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Ian Bartlett certainly comes over as grumpy, curmudgeonly, tetchy and unwilling to engage in banter during At The Races handovers.
Why should he engage in inane, puerile banter?
His job is to commentate on the race not to take part is some three ring circus?
I note you also complain about the false bonhomie when ATR hand over to John Hunt – you can’t have it both ways!!!
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.
But things are different in Ireland, apart from the biggest races all commentators do is call the race – there is no calling to the start as we have in the UK, so again why should the commentators engage in inane banter.
On the subject of Des Scahill – I see he seems to have lost the Punchestown gig, well at least day one, as Gerry Hannon was calling yesterday.
Ian Bartlett certainly comes over as grumpy, curmudgeonly, tetchy and unwilling to engage in banter during At The Races handovers.
Why should he engage in inane, puerile banter?
His job is to commentate on the race not to take part in some three ring circus?
I note you also complain about the false bonhomie when ATR hand over to John Hunt – you can’t have it both ways!!!Absolutely right. I far prefer it when the linkman in the booth just hands over straight, without needless banter. There’s no need for chatter with the commentator.
I suspect most viewers would prefer to hear the pre-race analysis and then a straight handover to the commentator. Inane and puerile is certainly spot-on for Matt Chapman’s links to the commentator and general approach but, as we know, there are plenty of people who like it, so it’s horses for courses.
My tongue-in-cheek view about Ian Bartlett was obviously a mischievous response to the earlier post about his unwillingness to engage in banter. To be honest, I rather admire him for not falling over himself to engage in pointless banter. I have to say I have heard him making quips but it’s been so long since I’ve been able to watch any At The Races coverage that I don’t know how much of it goes on now generally.But things are different in Ireland, apart from the biggest races all commentators do is call the race – there is no calling to the start as we have in the UK, so again why should the commentators engage in inane banter.
On the subject of Des Scahill – I see he seems to have lost the Punchestown gig, well at least day one, as Gerry Hannon was calling yesterday.Seems amazing that the Irish commentators don’t identify the runners when they go to post. Perhaps we are a bit spoiled in this country, getting a generally very good service from commentators, including betting shows and, for parades, often detailed pieces of form.
Obviously, I’m not suggesting the Irish commentators should indulge in banter. Was just reminded of Jeremy Grayson’s lament that, by not doing so, it makes it more difficult for him and other broadcast presenters.
Sounds like the writing might be on the wall for Des Scahill, if Jerry Hannon is getting a firmer toehold. As I have said before, I like Des in a funny sort of a way, not least for his solid reliability and uniformly diligent approach to every race.
He seems to get a lot of criticism for missing fallers but, given the size of the big fields often in Ireland, I think he generally does a good, if workmanlike and unspectacular, job.Some commentators dont seem to mind, Iain Mackenzie for one, if handed over too early, will always give info of whats happened going down to the start, Alan Howes and Malcy T will always wish you a good afternoon. The most stupid handover ive heard, is when Prat Chapman asked Doug Fraser to explain the purpose of the starting collection area at a Hexham meet. Maybe old Matty boy just wanted to "go back to basics!!!" Still not as bad as socks and pants I suppose
curmudgeonly
Is that one in the dictionary Crusty???It certainly is, Dave. I have just Googled it and came up with this:
Adj. 1. curmudgeonly – brusque and surly and forbidding; "crusty remarks"; "a crusty old man"; "his curmudgeonly temper"; "gruff manner"; "a gruff reply"
gruff, ill-humoured, crusty
ill-natured – having an irritable and unpleasant dispositionCould have been invented just for me, never mind Ian Bartlett! At least I admit it…
I’m hoping to audition again for Grumpy Old Men soon….Re Punchestown commentaries, Des Scahill & Jerry Hannon tagged teamed at last years meeting and appear to be doing the same this year
Des was more worn out than the horses after yesterday’s first race never heard him so lively if you can look at race listen to how worn out he is at the end.
Re Punchestown commentaries, Des Scahill & Jerry Hannon tagged teamed at last years meeting and appear to be doing the same this year
Just been watching the racing review of the Punchestown coverage and noticed that Des Scahill missed a spectacular faller at the very first fence in the first race.
He certainly can’t have been using the monitor because you couldn’t miss it from the TV pictures (assuming he has access to the same pictures).
I had to rewind the coverage to check that he really did miss it. He certainly did, although he did eventually mention the faller much later.
Jerry Hannon did the last couple of races and I had to smile to myself when I noticed that he, like Des, says "tremenjous" and not "tremendous". He has been described as a slightly more animated and Mini Me version of Des.
I am just watching the Perth races, with commentaries by Iain Mackenzie, and am enjoying those. It still makes me annoyed that he and others have been placed under review in a thinly-veiled attempt to clear out the old stagers to make way for Matt Chapman and the others.
It’s a travesty of justice. I don’t know what more Iain and the others could do but once you’re a marked man, you’ve had it.
As Jeremy Grayson has pointed out on another thread, Iain certainly won’t be short of work, having been seen race reading at the Corbridge point-to-point on the way up north.
Same with Jim McGrath, with his Daily Telegraph and At The Races work and no doubt other interests I don’t know about.Matt Chapman is praised in today’s Racing Post under the headline "Good Call".
The snippet reads: "The self-proclaimed people’s commentator, Matt Chapman, brought his unique brand of race calling to Hereford for the first time and passed the test with flying colours."
Makes a change from the usual Hereford regulars, including Iain Mackenzie and Ian Bartlett. Looking forward to hearing Matt’s commentaries on the video over the weekend.
Meanwhile, it was a red-letter day for a near namesake of a former racecourse commentator, Robin Gray, at Musselburgh.
Young jockey Robyn Gray, 21, no relation, rode the first winner of her career at the Scottish course aboard Talk of Saafend, who made all.I listened to Matt Chapman’s commentary for the first time yesterday and wow – what gusto! You would be excused for thinking the low grade handicap chase at Southwell was the Gold Cup.
His sound quality actually deteriorated as the race went on. I nearly had a coffee-on-monitor splurge moment when somebody on Timeform Radio (maybe it was graysonscolumn) joked that he’d broken the microphone!
Matt Chapman is praised in today’s Racing Post under the headline "Good Call".
The snippet reads: "The self-proclaimed people’s commentator, Matt Chapman, brought his unique brand of race calling to Hereford for the first time and passed the test with flying colours."
Makes a change from the usual Hereford regulars, including Iain Mackenzie and Ian Bartlett. Looking forward to hearing Matt’s commentaries on the video over the weekend.
Meanwhile, it was a red-letter day for a near namesake of a former racecourse commentator, Robin Gray, at Musselburgh.
Young jockey Robyn Gray, 21, no relation, rode the first winner of her career at the Scottish course aboard Talk of Saafend, who made all.I was looking forward to watching the replay after a long day yesterday crusty, After 5 seconds of the first I thought I would have an early night. How disapointed I was to see Pratt hasnt been left to the confines of the "all weather". I can think of a few things that are unique to his commentaries, but I would hate to be kicked off the forum…… Lets hope its back to Wolverhampton and Southwell next week for our so called "peoples commentator". Makes you sound like an election candidate Matt, Vote for Chapman, the "Peoples commentator". I dare say he would match the Con/Libs efforts ove the last day or so!
I was looking forward to watching the replay after a long day yesterday crusty, After 5 seconds of the first I thought I would have an early night. How disapointed I was to see Pratt hasnt been left to the confines of the "all weather". I can think of a few things that are unique to his commentaries, but I would hate to be kicked off the forum…… Lets hope its back to Wolverhampton and Southwell next week for our so called "peoples commentator".
I must be going soft because the first thing I am going to do in the morning, when I’m sitting in my pyjamas with a nice cup of tea, is watch the Racing Review replays from Hereford, featuring Uncle Matt Chapman.
Can’t believe I will de doing this. I think it’s because he added so much extra detail in to his Lingfield all-weather commentaries that I want to see and hear what he does with the longer jumps races, where there is even more scope.
With no less an authority than Andrew King, the on-course reporter for the Racing Post at Hereford, apparently writing the fulsome praise in the paper, who am I and others on this forum to disagree? He seems to be getting a lot of praise from certain highly-placed racing figures, despite the criticism on this and other forums, so his future is assured.Makes you sound like an election candidate Matt, Vote for Chapman, the "Peoples commentator". I dare say he would match the Con/Libs efforts over the last day or so!
Let’s hope Matt doesn’t go in to coalition with John Hunt. I can just see those two in the rose garden of Number 10 together.
Have watched the Racing Review replays of Matt Chapman commentating at Hereford and, in all fairness, I thought he did a good job.
He seems to have toned down the over-the-top antics and vocal gymnastics and seemed to me to strike the right balance in keeping what we must concede is his distinctively idiosyncratic style while not overdoing it, to the general annoyance of those watching and listening to the race.
It was good that he picked up on the fact that jockey Jason Kiely was having a "red letter day" by riding his first winner in this country. He also did a good job when there were a few nasty falls.
He surprised me by not packing in as much information about the runners and jockeys as he has done during his early Lingfield commentaries but someone has obviously had a word in his ear and advised him to tone it all down a bit.His sound quality actually deteriorated as the race went on. I nearly had a coffee-on-monitor splurge moment when somebody on Timeform Radio (maybe it was graysonscolumn) joked that he’d broken the microphone!
Ah, sorry about that. Happy to reimburse you to the value of one spoonful of coffee.
I understand many Twitterers, including several of this parish, were very quick off the mark when during one commentary from Hereford, ATR displayed the legend; "We apologise for the poor sound quality"…
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.
He also did a good job when there were a few nasty falls.
I can’t agree with that unequivocally.
Log onto ATR’s replay console and examine the final fence and its aftermath in the second race, the 0-100 2m handicap chase.
The picking up of what happened to the three runners (out of the four) to meet or nearly meet with mishap at that fence took too long – an "oh, woe!" cry was used to buy a few seconds.
(Again, this was something the Twitterati pounced on very quickly – one wonders if all at Racetech keep note).
The eventual second Jolibob was quite clearly and unmistakably described as "down at the last".
Jolibob was still slithering about after the fence when the screen panned away from him and back towards the winner, but his fate was not certain at the time. He hadn’t gone fully to ground, as was inferred in the commentary; and presumably nor did he, to have been able to complete eventually.
There may be some other logical explanation as to why the above was described the way it was, but as they stand the details bear the hallmarks of an over-reliance on the monitor that caught the commentator proverbially trousers down. Not the most seductive argument in favour of his retention post-June, this.
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.
He also did a good job when there were a few nasty falls.
I can’t agree with that unequivocally.
Log onto ATR’s replay console and examine the final fence and its aftermath in the second race, the 0-100 2m handicap chase.
The picking up of what happened to the three runners (out of the four) to meet or nearly meet with mishap at that fence took an eternity.
The eventual second Jolibob was quite clearly and unmistakably described as "down at the last".Yes, that incident was certainly a low point in an otherwise good performance and I did rather gloss over that when making my overall comment. I, too, got the impression that he had been relying overly on the monitor because the incident went out of shot and rather threw him, I must admit.
There’s no doubt in my mind that he will be kept on, no matter what anyone else may write or think about the matter. When your face fits in the right places, as we all know, you’re home and hosed. No matter how well those under threat do, and no matter how much they might pull their socks up in a bid to impress the judge and jury, it will do them no good.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.
It wasn’t the lack of banter specifically that irritates us at TFR (and presumably elsewhere), Crusty. Rather, it’s the complete absence of anything from Scahill until the gates fly open.
No indication of how many are left to go in, of whether anything’s playing up and may precipitate a delay, or even of when the flag’s been raised, all serve to create so much dead air between handover to the course and the start of the race.
The temptation then becomes one of going too far the other way, i.e. to keep chatting at our end until the horses are flying out of the traps – we don’t regard that as any more smooth or seamless a way of doing things.
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.
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