The Sport Thread

[RhysJR]

Nice to see BBC Two have a special one-off title sequence to the MOTD theme for Northern Ireland v. England.

Interesting to see Gabby et al. in the second studio in Salford rather than onsite in Belfast.

[thebigdog2020]

On BBC coverage of the World Snooker Championship, Rishi Persad is back presenting this year. Hasn't presented Snooker for the BBC for a long time but has on ITV when Jill Douglas hasn't been available.
https://twitter.com/Nick_Metcalfe/status...6331201538

Nice to see BBC Two have a special one-off title sequence to the MOTD theme for Northern Ireland v. England.

Interesting to see Gabby et al. in the second studio in Salford rather than onsite in Belfast.

Surprised me as well, thought they would have been onsite

[dvboy]

BBC showing Czech Rep vs GB in the Billie Jean King Cup this weekend on the red button, with most (but not all) other ties available on Tennis Channel International who seem to be picking up more events' UK rights (they showed ATP 250 Marrakech last week) for the dead cheap price of £2.49/month (it's more expensive in German speaking countries where they have the WTA tour rights). A couple of observations: we got German commentary for the Kazakhstan v Germany tie today which makes sense as they are the primary broadcaster there, no commentary for the others so far and the first match of Netherlands vs Spain didn't work - thankfully the Dutch federation are showing Ziggo's coverage for free worldwide on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgPK3co6Mvw
TCI has USA vs Ukraine later today which I assume will be a simulcast of their TC coverage in the States. No coverage of the Italy vs France or Canada vs Latvia ties anywhere unless you spend €4.99 each or €7.99 for the round on the tournament website.
Back to the BBC and listings had suggested tomorrow's coverage would be online only but has updated overnight to show at least the start of the tennis on the red button instead of simulcasting BBC Two's snooker.

In other tennis news there is no broadcaster sorted for the WTA grass court season this year - last Nottingham and Birmingham ended up on the BBC website at short notice, and Prime Video added the WTA to their ATP coverage, after Eurosport dropped the three events. Prime Video's website does however say TBC next to all three of them (rather than N for no) so perhaps they are interested. https://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=s9_acss_b...7025352031

[RhysJR]

Extremely sad news has broken in the last few hours of the death of speedway and darts commentator (and Talksport reporter) Nigel Pearson, aged only 52.

https://twitter.com/SpeedwayGB/status/15...-nELGkQy9A

https://twitter.com/talkdants/status/151...4V_HEr4_Kg

[Rob]

Extremely sad news has broken in the last few hours of the death of speedway and darts commentator (and Talksport reporter) Nigel Pearson, aged only 52.

https://twitter.com/SpeedwayGB/status/15...-nELGkQy9A

https://twitter.com/talkdants/status/151...4V_HEr4_Kg

Very sad news indeed. Met him a few years ago at the Premier League Darts. A fantastic bloke and an excellent broadcaster.

[Rdd]

The scorebar being used for the Heineken Cup last 16 game between Harlequins v Montpellier is seriously busy - with both the match and aggregate score and try count. The one used for Bristol v Sale last night didn’t include the aggregate try count.

Edit: the match try count has been removed since HT.

[Steve Williams]

This is a bit of a boring post, but as Nick Metcalfe from the Metro pointed out on Twitter the other day, tomorrow is seemingly the first time there has been live snooker on BBC1 away from the Grandstand slot on Saturday afternoon for twenty years. Specifically, since 10th February 2002.
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/se...0#at-15.00

That was an absolutely mad day of sport on the Beeb, they had to juggle the snooker, Davis Cup tennis, the Winter Olympics and 120 minutes plus penalties of the African Nations Cup Final (which Steve Wilson did solo).
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/se...0#at-11.10

[Robertclark125]

An interesting observation this evening. The Scottish Rugby Super Six competition, which Freesports showed live last season, with highlights on BBC Scotland, is, this season, on the BBC Sport website Live. So I imagine BBC Scotland will have highlights again.

[RhysJR]

[fusionlad]

[thegeek]

It's paywalled, but for those with a sub to The Athletic, this is a good behind-the-scenes look at BT Sport's coverage from Ibrox the other night:
https://theathletic.com/3251796/2022/04/...ing-ibrox/

[SuperSajuuk]

[fusionlad]

[Brekkie]

Is there no live coverage of the Invictus Games then? Yes, it isn't the Paralympic Games but coverage seems to be somewhat comparable to how the BBC treated the Paralympics 20 years ago. Thought they'd be live content on the red button at least.

[RhysJR]