Cricket on the radio

(blimey i daren't even SAY rickyT to thread...)

"Oooh he's got him plum with an absolute jaffa!" Textbook!! You'd get arrested for saying that in your local. I love it when they pass the cake round!

Classic: Graham Fowler, Vic Marks, the aforementioned Blowers. Dud: Jonathan Agnew (has become very pompous) CMJ (boring) TMS is definitely as much about the banter as the cricket- though the summarisers do generally have insightful things to say about the game.

Grebt, obv. Some are OK as sports commentators, some are poor. Vic Marks, CMJ and Jonathan Agnew are all good commentators and seem like personable chaps. Blowers is very entertaining but usually more interested in the pigeons than the cricket. Trevor Bailey's too posh for his own good and part of the 'it was all better in my day' mob. Jack Bannister (now on Talk Radio) does nothing but bang on about spread betting. Fred Trueman occasionally makes we want to throw the radio out of the window ('abolish the lbw rule!' like HELLO?). Graham Gooch has been known to put elephants to sleep.

Blowers is an absolute marvel. I generally put TMS on with the sound turned down on the telly (because if I hear Dermot reeve say "Top shot" one more time i might break something).

Never the same after Johnners retired.

Was it Blowers, Aggers or CMJ who said "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey"?

Oh gawd, I just remembered, the weekly English language magazine here in Brussels has been running a CAMPAIGN here to ensure that TMS stays permanently on R4 long wave with no interruptions etc (because this is the only way the ex-pats, all 6 of them, can listen in if they aren't internet-savvy). Filled up the letters page for WEEKS. Barking!

I think it was Brian Johnston who came up with the Holding Willey line. The BBC have great "Inside TMS" pages on their site.

I hate it, or at least I did when I stopped listening to it about ten years ago. It was good in the '70s but then when they realised that they were good they started becoming more self-indulgent and self- referential (all that 'cake' nonsense etc. etc.). I much prefer the TV commentary, both the current C4 and the old BBC version. Richie Benaud is excellent, so was Boycott, etc. etc. More grown-up, less schoolboyish than the TMS lot, but not humourless. Plus silence is nice although you can't have that on radio, hence the problem.

Telly: yes, Benaud outstanding obviously, but you had to put up with Tony (heheheh) Lewis a man who (heheheh) went 'heheheh' every (heheheh) few words.

but but but TV = Michael Atherton and that bloke from New Zealand! = arrrghhhhhhh!

Tony Lewis. I'd forgotten about him. My favourite was Jim Laker who was really old school. He wouldn't have fitted in now, not 'technical' enough but he was genuinely likeable and sometimes got tongue-tied in an endearing way (eg when Botham reached a century with a huge 6 in 'that' Test in 1981, Laker spluttered 'what a way to go for a six' or something like that - he wanted to say what a way to get to a century but it just came out wrong).

Granted there are obviously some mediocre commentators on the tv. But I think part of my preference stems from a gentlemen vs players thing. The tv is all about ex pros giving insight into the techniques involved (both psychological and physical). Of course there are plenty of ex players on TMS but it's that Brian Johnston/CMJ/Blofeld dilettante MCC thing that still holds sway (and actually infects the bluff ex pros as well) that I can't stand.

Jeff - "the bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey" is always associated with Brian Johnston but I've heard that it was actually Don Mosey ("the Alderman") who first said it. Johnners never retired as it happens - he died in harness in January 1994, having commentated throughout the summer of 1993 if memory serves.

Badgerboy - Bailey and Trueman retired a few years ago, didn't they?

David - I understand what you mean about the overgrown public schoolboy tendency (I'm listening to Somerset v Kent at the moment and the Taunton setting is always the starting point for all the old high romantic Tory cliches to be invoked - "charming country town" etc). Richie Benaud is the master, obviously. Did you go off TMS after John Arlott retired in 1980? He came from a different background to his cohorts and his departure allowed the public school faction to become more dominant.

Tony Lewis - yep, he always looked very awkward when fronting the TV coverage, you got the feeling he was embarrassed to be in such a prominent position. Should have stayed on TMS, really.

I still stick with Brian Johnston as the source of the Holding Willey remark, particularly as Blowers attributes it to him here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tv_and_radio/test_match_special/200020 9.stm

What about Geoff "SHOT!!!" Boycott? Creeeket and weeeket! The man who introduced the everyday housekey onto our screens....who says BBC's coverage wasn't hi-tech? "We didn't have Hawkeye in my day....I remember when this was all fields!" (to the sound of the Hovis theme)

All this and he battered his girlfriend! SHOT!!! Textbook!

Robin, I think I gradually went off TMS through the '80s as it became more self-referential and the toff MCC Lords Taverners thing came to the fore. Arlott I'm ambivalent about. He made a great double act with Jim Laker on tv in the '70s, and clearly he was a gifted commentator on radio, but I think he sometimes went over the top with the poetic descriptions. I think it all became something of a cliche in the end with endless fawning articles about him/it in the press (he was the star commentator along with Johnston in that period).

Tarka, re. Boycott. He may well be a suspect character with regard to domestic violence etc. but a very entertaining commentator nonetheless. There was nothing so fascinating as an England batting collapse (pref. in the face of a West Indian pace onslaught), with Boycott homing in very accurately on the weaknesses in each batsman's technique. He came over as a little smug as well, implying he would have done better, but so what - he probably could.

Bastards pulled that one out of the fire, didn't they?

Excuse the bitterness. I'm a Kent supporter and we just collapsed in the final two overs of the C&G semi-final having seemingly had the game won against Somerset - we were chasing 345 to win and were down to 337 for 7 but lost with 339 all out, the equivalent of being 3 up in a penalty shootout but losing 4-3 as I believe happened in the FA Cup a few years ago. I have a deep-rooted antipathy to Somerset CC mainly because I have bad memories of Taunton.

My heart goes out to you Robin. I was watching it actually, initially to check the quality of commentary. Who was that quietly spoken one - really unexciting and kind of humourless? He sounded a bit like a Tennis pundit.

it was colin cowdrey I think?

great game (sorry about the result Robin).

it was colin cowdrey I think?

Do you mean Mark Cowdrey? (son of Colin, I think his name is Mark) Colin is dead I believe.

opps! it was defo some old time Kent player! *hides under a rock*

Chris Cowdrey?

that's the one I meant.