Theirs are among the adult voices that delineate the paths marked “truth” and “trust” during one’s formative years, being up there with those of parents, teachers and the lady at the tuck shop: I’m talking, of course, about sports commentators in general, but particularly those off the TV.
Without their acumen and gift for the spoken word, 90 per cent of sporting events would be no more engrossing than watching bees buzz around a rose bush. But only the most adroit commentators linger in the memory – these are the Olympians of their craft, men and women who could transform the construction of a wall into a drama of Shakespearean proportions.
Regrettably, however, their numbers are slowly but surely dwindling to a small handful, the death on Wednesday of Sir Peter O’Sullevan – the voice of horse-racing on the BBC for 50 years – at the age of 97 striking yet another name from the list. It’s worth pausing to reflect on those who predeceased Sir Peter – men who, like him, brought incalculable authority to the sports in which they were expert: David Coleman and Ron Pickering (athletics), Dan Maskell (tennis), Henry Longhurst (golf), Bill McLaren (rugby), Arthur Montford (football, golf), Brian Moore (football), Sid Waddell (darts), Ted Lowe (snooker), David Vine (the gamut) ...
(As an aside, albeit one targeted at the upper echelons of sports broadcasting, the fact the above pantheon lacks a single female name merely illustrates how far we still must travel before gender equality in all walks of life is a fact rather than an ambition.)
The few commentators of genuine heft who have yet to grace the obituaries pages include Peter Alliss, at 84 still the BBC’s number-one authority on golf, though with the Beeb hosting live coverage of The Open in 2016 before handing over the reins to Sky you’d have to assume his days behind the mic are almost over.
Murray Walker, alas, makes only sporadic appearances for the BBC’s Formula One coverage on radio and TV, a turn of events which, given he’s 91, is nothing short of a nonsense in my view. Lazy get.
It falls to John Motson, then, to fly the flag for definitive sports commentary on a consistent basis for the foreseeable future. A sprightly 70, Motty forswore live TV work a while ago but is a beacon of quality in the ocean of mediocrity that is Match of the Day, a programme whose presenter, Gary Lineker, embodies all that is awful about contemporary sports broadcasting, namely self-importance, glibness and the relentless embrace of cliche, none of which, it seems safe to assume, Sir Peter O’Sullevan would have had even a scintilla of time for.
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