gary 'little' herbert and dan 'they're coming, they're coming again' topolski.
Aunties 'go to' race commentary team for rowing.

now, gary won a gold in barcelona coxing the searle brothers. dan's hubris led to the boat race mutiny and the only vaguely interesting film about rowing.

both are not just bad at commentating, but between them manage to uphold and encapsulate every stereotype about what is actually a very easy and relativley cheap sport to get into. Also a sport that isnt actually dominated by Oxbridge. not that you would notice with an ex oxford coach bashing on about 'coming' all the time.

Their main crime though, what i and the rowing community cannot forgive them for, is making what is a fairly dull spectator sport to the outsider into something excruciating to listen to for everyone.

yes, dan by all means criticise purchases's sculling technique. but not as they cross the line first in the beijing 2x final, you mammoth fruit.
(magictorch, Thu 6 Sep 2012, 16:26, 1 reply)

I thought the BBC Olympic sailing commentators were far worse
Everyone else, in every sport, at least made an attempt to explain what was going on if it wasn't obvious (like, say, in the 100m sprint final) to someone watching the sport for the first time. Even if they fucked it up, they made the attempt, even Herbore and Topography.

Sailing coverage, however, showed pictures of twenty or so identical boats, all going in apparently different directions, while the commentary team wittered on like a cross between elderly colonels describing their war records and mechanical engineers discussing which particulr widget was the best for an unspecified job.

Completely impenetrable to the lay observer. i.e. me.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Fri 7 Sep 2012, 12:27, closed)