being scheduled, that is the most likely situation though).
Leeds v West Brom - Richard Wilford & Paul Franks on commentary
Aston Villa v Watford - Mark Regan
Mansfield v Walsall - Andrew Dawkins

Be interesting to see who would have done Birmingham vs Leicester - my gut instinct says Mike Taylor would have been involved, either as commentator or summeriser. If this latter, then maybe James Mountford would been paired with him as he has done some Blues commentary earlier this season, if the former than maybe Dan Wheeler who has been used as a summeriser on days with three live matches. Incidentally, the return of Wilford to the WM commentary boxes (assuming it's a permenant one) should further restrict Wheeler and Mountford's commentary/reporting prospects, making JM's decision to leave Capital Gold Birmingham where he was getting a game each weekend looking even more of a bad one.

On BRMB, strangely they were unable to provide commentary on Aston Villa's Saturday game, leaving that game uncovered outside of in-house station The Villian - as WM covered West Brom ala BRMB.

BRMB's commentary team at Elland Road was Tom Ross & Tony Brown, with Nathan Alleyne used as a reporter at Villa Park - again leaving questions open as to who they would have used at the Walkers for Blues' late game.

With no game on 1152am, that meant that we got Capital Gold output as normal - meaning Sports Saturday with Eamonn Kelly and Mark Scott as usual! It was strange to listen to the show on the radio (well, when I say 'listen', I mean tune in at 20 and 40 mins past the hour for reports ), and just one correction to Ian's details - it was Stuart Boyd at Newcastle and Dave Donaldson at Boro, rather than vice versa.

Other than that his lists are spot on by the look of it, so thanks again Ian, great work.

Just a few advances on the late game between Manchester City vs Blackburn Rovers:

Five Live Sports Extra commentary team - Conor McNamara, Dave Woods & Kevin Blackwell (with Howard Bentham back on presenting duty in the studio, even having to pick up commentary at points due to a shaky line!)
Reporters: Five Live - Juliet Ferrington
talkSPORT - Dom McGuinness
Today FM - Tom Tyrrell

Don't know if its been mentioned here already but BBC Five Live Sportd Extra are covering today's Arsenal v Man Utd. match in the style of the world's very first Football Commentrey on the BBC in January 1927.

Link >>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/sport/...cktosquareone/

Today's commentators and reporters

BBC Radio Five Live

Wigan v Everton - Ian Brown, David Oates and Kevin Gallagher with Alistair Yeomans patrolling the touchline.
Arsenal v Man Utd - Alan Green, Mike Ingham and Mark Lawrenson
Dunfermline v Ragers - Andy Gillies


BBC Sports Extra

Arsenal v Man Utd - John Murray, Bob Wilson, James Alexander Gordon (reading the grid of the pitch) amd David Gray (a pop star, for some reason)


Talk Sport

Wigan v Everton - Dom McGuinness
Arsenal v Wigan - Andy Clarke


BBC London 94.9FM

Arsenal v Man Utd - Nigel Bidmead


Unfortunately, I can't help with IRN as no stations that I can pick up are broadcasting IRN reports.

Historically BRMB's Villa deal has usually seen a restriction on the number of home games they can provide commentary on (for the rather bizarre reason that it would affect attendances).

This has usually been five a season (or was in 2003) - although derbies against Albion or Blues would be added on top of that cos they're covered by the deal with the away club.

It's not uncommon - Century NW had a ten home game deal with Liverpool at one stage (2002-2004?), Radio City could only do home games if they were televised or sold out (pre-1999).

Wish FM have to put ads into their commentary on Wigan home games at the behest of chairman Dave Whelan.
Last edited by Whymark : 21-01-2007 at 21:01

It was originally going to be Mark Regan and Paul Franks doing Leicester v Birmingham.