clayqueen
Talk Tennis Guru
Stop talking, Andrew! BBC's new Wimbledon team got it all wrong
Clare Balding's jolly-hockey-sticks patter simply does not suit Wimbledon like it does the Olympics
Alan Tyers 17 July 2023 • 9:34am
John McEnroe shares his opinion with Tim Henman and Claire Balding on the BBC
A new era in the men’s game, and on the BBC coverage too. Clare Balding in for Sue Barker, a new format and a new host for Today at Wimbledon, a farewell from John Inverdale after 39 years broadcasting from the tournament. And, for many viewers at home, a new high watermark of frustration with the on-screen personalities and the coverage.
The wonders of social media mean nobody has to suffer in silence these days and one can only hope that the BBC commentators and pundits don’t search for their own names on those sites.
Here, for instance, is Nick Kyrgios tweeting a typically unvarnished assessment during the men’s final: “Whoever is the clown next to [Todd] Woodbridge in that commentator box needs to just not speak. Spoiling the match big time.”
Surely even someone as combustible as Kyrgios could not be exercised by Tim Henman, so that can only mean that his displeasure was with the other former British No 1 in the Beeb box. Andrew Castle had got the nod for the men’s final; many viewers were left shaking their heads. Opinions on the internet varied about Castle’s performance, but only in that different people were annoyed by different aspects of it.
If I may turn to the classics to sum it up? As Chas and Dave so powerfully wrote in their 1981 masterpiece, Rabbit: Andrew, “with your incessant talking… you’re becoming a pest.”
Henman is one of the most improved ex-pro broadcasters in any sport and has developed into an excellent pundit: genial but insightful and, clearly a lovely chap who would be your mum’s preferred choice for best man. Woodbridge is also of the affable bent, though, and perhaps the recipe needed a little more spice for this fascinating final? A spiky and divisive figure like Novak Djokovic is better illuminated by another wind-up merchant, on a takes-one-to-know-one basis. Kyrgios could be an interesting signing once he packs it in, by the way.
A personality as special as Djokovic’s lends itself to analysis from pundits who themselves were masters of the dark arts, in the same way that Graeme Souness, for instance, is at his most watchable when dissecting a nice bit of the old ultraviolence on the football field.
Of course, the BBC has the original and best on its books in the shape of John McEnroe, but he was fulfilling his US media obligations during the match. He had popped up before the final to note that, like Djokovic, he “had the ability to get crowds against me”, hoon about with Pat Cash and lob in a hand grenade or two with Balding.
The mighty Clare Balding, so reliable for so long on the Beeb, did not burnish her reputation this fortnight. One of the biggest cheers of the week came when Sue Barker was presented to the Centre Court crowd, and many TV viewers have certainly been missing Balding’s predecessor.
Clare somehow does not seem in her element with the tennis and the tennisers, oscillating between being too obsequious with the talent or too garrulous. She is so good in the Olympics at making the viewer care for two minutes about a plucky British tiddlywinkist who is taking a bronze medal back to Llanelli despite all the struggles he has had with his lumbago and losing his lottery funding, but tennis is an actual proper global sport with international stars and the Blue Peter-y, jolly hockey sticks tone is not the right fit.
The Today at Wimbledon highlights show was, regrettably, a prime example of the sort of things a lot of people don’t enjoy about the Beeb: chit-chat, the silly cheerleading of British also-rans, earnest guff. Without wishing to put on the rose, erm, tinted glasses too much, the days of presenters like Inverdale might well be drawing to a close. He did his last Wimbledon stint for Radio Five at the weekend; perhaps his interview gaffe nemesis Marion Bartoli sent a carriage clock or a beauty hamper.
He was good on TV, Inverdale, but absolutely top rank on the radio. On Radio Five, information and discussion about the sport is still allowed to speak for itself without all the flannel that has become part of the BBC TV coverage. Maybe not the worst time to get out.
Stop talking, Andrew! BBC's new Wimbledon team got it all wrong
Clare Balding's jolly-hockey-sticks patter simply does not suit Wimbledon like it does the Olympics
www.telegraph.co.uk
