"That one wiped it's feet!" (BBC Snooker)

Member Name: litefoot

Product:	BBC Snooker
Date:	20/01/06 (2263 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good presenters, high quality commentary

Disadvantages: Willie Thorne, cutting off matches abruptly

It's someway off being the UK's most popular sport, but snooker has been one of our most popular pasttimes for many many years.

There are snooker clubs in every major town across the UK and beyond. Originally it was just a national sport but towards the end of the 20th Century it began to appeal to other countries, particularly in Asia.

The BBC began showing coverage of snooker in the 1970s and that has continued to this day. From John Spencer's World Snooker Championships title in 1977 to Ding Jun Hui's UK Championship win in 2005, the BBC have covered every major tournament under the sun.

The BBC currently provide coverage of the four most prestigious tournaments on the snooker calendar. These are the Grand Prix (previous ly known as the LG Cup, amongst other names) in Preston during September; the UK Championship in York during December; the Masters in London during January; and finally, at the end of the snooker calendar, the World Championships in Sheffield in May. The BBC only used to show the last three tournaments but in recent years they have added the Grand Prix to their schedules. Satellite shows the snooker as well, and also some none-BBC tournmaents, but the Beeb will always be first choice.

The BBC's snooker coverage is second to none. Matches are usually shown live in the afternoon on BBC2, in the early evening, and the highlights of each match about 11:30pm.

The presenting duties are shared between two people. Hazel Irvine is a likeable relaxed presenter who, if you don't watch the snooker, you might recognise from BBC News' sports reports. Ray Stubbs is the other, although he doesn't feature as much as Hazel, because he is usually presenting another sport elsewhere (Final Score, or Darts). Stubbs, while also good, can be a bit cocky at times, and he does seem to take over presenting duties at the semi-finals/finals stage which is unfair on Hazel. Once you've got your presenter, stick with one!

The studio guests (the 'pundits') are usually Steve Davis and John Parrot. Both ex World Champions, they are affable and relaxed and clearly know what they are talking about. They still play in tournaments but tend to lose early, after which they hang up their cues and come into the studio every day. Although Steve Davis has undergone something of a renaissance of late, with improved showings. In the UK Championship last month he made it all the way to the final, beating many of the top players (including Stephen Maguire and his old rival Hendry). He was hardly on the studio sofa. You have to like any sport where one of the TV co-presenters can win the competition!

The BBC team is much better than some of those covering other BBC sports. In football, for example, ex-players like Graeme Le Saux and Tony Adams have started appearing far too often in football coverage. Rather than learn their trade they have been thrust in straight away and come across as boring and inadequate. The snooker team have no such problem.

There are four main commentators on the snooker matches. Clive Everton is the senior of these and does a fantastic job. He follows the wise rule that 'less is more'. He doesn't gabble over proceedings and only speaks when he has something to say. He is an old hand at this, and one of the few proper sports commentators left. More of the same please!

John Virgo and Dennis Taylor are ex snooker players but they have clearly learnt from the best and are now, like Everton, impeccable commentators, which is a rare thing. Both are amusing to listen to and Virgo has plenty of 'Virgoisms' that he likes to use on air ("That one wiped it's feet" "It's there!").

Unfortunately there is one man on the team whose commentary is not good enough and that is Willie Thorne. Another ex player who is the newest of the four, he hasn't learnt as well as Virgo and Taylor did. Put simply, he talks too much.

During matches, commentary is kept to a minimum allowing you to concentrate on what is going on. Unfortunately, Thorne takes the opposite view, and gabbles away nineteen to the dozen. He wouldn't sound out of place doing the commentary on the Grand National "... and he's run of position, which means it could be end of break, unless he manages to swing around the balk colours and back up the table to take on the red second closest to the cushion, he could then come off the bottom cushion to get back in position on the black, and then..." SHUT UP!!!!

I don't think Clive Everton like his style either because they're never paired up in the commentary box. Thorne has been holding back a bit more of late so maybe he'll get better.

There have been accusations that snooker is more boring thse days, in comparison to the late 80s when there were more personalities in the game. Technically that's both right and wrong, because although today's players hardly ever show emotion during games or make exhibition type shots, the standard of play is so much higher. Century breaks are more common and impossible shots are easier to make, so to some extent watching the snooker is much more tense and enjoyable.

Technically too, the viewer gets a lot of information they didn't used to get, such as great camera angles, predicted shots, where the cueball should end up, etc.

If there are any major downsides for snooker fans it is that BBC2 stop transmitting coverage at about 7pm so you have to wait for the highlights at 11:30pm. Although if you have digital you can 'press the red button' and continue watching the match.

Today's TV ratings may be a far cry from the 17 million who watched Taylor beat Davis in 1985 but the coverage is still of a high quality overall and much better than other BBC departments.

If you're a fan of snooker then you couldn't expect much more.

Summary: One of the better BBC Sports teams with high quality coverage