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All the old football commentators now have, by law, to be called 'The Great...'.
'The Great John Motson' 'The Great David Coleman' 'The Great Brian Moore'
I thought they were all fairly humdrum at the time. They didn't know half as much as my mates, and didn't sound as if they loved the sport.
One sport where I think the commentary is truly incredible is cycling. As with their excellent cousins in cricket, they have to chat for five or six hours, and they do it with humour, a clear love of the sport, and deep, deep knowledge.
"The opposite of love, after all, is not hate, but indifference."
Ritchie Benaud. Knowledgeable, calm with no hysterics, and that gift for.not saying too much - most of them want to dominate to the extent that it's about them rather than the game. It also helped that he was a really cool bloke.
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 09:25 - Jun 30 with 8776 views
Greatest Sporting Commentators on 09:17 - Jun 30 by BrianMcCarthy
All the old football commentators now have, by law, to be called 'The Great...'.
'The Great John Motson' 'The Great David Coleman' 'The Great Brian Moore'
I thought they were all fairly humdrum at the time. They didn't know half as much as my mates, and didn't sound as if they loved the sport.
One sport where I think the commentary is truly incredible is cycling. As with their excellent cousins in cricket, they have to chat for five or six hours, and they do it with humour, a clear love of the sport, and deep, deep knowledge.
Thankyou Brian - I thought I was the only one who never particularly loved Moore, Davies etc in the commentary box but now apparently they are total legends. More to do with how bad most of them are today! My favourite was Motson but then he read his own press and became a parody of himself.
Best commentator, along your lines - Richie Benaud. Magnificent. A commentator who knew when to speak, when not to speak, could be very funny and above all had a massive knowledge and love of the game. All he wanted was a great game, no partisan stuff and that from an ex-captain of Australia.
Only Andrew Castle comes close. Probably.
Worst commentator - David Lloyd's tiresome buffoonery often interspersed with "first time I've seen this lad bat" - erm, it's your job mate? Perhaps do some research? Ah well just tell us the same story about old players you've told a million times, that will cover for it. Botham put a phone in Dickie's pocket! Ha ha haaaarrgghhhh.
Gower and Botham were similar, they just got lazier and lazier and were totally entrenched in their opinions. The hoo-hah when they were sacked was ridiculous, they were past it and Athers and Hussain are so much better.
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 09:35 - Jun 30 with 8711 views
Greatest Sporting Commentators on 09:43 - Jun 30 by Malintabuk
Ritchie Benaud a great shout was a consummate commentator, but TMS was Brian Johnson.... total class
Guess football commentators was a generational thing but Kenneth Wolstenholme for me was football... with possibly the best ever line
But the stand out was Bill McLaren on the rugby... had a voice that just made watching it a pure pleasure
Ah brilliant - Bill McLaren. What a voice. Never been a big rugger fan but that voice was spine-tingling.
Johnners great on TMS too, so good that almost everyone since tries to emulate him with forced banter. Problem is, his banter was natural and warm and brilliant. Not forced.
But yes, probably just getting old.
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 09:48 - Jun 30 with 8636 views
Greatest Sporting Commentators on 09:17 - Jun 30 by BrianMcCarthy
All the old football commentators now have, by law, to be called 'The Great...'.
'The Great John Motson' 'The Great David Coleman' 'The Great Brian Moore'
I thought they were all fairly humdrum at the time. They didn't know half as much as my mates, and didn't sound as if they loved the sport.
One sport where I think the commentary is truly incredible is cycling. As with their excellent cousins in cricket, they have to chat for five or six hours, and they do it with humour, a clear love of the sport, and deep, deep knowledge.
"One sport where I think the commentary is truly incredible is cycling".
Yes indeed. I used to love Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen on comms, especially when they used to say that Le Mont Ventoux, which I have cycled up, is the hardest climb of all (it really isn't).
"Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1."
Benaud and Boycott were the perfect combination. I know he rubbed many up the wrong way but I loved a Boycott rant.
Barry Davies, pure class. Peter Alliss, unlike a lot of people I enjoy the humorous off tangent wafflers in the slower sports. I'm not even a big golf fan. John Madden, the NFL governor.
These days I think Andrew Cotter is very good. Multiple sports (like Barry Davies), great mix of knowledge and dry humour.
Also David Flatman on the Rugby, knows his stuff but happy to not take it all too seriously.
[Post edited 30 Jun 10:04]
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 10:05 - Jun 30 with 8584 views
Harry Carpenter - Get in there Frank. Sid Widell - Lowe / Bristow final . “ If Elvis Presley walked in here now . Walked up to the bar and ordered a ham sandwich . Nobody would take any notice.” Barry Davies - Look at his face , just look at his face.
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 10:33 - Jun 30 with 8470 views
When I was a young boy before live football on TV we had to listen to football on the radio and I have fond memories of Peter Jones. I'll never forget all the family listening to the QPR v Aston Villa league cup semi final at Highbury live on Radio 5 and my dad storming out as Brian Little got his hat trick.
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 11:12 - Jun 30 with 8396 views
Greatest Sporting Commentators on 10:05 - Jun 30 by ParkStreetRanger
For boxing always liked Reg Gutteridge.
His mixture of knowledge and passion really brought the sport alive for me. I liked Harry too, but I had Reg ahead on my card, helped by ITV having the big American fights. Set the VHS for the middle of the night and hope I did it right.
Two great commentators on the NRL, Andrew Voss and Dan Ginnane, different in style but both give the impression they’re the happiest men alive, being paid to watch the game.
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 11:48 - Jun 30 with 8345 views
Sid Waddell for me. He had a genius turn of phrase that he seemed to be able to pull out always at the right time. My favourite was probably 'When Alexander the Great turned 28, he cried salt tears as he had no more worlds left to conquer. Eric Bristow is 27'
Closely followed by 'There's only one word for that, magic darts'
Sadly missed.
Glory hunter, me
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 12:53 - Jun 30 with 8203 views
Fox WC commentators especially the co commentator are bluddy awful. A diatribe of irrelevant nonsense and so dull. US audiences aren’t comfortable with silence either.
Five live co commentators Pat Nevin and Chris Sutton are excellent.
Davis, Moore and Coleman. Just knew what to say and when to say it.
The Hull game put up by Boston of the Big Match programme. Excellent watch including Jimmy Hill. A smart and fun football show. Nothing to do with me being nostalgic just a really classy football show.
One nil, no it’s hit the post for those who know.
[Post edited 30 Jun 12:55]
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 13:27 - Jun 30 with 8113 views
Greatest Sporting Commentators on 09:45 - Jun 30 by GaryBannister86
Ah brilliant - Bill McLaren. What a voice. Never been a big rugger fan but that voice was spine-tingling.
Johnners great on TMS too, so good that almost everyone since tries to emulate him with forced banter. Problem is, his banter was natural and warm and brilliant. Not forced.
But yes, probably just getting old.
I know he could be marmite but Henry Blofeld, my dear old thing was magic with Johnson... or Blowers as Johnners called him
The "Botham got his leg over" will go down in history ..... wonderful wonderful teams on TMS
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 15:01 - Jun 30 with 7991 views
Greatest Sporting Commentators on 09:17 - Jun 30 by BrianMcCarthy
All the old football commentators now have, by law, to be called 'The Great...'.
'The Great John Motson' 'The Great David Coleman' 'The Great Brian Moore'
I thought they were all fairly humdrum at the time. They didn't know half as much as my mates, and didn't sound as if they loved the sport.
One sport where I think the commentary is truly incredible is cycling. As with their excellent cousins in cricket, they have to chat for five or six hours, and they do it with humour, a clear love of the sport, and deep, deep knowledge.
I was relatively late getting into cricket and have been blown away by the quality of the commentary on TMS. It's got such a jovial and relaxed feel to it, while being incredibly detailed and informative. I loved TMS over the last T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka, hearing about all the various pundits experiences across the region - really god a feel for what it was like.
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 16:52 - Jun 30 with 7845 views
I agree with Numpty about John Arlott. When I was in my 20s, I had to call on him at his house in Alresford. It was lunchtime and I was invited to share some cheese and claret - not only a deeply knowledgeable and quietly passionate commentator, but a real gent, too.
Here is another suggestion, from an entirely different field - Keith Huewen and Julian Ryder, when they covered MotoGP. They were knowledgeable, entertaining and a real team.
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Greatest Sporting Commentators on 16:53 - Jun 30 with 7844 views
Surprised to have not seen Murray Walker on the list yet. He made the odd gaffe but it was more out of his complete enthusiasm for what was happening in front of him rather than being rubbish.
Who can forget "And I'm going to have to stop talking, because I have a lump in my throat" as Damon Hill took his world title in 1996?
More niche, but motorsport commentator David Addison (BTCC commentary in the UK is probably his most high profile gig but he does a lot of international racing too) is really excellent for the level of detail he knows about the competitors and their machines.
*Edit* - another niche one, but Dan Routledge for UK basketball is brilliant too.
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