The Sport Thread

[thebigdog2020]

The URC now even has released its fixtures after many delays and negotiations have been overcome:
Kick-off times have been confirmed for up to Round 10 (Saturday January 8th).

https://www.unitedrugby.com/latest/news/...res-202122

S4C showing matches generally at 1715 on Saturday with double bills occasionaly at 1935. RTÉ's main slot is Saturday 1935 but will jump around a bit more than S4C are scheduled to do. No matches on international weekends either, a benefit of the new format.


BBC NI will also have a weekly magazine show, The Ulster Rugby Show, to go with their occasional rights. BBC NI showing matches on October 8 v. Zebre; October 15 v. Lions; December 26 v. Connacht, leaving three matches for the second half of the season. And I read the following as a full replay of every match available on BBC iPlayer the day after (assume like S4C showing delayed coverage of matches every Sunday and Monday night):

Every Ulster Rugby match in the United Rugby Championship will be available on BBC iPlayer 24 hours after each round with clips of the best action and tries on the BBC Sport NI website and social media channels.

https://www.ulsterrugby.com/2021/08/ulst...is-season/


Great for viewers in Wales, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic but has to said a sad dividend for viewers in Scotland who will be fortunate to get weekly highlights only (assume last year's highlights would continue).

Good news, 6 games on BBC NI is good but would have liked the whole season like the past but with this and Irish Premiership/Irish Cup BBC NI developing a good Friday night sport offering for the foreseeable future.

[RhysJR]

5Live giving Mike Costello an hour long farewell special tonight as he moves on to DAZN after 45 years at the BBC.

Mike Costello's top 10 most memorable moments in his BBC career - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/58331545

Thanks for the heads up on that, a very enjoyable listen. It was revealed at the start of the show that Mike will continue to do atheltics for 5 Live and will continue his podcast with the legend that is Steve Bunce ("hopefully with 5 Live, still involved with athletics and the podcast" the exact words, the hopefully a bit ambiguous possibly).
The full programme is here if anyone wants to listen: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09tdrbr

https://twitter.com/jacquioatley/status/...19686?s=21
Jacqui Oatley is to become Sky Sports’ lead WSL commentator

[mention]Brekkie[/mention] mentioning elsewhere that Krishnan Guru-Murthy will cover 5 Live reminds me that Jacqui Oatley has been covering on 5 Live Drive this week, as well as her work on QUEST recently and her future Sky Sports work. Always enjoy Jacqui's work so nice to see her getting this role too. An opportune moment to reflect on how the broadcasting landscape and culture has changed for the better in the last 15 years or so since Jacqui made her TV commentary debut. Apart from the Twitter trolls, I doubt anyone would barely bat an eyelid at her commentaries in a few weeks and we've came quite a way for Sky to have an all-female on air team covering a football most probably at some point soon.

[Scratch_Perry]

https://twitter.com/jacquioatley/status/...19686?s=21
Jacqui Oatley is to become Sky Sports’ lead WSL commentator

I thought Seb Hutchinson was to be Sky's "lead WSL commentator"? Though they do have 3 live games from each round (I think), so there's plenty of commentaries to go round.

[Jackwhufc16]

I thought Seb Hutchinson was to be Sky's "lead WSL commentator"? Though they do have 3 live games from each round (I think), so there's plenty of commentaries to go round.

I wonder if Jacqui Oatley will only cover the WSL, whereas (as we have already seen) Seb Hutchinson has a wider role.

[Brekkie]

Do ITV still have the World Series of Darts (if indeed it's taking place this year). Their darts coverage seems to have been more limited this year.

[RhysJR]

Heavy rain has caused lengthy delays at the Belgian Grand Prix weekend today. The W Series race on Channel 4 is over an hour late in starting and is still not close to starting. Meanwhile Formula 1 has followed Formula E in introducing helmet cam inside the driver's helmet (only Fernando Alsonso this weekend).

https://twitter.com/F1/status/1431279828515360770

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/will-a...e/6655130/
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video...JwId6EQHXQ

[Jon]

So the race has supposedly started now, but coverage has ended on Channel 4 and they’re currently showing a Guy Martin repeat. So much for the suggestion Channel 4 could be more reactive to Channel 4. What a mess!

Edit: The live race turned up on Channel 4 Sport’s YouTube channel.

[ImMaxClaydon]

Sky Sports are in the Stadium Studio today at Ibrox for todays Old Firm Game, first time in one of these since March 2020

[Brekkie]

I guess with crowds back they have to.

[RhysJR]

ITV using the ancient graphics (like snooker, darts etc.) for their own MotoGP presentation. Fifteen years old and still being introduced to new sports.

Some graphics, like the one introducing the commentators, look a bit more like the slightly more recent BTCC graphics.

[JT95]

I can never understand the misuse of graphics by ITV Sport, especially when they have such a sleek and modern set of graphics they use for horse racing! Surely the horse racing graphics could be modified and adapted to other sports?

[Robertclark125]

Re the post above, the Belgian Grand Prix is on a delayed start. As I type, the formation lap, scheduled for 14:00, will now start at 14:15, behind the safety car. Sky Sports explaining, as best they can, about the problems the drivers and cars have with very heavy rain.

[Brekkie]

I'm not sure I'd call their racing graphics sleek either - they may be newer but they're quite dated IMO. They tend to use event specific graphics for the football and rugby but the generic football package certainly could have been rolled out further.

[RhysJR]

I wonder why ITV Sport doesn't adopt a universal graphics style like BBC Sport or Sky Sports for example do?

F1 keeps getting delayed by five minutes every five minutes, still looks grim. Grid keeps getting cleared and then everyone returns. Think it might start 25 minutes late now.
EDIT: Formation lap behind safety car then back to the grid to wait. Lucky Sky and BBC Radio have dedicated channels. 5 Live Sports Extra's commentary team says they have until 17:00 BST to finish the race per the regulations. For reference, from Sports Extra again, less than two laps get no points awarded, and anything between that and 75% race distance/time gets half points. Basically need to start in the next half hour (at the absolute latest) to get a full race if 17:00 is the cut-off (there's a little confusion, think the rules were changed recently to reduce the total race time from 4 hours to 3 hours).

[Brekkie]

Well rain is about the most exciting thing to happen in F1.

Does a delayed start affect the time C4 can show highlights? I doubt they'd want to move any later tonight as they won't want to drop Celebrity SAS, and then thanks to the Paralympics not much flexibility in the schedule after.