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redtimbo

Listed below are comments made by redtimbo between Thursday, 5th March 2009 and Tuesday, 8th September 2009.

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SPOTY 2009 starts to take shape 11:33pm on 08 Sep 2009 If only the BBC would allow him on the shortlist and let the public find out about him then A P McCoy would be a nailed on certainty.

The man rides about 6 times a day, every day. No other sportsman competes every consecutive day of the year (apart from when injured or Christmas Day). He has incredible stamina and durability despite having to keep to 10stone and living off a rubbish diet. He has broken nearly every bone in his body including his back and neck only last year, which took him just months to recover (because he is a bit mad). He is modest and doesn't complain at his lack of recognition despite having been champion of probably the toughest sport in Britain for over 14 years. When swimmers complete a competitive couple lengths in a fast time once a week (min) and get damehoods and SPOTY awards immediately then what does McCoy have to do to even get on the shortlist? Just because he's been around for so long does not mean he is less deserving than the one-hit wonders.

Knowing the BBC he'll have to win the Grand National first because that's the only race they've ever heard of despite it being far from the highest class race in Britain.

Give him equal coverage that the rest of the contenders get and put him on the shortlist and I can guarantee you that people will vote for him.
In awe of the Crucible 9:48pm on 17 Apr 2009 I take it that Ray Stubbs will be the main man still. The times I've seen you you've been a racing presenter surrounded by fools making your job harder. Hopefully with some pundits who can talk you will find it easier.
The inside track on Inside Sport 10:15pm on 10 Apr 2009 I fail to see why it still is called "Inside" Sport. The Inside bit, I thought originally, was meant for the programme to be investigative and perhaps a bit controversial where live sports broadcasts couldn't be. And when the programme started it came out with some good stories. I can remember Matthew Pinsent doing some good investigations into things like Chinese training of their young Olympians and Dwain Chambers' drug taking. These were good programmes and having jounalists in the studio allowed serious and honset opinions on these controversial issues. Had you had current sports stars they would have simply, boringly, (cliche I know) sat on the fence. Another commentor here said that journalists are more "objective". I think that is a good word to use.

Now all you seem to have is an extension of Match of the Day and Football Focus. You say that Alan Hansen revealing that he dreaded Saturday afternoons was revealing. Yes it was good but if Manish had got that out of him on Football Focus then it would have made that programme so much more watchable than the bore that it is now. What Focus needs is something interesting to spice up what is an increasingly bland programme. The Hansen interview would have been perfect.

I'm not saying I don't want to watch Inside Sport as it is now. I mean, on a Monday night it is far and away the best programme on. It is relaxing and interesting too. I'm just saying that it fails to reach its potential, has declined series-by-series, and could be so much better.
The morning after the morning before 5:39pm on 30 Mar 2009 I only watched the race so can't comment on pre-race or post-race stuff.

I disagree with a previous commentor. I'd much prefer to still have James Allen as commentator, who was vastly underrated and unfairly criticised. He always kept pace with what was on screen, whereas Jonathan Legard reads out times while missing cars spinnning off. It often sounded like the brilliant Martin Brundle was the actual commentator with Legard as his assistant. I'm sure I'll get used to him eventually though.

In terms of others, I thought Jake Humphrey did a fine job. Its a job you can't really excel in but like a goalkeeper, when you make a mistake you're done for. He seems good.

David Coulthard was surprisingly brilliant for me. Already an accomplished sports pundit after just one broadcast. Eddie Jordan does complain a bit too much but is far better than Mark Blundell.

But the real star of the show for me was Ted Kravitz. It showed that he had come from ITV because he clearly knew exactly what he was doing and cleared what had happened when Legard was missing the action.

Overall well done BBC. I guess I enjoyed it more because the race itself was one of the best for ages. Likewise, I guess that if the racing becomes predictable again I'll find the whole gig boring again. Good stuff so far though.
Jetlagged in a Melbourne hotel room 9:40pm on 28 Mar 2009 I see you went for very casual dress but did a decent job. David Coulthard is brilliant, much better than Mark Blundell.

I still wish the BBC had brought over James Allen. Johnathan Legard doesn't have that same distinctiveness to his voice as Allen and Murray did. I'm sure he'll get better though as he and Brundle did talk over each other a lot which will go when they get used to each other. But it did seem that the commentators weren't actually looking at the screen as drivers were going off the track and were instead just reading times out. Brundle was fantastic though.

Should be a good race though as it is unpredictable. The BBC are lucky that in the same year they get F1 the racing is much less predictable than usual. Let's hope it doesn't go back to the same old boring F1 of previous years.
Eddie Jordan rocks Melbourne 9:11pm on 26 Mar 2009 Hi Jake,
Good luck on the telly. Here's a quick question I'm interested to know the answer to. What clothes will you be wearing on raceday? Will you have a tie ir open-neck? Please don't appear like the football lot!
Monday night is Inside Sport night 7:57pm on 25 Mar 2009 Have you not heard of Football Focus? That programme currently lacks any pizzazz at the moment and then Inside Sport steals all the big BBC interviews with footballers. Seems a little bit silly to me.

I hope you haven't got rid of the journalists like Steve Bunce. I thought that was what Inside Sport was all about - a journalistic view on sport. It is often much more interesting to hear forthright opinions from journalists than hedging from ex-sportsmen.

This programme once had the potential to be good. But for some reason or another (scheduling is a factor, but clearly hasn't been resolved) it hasn't become the show it should have been. I don't see how the changes you have mentioned will help. I doubt a new sofa will improve the programme.
Flat racing loses fizz 7:12pm on 11 Mar 2009 Fair play for giving racing some airtime for once but on the first day of the greatest show on earth, to have a news report on Flat racing seems disgracefully out of touch with the current week's atmosphere. By all means mention this problem in a months time but the time on the news should have been given to a review of the racing.

I agree that it is only the flat that has a problem. The jumps is great - its just the promotion that they have got wrong. They should be targeting new young racegoers with advertising, but have only advertised to the converted. I hope this changes but it should have been done years ago. I am a non-posh racing fan and under 20. The annoying thing by far is that the sport is great but there are not enough people to enjoy it with. My non-racing mates are the people who racing should be advertising to. It should be a clear, brilliant promotional campaign and any changes to the racing itself (e.g. calendar) should be done first. The quicker this starts the better because racing needs a strong youth base to carry the sport forwards in the future. There are brilliant young jockeys out there putting their lives on the line. They should be rewarded with the respect and support they deserve by more people.

The aim should be to get people 'hooked' and not just be an occasional racegoer. Believe me, once you are hooked on racing you are hooked for life and racing will gain from your investment.

Finally Mihir and the BBC, if Tony McCoy is not on the shortlist for Sports Personality of the Year then there is a serious misjustice. Make sure it happens please.
F1 editor, the best job in the world 6:09pm on 06 Mar 2009 I don't understand the attraction some people have to an onboard camera only channel. Would it not mean that you miss most of the race?

I'd also agree with someone before me in that I think a whole hour of coverage before qualifying is far too long. If there was 30mins then I might watch it all, but with an hour I'll probably watch the last 5 mins.

I noticed you pointed out the killer line on the grid walk:

"not necessarily every race - it will depend who is around"

This tells me that he will just be doing normal prepared interviews rather than his old brilliant grid walk. The good thing about was that he didn't know who was around until he bumped into them. There was rumours that he was going to stop this before.
A new look for F1 9:10pm on 05 Mar 2009 Yes I think the site is very good, as I'm sure will be F1, just as it has been in the past.

But surely if the BBC was using its sports website to deliver news and features fairly across all sports then there would be no need for a new website. The old formula 1 website should have been kept up to date, which it wasn't because ITV were showing it.

I ask: Should the website put priority into sports that the BBC shows already, or should it also prioritise sports that it doesn't show. I can think of many sports which don't recieve half the coverage they should, simply because the BBC don't show it on television. If you can't get video etc. then you should at least have up to date news as a public service broadcaster.

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