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Old 26-06-2010, 21:56
Jamesp84
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Gerry Williams only did a couple of years I think, not sure about David Mercer but Barry Davies may have been doing Tennis then too, possibly Tony Gubba as well

I am talking early 80s not the back end
Good question. David Mercer possibly, he finished umpiring in 1984. Not sure really sure when they started either, but Julian Tutt and Barry Davies may have been involved.
If Barry Davies was involved, it would surely only have been in years where there wasn't a World Cup or European Championships??
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Old 27-06-2010, 00:16
Akilduff
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Good question. David Mercer possibly, he finished umpiring in 1984. Not sure really sure when they started either, but Julian Tutt and Barry Davies may have been involved.
David Mercer went straight into radio commentating - he was on site for the first Wimbledon I heard on radio in 1986, alongside Tony Adamson and Peter Jones (and maybe Ian Darke)

I think 1992 was Mercer's last year on radio, as Jeremy Bates went a long way that year and I listened to his last-16 game on Radio 5.

Julian Tutt used to commentate regularly on BBC TV in the 80s and 90s, and Virginia Wade and Ann Jones too as long ago as then... Mark Cox used to do a lot too, interesting to hear him back this year as I haven't heard him in ages.

Simon Reed has been used for a long time too for Wimbledon, though maybe not as far back as the 80s.

Barry Davies was sometimes sent home early from football tournaments to cover Wimbledon, something which cost him a couple of World Cup and Euro finals surely.
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Old 27-06-2010, 00:24
footygirl
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Paul Hutchins - the former Davis Cup captain did a few years as a commentator

Gerry Williams commenatated and did the highlights shows with Des Lynam and the late Harry Carpenter
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Old 27-06-2010, 17:49
duke_toaster
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Paul Dickinson, Steve Cram and someone who isn't Ronald McIntosh doing the British Championships/European Championship Trials from Birmingham. Has Ronald done anything since that three day epic?
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Old 27-06-2010, 21:58
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Argentina v. France Setanta

Connor Morris & Killian Keane.
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Old 28-06-2010, 08:14
Rathbone boy
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Fair amount of discussion about Wimbledon in "years gone by"-I seem to remember that ITV used to cover Wimbledon, in the 60s I would guess, with Fred Perry being the only commentator I can remember. I think they only used to show it up to 4.45pm when Small Time started
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Old 28-06-2010, 16:01
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Cycling-British National Road Race Championship (British Eurosport)

Presenter:
Graham Little with Rob Hayles
Commentators: Anthony McCrossan and Brian Smith
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Old 28-06-2010, 18:38
The Wanderer
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A few BBC Wimbledon commentators today

Federer v Melzer - Andrew Cotter and Tim Henman
Murray v Querrey - David Mercer, John McEnroe and Greg Rusedski
Venus Williams v Groth - Simon Reed and Liz Smiley
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Old 28-06-2010, 19:12
Li4m
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I think it was Barry Davies and Tracy Austin doing Serena Williams v Sharapova earlier.
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Old 29-06-2010, 13:55
The Wanderer
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Tennis (again)

Pironkova v Venus Williams - Barry Davies and Sam Smith
Clijsters v Zvonareva - Mark Petchey, John McEnroe and Lindsay Davenport
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Old 29-06-2010, 15:21
Darren Lethem
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To tidy up the 4 quarter finals for the ladies

Pironkova v Venus Williams - Barry Davies and Sam Smith
Clijsters v Zvonareva - Mark Petchey, John McEnroe and Lindsay Davenport
Na V Serena Williams - Andrew Cotter and Tracy Austin
Kivitova V Kanepi - Nick Mullins and Virginia Wade

Just thinking ahead and wondering who will do the semis and the final in the ladies game. It's not often Andrew Castle does the ladies ( even as chief commentator ) so I am guessing that the semis may be Simon Reed and Chris Bowers with Mark Petchy doing the final. But thats just my guess
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Old 29-06-2010, 15:33
shaun_d
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I'd agree that Mark Petchey is favourite to do the Ladies Final once more, but I wonder if Lindsay Davenport will replace Tracy Austin. The BBC seem to like her, she seems to have been given quite a prominent role and unlike Austin she's a fromer Wimbledon champion.

I'd guess that Andrew Castle, David Mercer, Simon Reed and Chris Bradnam will get a mens quarter final each tomorrow after missing out today.
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Old 29-06-2010, 15:41
Alex2606
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I'd agree that Mark Petchey is favourite to do the Ladies Final once more, but I wonder if Lindsay Davenport will replace Tracy Austin. The BBC seem to like her, she seems to have been given quite a prominent role and unlike Austin she's a fromer Wimbledon champion.

I'd guess that Andrew Castle, David Mercer, Simon Reed and Chris Bradnam will get a mens quarter final each tomorrow after missing out today.
Davenport may well get the final, although to be fair I've preferred listening to her than Tracey Austin, she's far more insightful and honest in her analysis.

I would expect Castle to get the Murray match, maybe Mercer the Federer match. Castle and Bradnam have been out biding their time commentating on the Juniors today so I would expect to hear them tomorrow.
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Old 29-06-2010, 15:56
duke_toaster
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Seems like the BBC have put Ronald McIntosh back in to the cupboard where they lock him, then.
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Old 29-06-2010, 17:55
Akilduff
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Tennis (again)

Pironkova v Venus Williams - Barry Davies and Sam Smith
Clijsters v Zvonareva - Mark Petchey, John McEnroe and Lindsay Davenport
Pironkova's first set win was greeted by a typical Davies "Yes!"

Legend.
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Old 29-06-2010, 18:26
Alex2606
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David Mercer has picked up the game of the day - Kournikova and Hingis in the womens invitational doubles!!!
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Old 29-06-2010, 18:34
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For the NFL fans on this board there is some news regarding CBS commentators.

Dick Enberg has left CBS on semi-retirement and has been replaced by Spero Dedes, a young commentator in his 30s who worked the international feed for Super Bowl XLI.

It is not known where Dedes will be positioned in the pecking order.
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Old 29-06-2010, 18:52
Alex2606
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For the NFL fans on this board there is some news regarding CBS commentators.

Dick Enberg has left CBS on semi-retirement and has been replaced by Spero Dedes, a young commentator in his 30s who worked the international feed for Super Bowl XLI.

It is not known where Dedes will be positioned in the pecking order.
Not surprising really seeing as he took over some of the NCAA basketball games on the west coast.

It might mean that CBS move to a Fox style broadcast setup where they have one team which tends to stay on the west coast and works the later k/o. Hopefully Kevin Harlan will move up to the no. 3 team.

On a related note Mike Pereira (the former head of officiating) is joining Fox to explain any debateable calls that arise during games. The segement he did on NFL Total Access each week was really informative and it's something the Premier League could learn a lot from.
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Old 29-06-2010, 19:29
Steve Williams
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I am talking early 80s not the back end
Well, I've got the Radio Times from Wimbledon 1983, and the commentators billed are...

Dan Maskell
John Barrett
Barry Davies
Mark Cox
Ann Jones
Virginia Wade
Bill Threlfall
Richard Evans

I wonder if that might have been Barry's first ever Wimbledon, because I know in his autobiography he said the for a long time he presented all the tennis on the BBC but didn't do anything at Wimbledon, so asked to be allowed to commentate. He also says how he presented the coverage one day in 1987 as Harry Carpenter was commentating on boxing, and they didn't have any commentator for a match so he volunteered to simply turn around and commentate - and invariably it went on for several hours and more commentators had to come and join him.

In 1983, Harry presented the live coverage and, it says here, "Bjorn Borg joins the BBC team throughout the fornight with his expert views and opinions on play". And Des and Gerry did the highlights.

On the radio, if you're interested, Peter Jones presented, and the commentators were Gerald Williams, Max Robertson, Tony Adamson and Norman Cuddeford, with summarisers Christine Janes, Fred Perry, David Lloyd, Bob Howe and Joyce Hume.

I've also got 1981 here where, as I thought, Barry is not commentating, but Peter West is, while Des Lynam and John Motson were on the radio.
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Old 29-06-2010, 19:32
Darren Lethem
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Well, I've got the Radio Times from Wimbledon 1983, and the commentators billed are...

Dan Maskell
John Barrett
Barry Davies
Mark Cox
Ann Jones
Virginia Wade
Bill Threlfall
Richard Evans

I wonder if that might have been Barry's first ever Wimbledon, because I know in his autobiography he said the for a long time he presented all the tennis on the BBC but didn't do anything at Wimbledon, so asked to be allowed to commentate. He also says how he presented the coverage one day in 1987 as Harry Carpenter was commentating on boxing, and they didn't have any commentator for a match so he volunteered to simply turn around and commentate - and invariably it went on for several hours and more commentators had to come and join him.

In 1983, Harry presented the live coverage and, it says here, "Bjorn Borg joins the BBC team throughout the fornight with his expert views and opinions on play". And Des and Gerry did the highlights.

On the radio, if you're interested, Peter Jones presented, and the commentators were Gerald Williams, Max Robertson, Tony Adamson and Norman Cuddeford, with summarisers Christine Janes, Fred Perry, David Lloyd, Bob Howe and Joyce Hume.

I've also got 1981 here where, as I thought, Barry is not commentating, but Peter West is, while Des Lynam and John Motson were on the radio.
fabulous, thanks Steve
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Old 29-06-2010, 20:39
RobinCarmody
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igqID9aRdO0

I suspect 1983 was indeed Barry's first Wimbledon - he definitely wouldn't have done 1982 because of the World Cup. Once he'd started doing it, I think the only years when he missed Wimbledon altogether would have been 1990, 1994 and possibly 1998 (although he didn't do all that many live World Cup games after the group stages - maybe he hopped back to do the odd Wimbledon match considering that it was only in France?). He'd sometimes have missed the start of Wimbledon - I think he was back for some of the 1986 tournament, although he did the famous England-Argentina quarter-final live the night before it began - but I remember him commentating at Wimbledon the afternoon after he'd done *that* England-Germany match ten years later (played on the tournament's third day). In 2000, he had a live Euro 2000 semi-final on Wimbledon's fourth day - his only live semi-final after 1996 - but still did some of the tennis.

Barry wasn't the only commentator to face such a conflict - Maurice Edelston flew straight back after doing the radio commentary on the World Cup final (the night before Wimbledon began) to cover the 1970 tournament, but in 1974 they were on at the same time and Wimbledon took priority, so a rookie Alan Parry got the World Cup final alongside Peter Jones. The last-named didn't cover Wimbledon until the following year, and even then he was only ever the presenter, never a commentator, the same role Barry Davies had on TV for all the other tennis coverage. But in the second half of the 1980s Mike Ingham did radio commentary on Wimbledon in odd-numbered years, and Ron Jones in even-numbered years when Ingham was in Mexico and Germany. 1981 was Motson's last Wimbledon, and last non-football commentary.
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Old 29-06-2010, 21:48
Darren Lethem
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Quick aside but I see the ladies final will be on BBC 2 this year. When did that last happen ?
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Old 29-06-2010, 22:21
The Wanderer
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My EPG says that Virginia Wade will be on the commentary team for the womens' final
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Old 29-06-2010, 22:38
RobinCarmody
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Quick aside but I see the ladies final will be on BBC 2 this year. When did that last happen ?
Presumably in another year when they had a World Cup match live. 1998? (Netherlands v Argentina, Bergkamp's goal.) I can remember when the women's final was always on BBC1 but the men's final was on BBC2, because that was where Sunday Grandstand was.

Oh, and another upload of the start of Wimbledon but now with bonus closedown and period royal congratulations and all sorts of things you don't get now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hri568py44U
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Old 29-06-2010, 22:53
Alex2606
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Quick aside but I see the ladies final will be on BBC 2 this year. When did that last happen ?
Possibly back in 2001 when it was played on a Sunday, I think the ladies final was played early on (started around 11) before the men's semis (which may have been on BBC 1) were finished and the final played on the monday
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