I was listening to Call Cundy while this match was taking place, and it was actually Jack Bannister who was providing the updates on it.

This might be because, as posted by Ian Cleverly, Jon Norman was at Epsom...


That's assuming the Jon Norman on Five Live is the same guy, wasn't listening myself so can't confirm.

The 5 Live racing commentator is John Hunt. He's been doing it for a while now, since a couple of years after Peter Bromley retired.

Thanks JamSir. I'm aware of John Hunt, but he didn't spring to mind when I read Ian Cleverly's post.

Maybe Ian can confirm that he made a typo yesterday when posting who was at Epsom?

I didn't really catch much of 5 Live at Epsom (was listening to Radio Cymru) so all I did was vaguely recall a John something being a 5 Live Horse racing correspondent, with Jo(h)n Norman coming to mind.

Monday 8th June: talkSPORT

Under 21 Friendly
England U21 v Azerbaijan U21 - Graham Courtney

World Twenty20 Cup, Trent Bridge
Ireland v Bangladesh 13:30 - Jack Bannister
Australia v Sri Lanka 17:30 - Jack Bannister (and Darren Gough in the studio)

WTP / ATP Tennis
Queen’s Club, London - Dave Luddy
Edgbaston, Birmingham - Dan Dawson

Horse Racing
Windsor - Ian Abrahams

From Charles Sale in the Daily Mail:

Alan Green, Five Live's extraordinary chief football commentator (right) whose expertise behind the microphone is in total contrast to his ability to work as a team player, is understood to have fallen out with yet another colleague.

Green, who earlier in the season refused to travel on the same plane as presenter Mark Saggars, now doesn't want to be seated on flights next to colleague Graham Taylor, the former England manager who is a popular member of the England media corps.

Green's latest feud began following his upset at being named as a Liverpool supporter on air by Taylor.

Wednesday 10th June: talkSPORT

2010 World Cup Qualifier
England v Andorra - Andy Clarke and Ray Parlour

World Twenty20 Cup
Sri Lanka v West Indies - Jack Bannister
India v Ireland - Jack Bannister

International Rugby
Sharks v British & Irish Lions - Dominic McGuinness

WPT / ATP Tennis
Queen’s Club, London - Dave Luddy
Edgbaston, Birmingham - Dan Dawson

5 Live

Mark Pougatch hosting with Graham Taylor

England v Andorra - Mike Ingham, Mark Lawrenson & Alan Green

I take what Charles Sale says with a pinch of salt, though it does sound the older Mr Green gets the more petulant he becomes

Anyone know who (if anyone) Five Live/talkSPORT have sent out to cover the Confederations Cup and UEFA Under-21 Championships?

I think it's a bit of a shame talkSPORT haven't brought rights to the England Under-21 games as they did last time around in 2007.

I can understand why they haven't, what with their coverage of the World Twenty20 taking place at the moment, but it would have been welcome in that Five Live are going to be doing a half-hearted job of covering some of England's games (just second half commentary of today's Finland fixture, much like how they've covered the midweek matches on the British & Irish Lions tour so far - on that I don't think they're even bothering with tomorrow's game).

Darren Fletcher and Chris Waddle are in Sweden for the U21s for 5 Live.

Joined by Ian Dennis for second half commentary.

Monday 15th June: talkSPORT

UEFA U21 Championship
England U21 v Finland U21 - Andy Clarke

World Twenty20 Cup: Super Eights
Pakistan v Ireland - Jack Bannister
England v West Indies - Neil Manthorpe, Graham Thorpe, Darren Gough and Ronnie Irani (commentary)

Do you know if he's actually out there 4-4-2?

I know when it comes to providing reports from football games played outside of the UK talkSPORT tend to cover them off-tube, but in this instance I think it would make sense for TS to send someone out to Sweden in order to gather interviews from the England camp.

Having watched the game on TV while listening to the cricket, it did sound like talkSPORT were taking the official sound feed (as opposed to canned crowd noises) at least.

I'd be very surprised if he's in Sweden. As for interviews, they can just use Sky.

On the interviews point, yes they can use Sky Sports immediately after the match and in their news bulletins, but I was more thinking in-depth interviews from within the camp conducted on the day's between games.

In the past, talkSPORT have placed a reporter in the full England squad's camp to conduct fairly lengthy 'exclusive' interviews with individual players, which they can trump up and play inserts from on their daytime programmes.

What with their being little to talk about on the football front at the moment aside from the Under-21s, and with many of the U21 players being well known Premier League players, these interviews would be worth doing.

I reckon it might be as worthwhile to have someone out in Sweden to do the England Updates (which are sponsored, I think, by Nationwide) in the camp as it is to have them there to do actual match reports.

I guess we'll find out soon enough if Andy's out in Sweden, as if he is I expect we'll be hearing what I've described above on tomorrow's shows.

Thursday 18th June: talkSPORT

UEFA Under 21 Championships
Spain U21 v England U21 - Andy Clarke

World Twenty20 Cup Semi Final
South Africa v Pakistan - Neil Manthorpe

US Open
Bethpage, Long Island - Bob Bubka

Horse Racing
Royal Ascot - Rupert Bell

I guess he's not in Sweden then, judging by the lack of exclusive interviews with the England squad on the Sports Breakfast over the past week.

Does anyone know if any UK radio station has any presence at the Confederations Cup?

I know talkSPORT aren't covering it at all, not even with off-tube match reports, but do Five Live have anyone in South Africa? And are the World Service doing any coverage through their Sportsworld strand?

Friday 26th June

UEFA Under 21 Championships Semi-Final - England U21 v Sweden U21

talkSPORT - Graham Courtney (updates)
BBC Five Live - Chris Waddle (giving updates during the Wimbledon coverage, at least he was at half-time when I tuned in)

Commentary was on Five Live Sports Extra but I wasn't able to tune in and find out who was doing it. I assume it would have been Darren Fletcher & Ian Dennis with Waddle though.

This thread was started on 20 May 2008; when will the one for 2009-10 appear, Ian? (I think you should have the honour of starting it, since you've done the past few!)

Answering on Ian's behalf, hope he doesn't mind - it has actually already been started here.

Just checked it after my above post, and it turns out Ian/Andy Rimmer had already posted to confirm it was Darren Fletcher, Ian Dennis and Chris Waddle commentating on the England v Sweden U21 semi-final for Sports Extra (with extra time and penalties being moved over to Five Live).

Decided to put the details in here first, seeing as the Confederations Cup and Under-21 European Championship are still part of the 2008/09 season right?

D'oh...that's what I get for only looking through my subscribed threads and not in the forum itself!

You and me both Mark!

Really think talkSPORT have missed a trick in not buying commentary rights to the Under-21 European Championships as they did when the tournament last took place in 2007.

What with Five Live choosing not to provide full commentary on England's games with Finland, Germany and Sweden (due to Wimbledon and also that station's policy for Drive to take precedence over live sport ), I reckon talkSPORT would have grabbed a fair few listeners had they brought commentary rights and made a big deal out of the tournament.

I think we all knew England had a good chance of progressing to at least the semi-finals, and with plenty of recognisable Premier League players involved in the England team I think full live commentary on Stuart Pearce's side would have got people tuning in, particularly as Wimbledon is being given top priority on Five Live and tennis is not everyone's cup of tea.

The question is now, will Five Live cover the final live?

I have read it will be kicking off at 1pm on Monday afternoon, and so will clash with their scheduled Wimbledon coverage.

Should Roger Federer/Andy Murray be playing at that time, would Five Live shunt the match onto Sports Extra, particularly at a time when many football fans will be tuning in on their (non-DAB) radios/walkmans while on their lunch break wanting to hear a bit of the match?

talkSPORT should have capitalised on the BBC's predicament here and brought the rights - if they are still able to buy rights to the final, then they should definitely do it.

EDIT: Just spotted that it says on the Five Live website's commentaries page that they will be doing live commentary on the final - albeit they'll be covering it at 8pm on Thursday night, over three days after the game actually takes place! What a joke!

I have no idea where you read that it'd be on at 1:00pm as it will kick-off at 7:45pm on Monday.

I got my misinformation from the usually very reliable Live Scores page on the ESPN Soccernet website.

They've corrected it now but last night (after England's win and during the Italy v Germany game) they had the final down as kicking off at 1pm UK time.

On a side note - has anyone had any trouble finding the kick-off times for the Under-21s European Championship?

I had visited Soccernet for this as the kick-off times for the semi-finals and final had not been listed on the two websites I usually go to for fixture lists, namely the BBC Sport and UEFA sites - very strange, were the organisers waiting to see which semi-final Sweden were in before deciding the kick-off times or something like that?

But, as you rightly say, it's a 7.45pm kick-off time - so barring any overrunning major tennis match or a seriously shocking scheduling decision, the match should be covered live and in full on Five Live.

Having said that, looking at the Five Live website this page still says they are covering the final on Thursday while this page says they'll be covering the match on the right day but from 8pm, with Michael Stich's tennis phone-in being on air for the first 15 minutes of the final.

I'm sure both are just mistakes and they'll do full commentary - so long as they give Darren Fletcher, Ian Dennis & Chris Waddle the correct information as to when the game is taking place we'll be OK!