8:11pm Sunday 5th July 2009
By Dave Ball
Sat here watching an epic Men’s final at Wimbledon I can’t help wondering when I am going to hear the next great pearl of wisdom from the commentary team. Oh there it is, another unbelievable statistic about the number of aces served. This is a trait appearing throughout sport these days. The urge to count stuff and pass it on is only surpassed today by the members of the crowd competing to be the last one to shout something of encouragement to their favourite player.
Of course the real killer blow came 4 minutes after losing the final, having to give a TV interview in front of the world, priceless. Looking back over the whole coverage I think that the commentary team have out done themselves, beating last year’s poor performance. Thankfully the tennis, which is why we are watching the TV, always seems to make the whole experience worth while.
At times it was like listening to a Carry On film, with double entendre galore and risqué comments on the physique of the players. A classic was when one of the men players removed his shirt and the commentator said ‘I bet you would love to wipe your feet on that rug girls’. I laughed like most of you, and enjoy the banter, however sometimes you just want to watch the tennis.
It won’t be long before the Football starts again and we can expect the usual brilliant commentary punctuated with the inane statistics. There is probably a statistic about how often during a game the match statistics are either posted on the screen or raised by the principal commentator’s laughable assistant. How many shots on goal; how many misses; how many corners; how often the commentator says ‘it’s end to end stuff’. I wonder how many people, who only go to a few matches each season, actually miss the commentary at the match. I am more of a Rugby fan myself and have become increasingly annoyed at the volume of statistics in Rugby commentating too. However, good commentary rarely gets in the way of the game, and can sometimes really add to the drama. What do you think of commentary these days? Give your views in the comments section on this page.
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