Derby Coverage- Your Opinions??

I dont know if AA has even jumped the Derby?? maybe that has something to do with the lack of insight?! I did say maybe my magna carta comment was a bit over the top but it is a really well known mare!! AA just irritates me, also the over the top comment and suprise that andy mizon had jumped the bank clear- andy and the horse were 2nd 2 years ago!!!
 
AA used to jump on Nations cup teams when Jesus was a boy, now you'll find him pootling around Quob or Crofton Manor doing smaller classes presumably producing the youngsters.

Don't understand why he irritates you though the guy is only trying to earn a living, professional jealousy perhaps ?
 
No professional jealousy at all. I actually earn a living out of ponies and have very little to do with the senior scene. I am aware he jumped nations cups but the derby is a very specialist class. Peter Charles, John and Micheal Whit, Will Funnel and Nick Skelton are all Derby specialists and i just wondered if AA has even jumped it thats all. He irritates me as i dont think he knows enough about each indervidual horse and rider. Other than the mistakes i have already mentioned he made lots of others, Jessie Drea jumped the speed derby last year, Mondriaan and Skippy have never jumped the dyke when they previously had jumped the class etc. I was at hickstead all week and came home to watch the derby on sunday as i hate the fact that u cant see every fence when ur at hickstead. I guess i was just annoyed that i had to listen to him and his lack of knowledge all the way through. I also remember when he was comentating at Olympia that Portifino is a good horse but not a world class horse???????? How much more world class can u get- Olympics, Nations Cup, WEG etc??
 
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Geoff billington would be fabulous! His commentary at olyimpia is amazing!


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i liked the coverage, but geoff would be good, although 1 prob, he was riding yesterday and could be in further years.
 
I was also disappointed at the general lack of background knowledge of some of the horses and riders - 3 mins is a lot of time to talk about the fences they are jumping especially with such large gaps between. Rather than saying - I'm pretty sure this horse will have King of Diamonds bloodlines it would be better if they actually knew. Plus the numbers who had jumped the dyke clear varied slightly!
 
I suppose the problem the beeb have is who else could do it. As has been said before all the good riders can't do it because they will be competing. You also need someone who the general population can understand an given those vox pop clips on sunday the SJ'ers out there have a huge range of strong regional accents.

As an aside, making up your target audience will be people

a, who want detailed technical knowledge of how to ride the course

b, breeder / owners who want to know the horse's brothers great aunt,

c, horse people who don't particularly SJ but want enough technical detail sufficient to know what is happening

d, Non horse people who don't want detail and just want to be entertained.

How do you balance all those needs, I'm not sure you can. People imo shouldn't expect real detailed technical stuff because the BBC mass audience in the main want to be entertained, and people should surely get knowledge from other sources ie their lessons. I do agree with you re the problem with rider / horse awareness but it might be borne of the fact he doesn't compete with the top people therefore is divorced from the day to day insider knowledge. He mentioned a convo with the Fletchers
about promised land but they are near neighbours so you would kind of expect a mention.

What I did think was a bit naughty was dobbing Dale Burnham in it, if someone says to you please don't slate me if it goes badly and then it does, why say oh Dale said not to blah blah , why not just say ok folks not his day today but he'll be back or something similar so the guy doesn't lose face.

 
I have never liked Steven Hadley as a commentator - I find him really condescending and boring - so glad he's not doing it anymore.

I used to enjoy the coverage that Eurosport used to do back in the early 90's - can't remember who it was.

We need a show jumping version of Ian Stark as I thought he was very good at the Olympics. The right amount of knowledge and passion.
 
I had to smile at some of the comments in the replies here. I can remember Steven Hadley being slated in the past and now people want him back!

The problem with getting a really knowledgeable SJ person is that they ARE going to be "getting on a bit" as showjumpers go on until they are very mature unlike most other sports and like someone else said, Mike Tucker's no spring chicken either.

But look on the bright side, the BBC commentators are 200% better than Eurosport's (but at least, thank God, they seem to have got rid of that moron Peter Churchill - I used to turn the sound down when he commentated!)
 
Personally I don't care who does it, but they are bound to have a start list in front of them which gives age/sex/breeding of the horses on it - can they not even share that information with us at home. Extra info about previous owners/has horse been in derby before etc would be good if the commentator knows it but we didn't even get the basic info in many cases.

Surely a good commentator does some homework beforehand, speaks to some riders, makes a few computer searches for printouts etc.

Are SJers asked to fill in commentator sheets like eventers are??

Fiona
 
I thought Andy Austin was OK but not nearly as informative as Steve Hadley and definitely not in his class.
This age thing is so ridiculous -we don't have to see their faces just listen to them and Steve Hadley has the most easy on the ear voice of all of them and that includes Mike Tucker.
As for Eurosport - HEAVEN HELP US- Sara Rust is again OK, but the others OH DEAR. If Hadley is available he would be the obvious choice for Eurosport with such a wealth of experience tried and tested at that level. Horsey or not TV audiences deserve knowledgeable information
 
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