talkSPORT

[Occasional Fan]

I understand why Blowers might irritate some people - Johnners, much to my amazement, was also not everyone's cup of tea. But you have to remember, Scott, that I am an Englishman abroad, and listening to Henry Blofeld gives me a little bit more of the full Engilsh experience than some of the other chaps. I can almost taste his Bakewell tart and Earl Grey, the images of the buses are sheer poetry and the medium fast aeroplanes above Lord's complete the tapestry. There are times when I would almost be able to drink a warm, flat beer when listening to dear old Henry - and that's not something which many people in this beer capital of the world would understand!

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Occasional Fan

I understand why Blowers might irritate some people - Johnners, much to my amazement, was also not everyone's cup of tea. But you have to remember, Scott, that I am an Englishman abroad, and listening to Henry Blofeld gives me a little bit more of the full Engilsh experience than some of the other chaps. I can almost taste his Bakewell tart and Earl Grey

Interesting post.

Blowers irritates me with his chatter about nothing,but i was thinking earlier if I was abroad in some distant land,Blowers is the reasuring English voice I would like to hear.so I can see your point to Scott,about you living abroad.

But I live here in England,and dont want to hear about his bakewell tart,I like the man though.

[Occasional Fan]

I don't suppose you could e-mail be a warm, flat beer, could you Ernest? I seem suddenly to have come over all nostalgic!

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Occasional Fan

I don't suppose you could e-mail be a warm, flat beer, could you Ernest? I seem suddenly to have come over all nostalgic!

Yes it was a moody post.

sorry cant e-mail flat beer O C,try and find you a link though.

[Scott-Wozniak]

Originally Posted by Occasional Fan

I understand why Blowers might irritate some people - Johnners, much to my amazement, was also not everyone's cup of tea. But you have to remember, Scott, that I am an Englishman abroad, and listening to Henry Blofeld gives me a little bit more of the full Engilsh experience than some of the other chaps. I can almost taste his Bakewell tart and Earl Grey, the images of the buses are sheer poetry and the medium fast aeroplanes above Lord's complete the tapestry. There are times when I would almost be able to drink a warm, flat beer when listening to dear old Henry - and that's not something which many people in this beer capital of the world would understand!

OF

Yeah I can understand those sentiments to an extent. But in my mind, call me old fashioned, but when I listen to Cricket commentry - I expect Cricket Commentary, not some old duffer one step from the old people's home twittering on about what he had for lunch!

On another level, and at a big risk of appearing extremely contentious - there's very little to miss in this country in my mind! and living under the flight path of Heathrow - I hear plenty of planes thanks !

Scott

[sostenurter]

I am afraid I disagree with you all here. I couldn't stand Tony Greig - I found him the most annoying, irritating commentator ever, all too quick to run England down and slow to give any praise. And if you think Blowers was obsessed with Bakewell tarts, well, I don't know what you'd say about Greig's - ahem - enthusiasm for the Carib Girls. Or indeed any girl who happened to be in the crowd. I didn't mind the Sky Commentary, love TMS, like C4 (apart from the annoying "and now we leave the Test match at this crucial, series-deciding moment in order to follow a ridiculous plot strand in Hollyoaks") and as I have said before, would like to see less ex-cricketers and more actual journalists. And they can't manage less ex-cricketers, then at least less ex-England captains. There were seven out in the WI at one point, commentating for various channels/stations. It has got to the point where a captain walks out of the dressing room and into the commentary box - crazy.

Some other random points - TMS may be good but never, never, never let Kerry O'Keefe commentate on an Ashes series again.
And radio adverts are terrible - at least you can mute the C4 and Sky ones - but radio ads insinuate their way into the actual commentary - Chris Cowdrey promoting KitKats was absolutely awful. Ads in the ad-breaks are bad enough - ads in the commentary are just plain wrong.

[Rich Greenfield]

Originally Posted by sostenurter

And radio adverts are terrible - at least you can mute the C4 and Sky ones - but radio ads insinuate their way into the actual commentary - Chris Cowdrey promoting KitKats was absolutely awful. Ads in the ad-breaks are bad enough - ads in the commentary are just plain wrong.

Don't forget about 'Reading a best seller every day' F'coff is what I say to adverts. While people may moan about blowers and his buses/planes/cakes/birds you have to remember that there are a lot of gaps to be filled and TMS does that a million times better than Talksport. AND every time Jack 'Brian Lara has a light shining out of his ****hole' Bannister i have to switch off the radio, he is sooooo annoying. If i could shoot 5 people and get away with it he'd be nimber 2 after Dubya Bush. Greig and Nicholas should stick to TV work as well because they can not commentate on the radio to save their lives.

[sostenurter]

Originally Posted by Rich Greenfield

Don't forget about 'Reading a best seller every day' F'coff is what I say to adverts. While people may moan about blowers and his buses/planes/cakes/birds you have to remember that there are a lot of gaps to be filled and TMS does that a million times better than Talksport. AND every time Jack 'Brian Lara has a light shining out of his ****hole' Bannister i have to switch off the radio, he is sooooo annoying. If i could shoot 5 people and get away with it he'd be nimber 2 after Dubya Bush. Greig and Nicholas should stick to TV work as well because they can not commentate on the radio to save their lives.

Spot on. By its nature, there will be gaps in cricket commentary - and I'd rather have them filled by Blowers talking about buses and butterflies (and wheelie bins - incidentally i agree with him on that one) than endless plugs for chocolate bars and newspapers, or Kerry O'Keefe singing Eminem...
Don't like Bannister either.
Who was it who made that brilliant point about Mark Nicholas always saying "Brian Charles Lara" when he was about to do something special? Very accurate. I don't mind Nicholas on telly but he was pretty poor on Talksport.
For me, the best radio commentators are those on TMS because they are experienced at radio commentary - they immediately tell you the field placings, the method of dismissal, the bowler's actions etc. Too often the Talksporters say something like
"OHHHHHHHHH! and that is wonderful! who would believe it! ....(long pause) superb...wasn't that great Tony? (two minute ad break) ...read a bestseller every day...eat some kitkats....would you like to have tea with mike atherton?"
whilst I am screaming at the radio demanding to know what happened!

[honestbharani]

I have hardly ever listened to Radio commentary but I think Tony Greig is an over rated commentator. He can bring interest into the game but apart from that, as an actual analyst, I think he is miserable. I have seen him commentate with Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar, Robin Jackman, Ian Chappell, Richie Benaud, Michael Holding, Ian Botham, Danny Morrison........Almost all of these guys had better points than him and they said it in a much better way than him..... And whenever I see Boycott and Greig doing commentary together, it is just so much fun..... Boycott always PWNs Greig. Greig is just wrong so often and Boycs is just right so often, it is the funniest thing to watch.

[Occasional Fan]

You make an interesting point, Sostenurter, about what happens to captains after they leave the team. I had a taxi driver in Barbados last month who was incensed at the number of former WI captains who go to journalism (print and broadcast) after they stop playing rather than into coaching. He may have had a point. Not every captain is going to be a great coach at first class level - the skills required are not comparable really - but maybe these chaps could be doing more at schoolboy/village/junior county level? Of course, I may just have slagged off a whole raft of former captains who are doing this as well as broadcasting and writing for the papers. If so, sorry to all of them!