They think it's all over

They think it’s all over

The passing of the great Bill McLaren marks the end of that era of sports commentators who shared one attribute that today’s broadcast professionals would do well to remember: they only spoke when it mattered.


McLaren, who was 86, was if anything just a little too polite and detached from the human drama of sporting events but he had a beautiful descriptive style. So did Kenneth Wolstenholme and Barry Davies in football, John Arlott and, more recently, Richie Benaud


Lawrence Dallaglio on the radio this week gave three examples of McLaren’s perceptive style and turn of phrase. I paraphrase just a little but here goes: a Scottish player, builder by trade, when faced with the giant Kiwi Jonah Lomu haring down on him said “I felt like laying bricks in a different way”.


When the buxom streaker Erica Roe graced Twickenham with her ample front row McLaren piped: “I wonder who that laddie plays for. I don’t seem to recognise him”. And he described the elegant England wing David Duckham as being so good he could “sidestep three people in a phone box”.


Great stuff.


Now lest I be condemned for being just another old fart who hankers after the past, let me say that Martin Tyler on Sky – sometimes - and Kevin Geary on BBC News both have that beautiful way with words that makes you feel they care.


Tyler can get excited when it matters but he has two saving graces in that he is intelligent for a spots buff and he can keep Mr Windbag Andy Gray in check as well.


And listen for Geary on the news. Subtle plays on words and elegant puns that don’t grate, just make you smile.


Worst of the lot for me: Alan Green. I like a man with an opinion but he loves himself. Not good.


Then there’s Mr Give It A Rest, Motty. John Motson seems like a nice man which is probably why no-one has ever told him to SHUT UP!


Farewell Bill.