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How has this been allowed to happen?
Who has decided that Matt Chapman is good enough to be inflicted on us? Whoever they are, they should be taken out and shot (several times).
Maybe the beer swilling morons who scream and shout through the races think he’s great fun to listen to, but the majority of racegoers surely won’t be impressed.
There must be better would be commentators out there. I never thought I would say this, but he is actually worse than Tommo!It’s very simple how this has been allowed to happen. The powers-that-be have decided that Iain Mackenzie, Tommo and Jim McGrath are too old and that Darren Owen also needs to have his performances reviewed.
This is to make way for Matt Chapman, John Blance and Gary Capewell.
Chapman has decided to play to the gallery and inflict the same moronic, fake, bumptious and over-the-top style he uses on At The Races for his racecourse commentaries. He’s obviously decided that, despite the almost universal criticism, this is the key to being taken on permanently.
He will have cynically calculated that Jim McGrath and Iain Mackenzie are dead men walking and that there is nothing to be lost by failing to tone down his antics. Jim has signed his own death warrant by speaking out publicly about being put on six months’ review and Iain Mackenzie has committed today’s cardinal sin by doing the job for well over 30 years and therefore being too old in this youth-obsessed society.
Tommo has markedly upped his game recently so will almost certainly pay the penalty for this by also getting the chop.
It’s really very simple.Its the same powers-at-be that insist on having John Hunt commentating almost every other day. Really getting fed up of hearing his voice.
Its the same powers-that-be that insist on having John Hunt commentating almost every other day. Really getting fed up of hearing his voice.
I swear on Matt Chapman’s life I did not pay Phil to make this observation and have categorically not colluded with him in any way over making public his admirable sentiments.
I am still having therapy after innocently opening one of the papers recently and seeing John Hunt staring out at me from the commentary box in a large photograph accompanying the report of a meeting at Folkestone where he was the course commentator.
Added to that, the cheesy, ear-to-ear grin on the photo of him when he was the course commentator at Ffos Las for the two races shown by Channel 4 recently did little to help.
I just cannot for the life of me understand why the people who make the least effort are always the ones who are saved when people are chopped and it is the others who do their homework and try to provide a more-than-just-the-basics service for the racegoers who face being booted out.I swear on Matt Chapman’s life I did not pay Phil to make this observation and have categorically not colluded with him in any way over making public his admirable sentiments.
I am still having therapy after innocently opening one of the papers recently and seeing John Hunt staring out at me from the commentary box in a large photograph accompanying the report of a meeting at Folkestone where he was the course commentator.
Added to that, the cheesy, ear-to-ear grin on the photo of him when he was the course commentator at Ffos Las for the two races shown by Channel 4 recently did little to help.
I just cannot for the life of me understand why the people who make the least effort are always the ones who are saved when people are chopped and it is the others who do their homework and try to provide a more-than-just-the-basics service for the racegoers who face being booted out.Yawn!!!
Iain Mackenzie has committed today’s cardinal sin by doing the job for well over 30 years
In the world where I come from anybody who did the same job for more than five years had either proved the "Peter Principle", or has no ambition.
Certainly when we used to recruit, anyone who had been in the same role for more than five years had their CV consigned to the bin, unless something really exceptional stood out.
I have only once remained in the same role for more than five years and that was only because I was paid a, frankly obscene, "retention bonus" and even then I eventually moved on.
I will be making an exception with my covering of racing but only by a couple of years – I already know the date when I will be attending my last race meeting (assuming no radical calendar changes) after which I will never go racing again.
Certainly when we used to recruit, anyone who had been in the same role for more than five years had their CV consigned to the bin, unless something really exceptional stood out.
Tommo, Iain Mackenzie and Jim McGrath have definitely got no chance now.
Loyalty from an employer for service given over the years is certainly a thing of the past now.
I just wish the powers-that-be would be honest and say that they want to get rid of these people because they are the oldest and most long-serving. No doubt they would be falling foul of some supposedly anti-ageist legislation if they said so openly, so instead they go about it in a sneaky, disingenuous way by dressing it up as a supposed performance review after six months.
The most interesting thing I have read about Iain Mackenzie in the last few months, amid all the publicity about him and others facing the axe, is actually Paul Ostermeyer’s article on his website about the way the commentators involved are being treated.
He was honest enough, in his The Beast article from December, to give fascinating details about his long-standing antipathy towards Iain Mackenzie, which apparently seems to be reciprocated.
No doubt Paul will be hoping, if he is already planning his swansong, not to be bumping into Mackenzie on a racecourse or anywhere else again. An interesting and refreshingly candid insight from Paul.He was honest enough, in his The Beast article from December, to give fascinating details about his long-standing antipathy towards Iain Mackenzie, which apparently seems to be reciprocated.
I wouldn’t say there was much detail Crusty – more placing my observations in some form of context
http://www.ors-racing.co.uk/Beast/WeakestLink.html
He was honest enough, in his The Beast article from December, to give fascinating details about his long-standing antipathy towards Iain Mackenzie, which apparently seems to be reciprocated.
I wouldn’t say there was much detail Crusty – more placing my observations in some form of context
http://www.ors-racing.co.uk/Beast/WeakestLink.htmlPlenty of titbits, implied and actual, to whet my appetite, Paul, I can assure you. I love anything like that. Really enjoyed reading it at the time. Great discussion of the issue and its background and the best article I have seen anywhere on it.
No yawning from me, I can assure you! I’ll leave the yawning to you for my meagre and admittedly repetitive contributions! Sorry to keep irritating you with my tongue-in-cheek observations!
Iain Mackenzie seems to be regarded as something of an enigma and is so intensely private that nobody seems to know much about him, despite his longevity, apart from his love of not wearing a tie and being a self-confessed "non-conformist" who describes himself as being "aged".Plenty of titbits, implied and actual, to whet my appetite, Paul, I can assure you. I love anything like that.
You’re reading too much into my comments – the only reason I mentioned the "issues" between Ian and myself was to strengthen the fact I was actually "supporting" him in the review.
No yawning from me, I can assure you! I’ll leave the yawning to you for my meagre and admittedly repetitive contributions! Sorry to keep irritating you with my tongue-in-cheek observations!
I should have put a smiley after my yawn comment – I do find your Hunty comments amusing, if not predictable
I trust you listened to his Boat Race commentary yesterday – talk about being chucked in at the deep end.
Iain Mackenzie seems to be regarded as something of an enigma and is so intensely private that nobody seems to know much about him, despite his longevity, apart from his love of not wearing a tie and being a self-confessed "non-conformist" who describes himself as being "aged".
I think that sums him up pretty well and I actually respect him for wanting to maintain his privacy.
I remember we acquired a new boss once (he didn’t last long we had him out within six months) but one of his first ideas was to have a "team away day" where, to begin, we had to draw a picture that sums up our life, likes etc. – a "getting to know you" session. Time to puke!!!
Not a good idea with me and I think I ruined it from the outset as I went first. My "picture" was a drawing of my house and the office with a huge wall between the two.
My presentation, word for word, was "this is my house, this is where I work and that is a dividing wall. I never discuss work at home and I never discuss home at work"
It didn’t go down well but he soon knew where he stood.
It then got worse – when he did his bit one of his lines was "I want to be best at everything, I must always come first"
I just turned round to him and said "that must piss your wife off then!"
I joke not. The first time I heard MC commentating I thought the Commentator hadn’t turned up and someone was standing in temporarily…….no such luck.
Someone said he’s a nice guy and I have no doubt he is but he’s in the wrong job.
I should have put a smiley after my yawn comment – I do find your Hunty comments amusing, if not predictable
I trust you listened to his Boat Race commentary yesterday – talk about being chucked in at the deep end.I had no idea John Hunt was doing the Boat Race commentary and had to Google it to double-check that it was for Radio 5 Live.
I’ll resist the temptation to be even more predictable and say that I would have gladly chucked him in the deep end if I had been there. Might have needed a bit of help from Phil Walker, though, because he’s a big lad is Hunty (as I must affectionately call him).
Suspect with all the hair gel, though, he might be a slippery customer for getting him in the water. The man’s 46, for goodness’ sake, not a teenager.
Entirely predictable was that the first thing to pop up on the internet search was a Twitter comment from one of his colleagues, reading: "Underway with our boatrace coverage. John Hunt calls them home like he does so brilliantly with the horses."Here are a couple of helpful press reports about our hero. His admission: "I don’t have a clue" and another that he hadn’t done his research certainly struck a chord with me from his racecourse commentary efforts. Transferable skills, as they say.
RACING commentator John Hunt is looking forward to a different challenge, as he has been asked to commentate on the 2012 Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge for Radio 5 Live.
Hunt says: "When Radio 5 asked me to commentate on the Boat Race, I thought why not?
"The Boat Race is an iconic event and it should be fun if nothing else. But don’t ask me anything about it as I don’t have a clue, I still have to do my research for this. My job will be to describe the colour of the event, but I have been guaranteed a superb summariser if I run out of things to say, which I might.
"I don’t know if we’ll be on a boat alongside them or perched up high somewhere but hopefully it will be a nice day weather-wise with calm waters and a close finish would be good."
Having previously worked in the police force, Hunt’s career path took a turn 20 years ago when his girlfriend, now wife, saw an advert in the local newspaper for a trainee race commentator and encouraged him to apply. And he was more than glad that she did, as he could not think of doing anything else now.
He says: "It’s a big thrill to immerse yourself in a sporting event. I am very much involved in the emotion of horseracing and that’s what I like. It’s very exciting."
In addition to travelling around Britain to provide commentary for various tracks, he has also worked for 5 Live for seven years, broadcasting not just on horseracing but occasionally on football matches.
All in all it will be a busy 2012 for Hunt, for he will also be commentating on the equestrian events and modern pentathlon.
"I have already been to test events for the Olympics and I am very much looking forward to that as well," he adds. "It’s great to commentate on racing but it’s also great to do something different and I’m really looking forward to everything."Versatile commentator Hunt switches sports
JOHN HUNT refuses to be grounded by the big freeze after BBC Radio 5 Live’s racing commentator again showed his versatility on Saturday when covering the Coca-Cola League One match between Norwich and Exeter for the station.
It was the third game this season at which Hunt has provided goal flashes and reports, and with the weather looking set to curtail the racing programme, he has already volunteered his services again this weekend if required.
"Obviously Radio 5 Live have their team of reporters, but they have always been very good to me and said that if I’m free, and they have gaps to fill, they will try to give me a game," said Hunt, a West Ham fan.
"I usually do a match or two each year and they invariably find me something on FA Cup third round day – last weekend it was the Millwall and Derby tie – and I also did West Bromwich Albion and Watford in November."——————————————————–
To cross-contaminate the threads, Clare Balding showed yet again how versatile she is when hosting the BBC’s TV coverage of the Boat Race.
She will be in action at Aintree this week. She’s head and shoulders above any of the Channel 4 lot, as she will no doubt prove this week. Surely she won’t seriously give up all her authoritative BBC work to join that shower.I joke not. The first time I heard MC commentating I thought the Commentator hadn’t turned up and someone was standing in temporarily…….no such luck.
Someone said he’s a nice guy and I have no doubt he is but he’s in the wrong job.Ironic that Chapman’s first burst of racecourse commentary came at Hexham when he stood in for someone who hadn’t turned up…Doug Fraser, who inexplicably didn’t turn up as the duty course commentator.
I believe Chapman provided the commentaries for the course via the At The Races pictures and he was widely praised at the time.
It seems to have gone to his head now.I joke not. The first time I heard MC commentating I thought the Commentator hadn’t turned up and someone was standing in temporarily…….no such luck.
Someone said he’s a nice guy and I have no doubt he is but he’s in the wrong job.Ironic that Chapman’s first burst of racecourse commentary came at Hexham when he stood in for someone who hadn’t turned up…Doug Fraser, who inexplicably didn’t turn up as the duty course commentator.
I believe Chapman provided the commentaries for the course via the At The Races pictures and he was widely praised at the time.
It seems to have gone to his head now.quote]
Nick Hargreave provided the commentary for a couple of races along with a young lad who was drafted in from the backroom staff. The young lad in particular, done an extremely good job in the circumstances and certainly excelled in the limelight
Credit where credit is due, he has latley calmed down, and what he says is up to date. But Matt if we have another "the old boy buxton coming home like a wild thing" when i’m in running on the exchange, I will find you!lol
It’s stressful enough at times without uneeded or wanted stress added
I hope they don’t force Sean Boyce to commentate much as I love Boycey in the Booth he seems to make a lot of slip ups he often seems to mention the wrong course last week he said "At Doncaster…" when it was Newcastle and he does this quite a lot.
Do you remember when Racing UK Started Ian Bartlett refused to talk to the ATR handover and it became a joke to try to make him speak to anyone at ATR.
I suspect now we are well into the two channels and it’s unlikely that any courses will jump ship anymore maybe they feel they need commentators from their own company but I suspect Channel 4 gets in the way for that being universal.
I think Channel 4 will need to have a refresh of presenters at some point I went away from racing for three years when I came back exactly the same people sat there on a Saturday morning doing the same thing with the same jokes between them.
I find Stuart Machin commentary deathly dull he seems to have no interest in his voice thought he sounded particularly fed up on Saturday.
Just a quick question Exeter is owned by Jockey Club Holdings so why is it still shown on ATR will Exeter move to Racing UK one day?
Just a quick question Exeter is owned by Jockey Club Holdings so why is it still shown on ATR will Exeter move to Racing UK one day?
Yes – from May 1st onwards, along with Perth and Kelso.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I hope they don’t force Sean Boyce to commentate much as I love Boycey in the Booth he seems to make a lot of slip ups he often seems to mention the wrong course last week he said "At Doncaster…" when it was Newcastle and he does this quite a lot.
Do you remember when Racing UK Started Ian Bartlett refused to talk to the ATR handover and it became a joke to try to make him speak to anyone at ATR.One of Sean’s favourite phrases, I’ve noticed, is "apologies for that", when he has made yet another blunder.
But at least he does apologise and does not try to cover up when he gets it wrong. He does the booth work in a straight and under-played way, not in the theatrical and over-the-top, fake histrionics way of Matt Chapman.
There’s not a chance Sean will be a racecourse commentator. Mind you, as Robert Cooper did a couple of consecutive years commentating for the course at Hereford on Easter Monday many years ago in the days of 16 meetings, you could never say never.
Sir Bob has been getting a lot of stick on another forum recently, I notice. Apparently some people inexplicably find him bumbling, boring, lacking in tipping originality and generally hopeless.
Ian Bartlett certainly comes over as grumpy, curmudgeonly, tetchy and unwilling to engage in banter during At The Races handovers.
Must have been taking lessons from Des Scahill for unwillingness to indulge in any pre-race banter. Jeremy Grayson reminded us of this on another thread a while ago and wrote of his chagrin that Des’s failure to engage made life much harder for broadcasters trying to link seamlessly to the Irish races.
and say that I would have gladly chucked him in the deep end if I had been there. 
The man’s 46, for goodness’ sake, not a teenager. 
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