In any other career it's perfectly acceptable to be retired at 65, but those in TV seem to think they should remain there until they die. He's got 30 years out of them FFS - time to move on.
I don't get it. It's not as though he's unpopular with viewers - hardly anyone has a bad word to say about him, unlike certain other BBC commentators *cough* John Virgo *cough*.
SF
Selwyn Froggatt
This is disgraceful and I am livid - Clive is the best commentator around. If I were at the BBC, I would get rid of Virgo, Thorne and Taylor.
The article states that Steve Davis and John Parrott will do some more commentating. While these two gentlemen are excellent at playing professional snooker and with all due respect to them both, Mr Davis does come across as being possibly the most boring person on the entire circuit whether he's playing, analysing or commentating. Mr Parrott isn't much better either.
I think David Vine summed it up perfectly in the linked article:
Quote:
The loss of [Everton's] contribution to the televised output [of Snooker] would leave a large gap but, apparently, as we have seen in many other sports covered by the BBC, the trend is for celebrities, former players and star names to be invited to do the job of professional journalists and trained broadcasters.
These days Tim Henmen commentates on tennis, and then rather ironically had to take two days off because he was doing too much talking. Now they want Ken Doherty to do more studio stuff. There's something about the studio work on the snooker production that turns snooker professional people into tedious pieces of continuity.
I reckon Paul Hunter would have made an excellent television pundit. Sadly we'll never know - he was only 27 when cancer claimed his life in October 2006.
I reckon Paul Hunter would have made an excellent television pundit. Sadly we'll never know - he was only 27 when cancer claimed his life in October 2006.
Slightly strange thing to add to the bottom of your post I think? I agree with the rest of your post though.
SF
Selwyn Froggatt
I wonder if Stephen Hendry will become a commentator/pundit when he retires? He has commentated for the BBC before.
For the first time in 30 years the voice of Clive Everton isn’t being heard during the BBC’s coverage of the Masters, the tournament most snooker players regard as next in importance to the world championship, and the deprivation thus inflicted on armchair watchers of the transmissions from Wembley Arena is sadly just a foretaste of worse to come. When the biggest event of all takes place at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield between April and May, Everton will be restricted to commentating only up to and including the quarter-finals.
The Beeb insist the drastic reduction in his role has no connection with his age (71) and viewers can testify that his performance in the booth hasn’t slipped from the standards that have long set the benchmark for snooker commentary. Of course, the context of the decision to shrink his schedule of engagements is the obsessive belief among Corporation executives that men who have gained prominence as players, whether retired or still active, make the best talkers over the action on the baize.
Graham Fry, who oversees the BBC’s tournament coverage, was quoted on that theme last week: “Snooker is different from most TV sports in that the commentary is mainly analytical - forecasting or explaining a shot - which articulate professionals can do well.” Without doubt quite a number of them can but none has the fluency and authoritative brevity of expression or the capacity to convey a game as a rounded narrative that Everton brings to his work.
And he is not noticeably handicapped when it comes to analysis. He had a distinguished amateur career in both billiards and snooker but almost as soon as he turned professional he fell victim to a chronic back condition. Some might suggest I am prejudiced in his favour because he has a journalistic pedigree (he reports for The Guardian and The Observer and is founder-editor of the 38-year-old monthly magazine Snooker Scene) but while accusations of loyalty to the clan are always bearable they diverge from the truth in this case. The reason for considering the BBC’s marginalising of Clive Everton hopelessly wrongheaded policy is simple. My enjoyment of snooker on the box is multiplied whenever he is at the microphone.
I thought I heard him this week on the coverage of the Masters - then I realised he was giving a personal tribute to David Vine.
I love snooker - but I've not missed Clive in the commentary box this week, however, I would rather have him back that listen to extra shifts from John "where's the white going...WHERES THE WHITE GOING..?" Virgo.
Clive Everton writes in detail in his magazine Snooker Scene about his demotion by the BBC.
___________________________________________________________________
Few journalists relish becoming the focus of the story although, in my own case, this situation has often been forced upon me by WPBSA's various attempts to disadvantage me or even put Snooker Scene out of business through unsuccessful legal actions and a variety of dirty tricks.
Now I find myself at the centre of a media story and debate over BBC TV's decision to curtail my career as one of its frontline snooker commentators.
I was not engaged to commentate at the Masters just concluded and have been engaged only for the first twelve days of the World Championship.
Inevitably this has given me a dilemma. Wanting to continue to work for BBC, whether in a reduced role or not, I am nervous of writing about - or providing information for others to write about - my situation in a manner that might antagonise those with power to affect my BBC future.
On the other hand, I do not think I can be expected to lie down and die. I am proud of my reputation and believe that this entitles me to reveal the reasons I have been given for this development.
Neither was the marginalisation or, if it so proves, removal of the BBC's senior snooker commentator ever going to pass without comment from press and public.
I have been heartened by the response of both, in particular from the public I try to serve by providing information and
Thanks also to all readers who rang to enquire about my health, assuming this to be the reason for my absence from the Masters commentary box.
The volume of e-mails, either to various websites or forums or directly to me, has been encouraging not only because the response has been virtually unanimous in my favour but because many messages reveal how seriously the game is followed and its every aspect debated.
However, I do not think this is the time or the place to reproduce e-mails either praising me and/or making critical comments about those who will be my professional colleagues up to and including the quarter-finals of the World Championship and, I still hope, beyond.
Meanwhile, I have taken them to demonstrate an appreciation of my efforts either in commentary boxes or through Snooker Scene. As far as Snooker Scene goes, there can be no magazine without readers prepared to buy it and thus finance my crusades against poor governance of the game.
As to my BBC future, it is entirely in the BBC's gift whether any commentator is employed. It may consider public opinion, it may not. Its decision, right or wrong, perceived to be right or perceived to be wrong, is absolute.
None of us, of course, can go on for ever. BBC has to have an eye to the future without losing sight of the present. Opinions may
management of this.
I would not even wish to continue commentating if I believed my standards were slipping. There has been no suggestion from BBC that they have.
I had no inkling that my BBC future was under immediate threat until, on the second morning of the 2008 Masters at Wembley, I was called aside by Graham Fry, head of production for Trans World International (now known as IMG Media), who produce the BBC's snooker coverage.
He told me that my BBC career would end 14 weeks hence at the World Championship, that the decision had "come from the BBC," but that he had not protractedly argued against it.
I thought this harsh and, after 30 years service to BBC TV, was very disappointed that it should apparently be ending in this way.
I asked how I would be replaced and was told Steve Davis and John Parrott, hitherto used almost entirely as presenters, would spend more time in the commentary box and that Ken Doherty would be incorporated into the team.
Since Davis, Parrott and Doherty are all still serious tournament players I wondered how matches would be covered on days when they were either playing or preparing to play.
Although my thoughts were dominated by an emotional reaction to losing a job I love, I was also alive to the financial implications of losing my single
source of income. I therefore remarked that,
particularly at the stage of events when there was television coverage of two tables, the team might be short-handed.
Fry took this point and undertook to present it to Philip Berriie, BBC Sport's head of programmes and planning. About an hour later, he said he had been authorised to offer me the first seven days (of nine) of the UK Championship and the first twelve (of 17) at the Crucible in the 2008-9 season.
However, my agent, Geoffrey Irvine, and I, not entirely content with this, requested a meeting at Television Centre with Bernie, which was also attended by Fry.
Following the initial courtesies, Bernie said: "This is nothing to do with your ability, nothing to do with your age."
He added that my style of commentary was "traditional", that something more informal was desired and that it was felt that I did not "interact" with other members of the team as well as they interacted with each other.
I responded that this was the first I had heard of this and that I did not believe it to be true.
The outcome was that my contract was extended to cover the Grand Prix and the UK Championship but I was not contracted for the Masters and only for the first twelve days of the World Championship.
Underlining that there was no issue with either my ability or my age (71), I was, when the time came, awarded the plum slots of the finishes to both the Grand Prix and the UK finals.
The change in my status at the BBC had twice been foreshadowed by Charlie Sale, the Daily Mail's award winning sports diarist, first during the 2008 World Championship, then shortly before December's UK. The timing of these stories was an unwelcome distraction for me.
Commentating on such long, arduous events is enough for anyone without the extra pressures such stories generate and I was also anxious not to breach the terms of my BBC contract.
I like to be helpful when fellow journalists contact me on this story or that and felt some embarrassment in having to play forward defensive, particularly when it was clear that Sale, whom I have known for 20 years, had the essence of the story anyway from another source, or sources.
However, I did have to warn
The
Guardian, whose snooker correspondent I have been since 1976, of my impending change of situation with BBC, not least, of course, because the BBC would no longer be paying my expenses in order to have first call on my services at the Masters.
The Guardian's sports editor decided that such changed circumstances for "the voice of snooker" and some of the issues they raised should form the basis of a story by Owen Gibson, formerly The Guardian's media correspondent and now its senior sports news correspondent. This was published on January 10 and can still be accessed on its website.
Gibson reported the essentials of my situation and broadened his article into a consideration of whether, not just in snooker, the balance in BBC commentary boxes between career journalists/ broadcasters and former champions or near champions had changed for the worse, an issue widely debated of late in several newspapers.
To this end he interviewed David Vine, who expressed the view it had "led to a decline in standards, even though there have been a few instances of a successful change in career. Unfortunately, many
others have been allowed a free rein to adopt a commentary style which consists of non-stop chatter, schoolboy humour and, at times, pure piffle."
He said that "the loss of [Everton's] contribution to the output [of snooker] would leave a large gap" and was kind enough to add, although this was not published in The Guardian because Gibson's article had to be cut to fit the slot it had been given on the page: "dive's unrivalled journalistic knowledge of the game [and] command of the English language, coupled with a very professional approach to the art of broadcasting (which includes valuable periods of silence) contributed greatly to the BBC snooker success story.
"Despite his many brushes with the governing body of the sport through his magazine Snooker Scene resulting in a number of libel actions -all fruitless at considerable
expense to the playing members - he never allowed this side of his business to creep into his commentaries, which were reserved for what was happening on the table -rather then under it."
Gibson quoted 'BBC insiders' as saying that "there is nothing sinister in the decision to move Everton aside and point out that it stood firm on previous occasions when pressure was exerted by the game's governing body [i.e. WPBSA] over his dual position of Snooker Scene editor and BBC commentator."
I am pleased to confirm this.
A BBC spokeswoman told Gibson that my marginalisation "is no reflection on Clive at all. It is part of our plan to look at how we can bring snooker to a wider audience."
She added that I would still be part of the team "in a reduced role" and that my change of status was part of a plan to "refresh" the coverage.
I take some comfort from this remark as I very much hope to be part of the BBC team not only at the World Championship but next season
Another disappointment came my way (writes Clive Everton) in the week prior to the UK Championship when I was informed by TWI [IMG Media] that my services would not be required for the Welsh Open at Newport on February 16-22, a BBC Wales event for which TWI has the production contract.
I have been commentating for BBC Wales since 1980 except for a three year gap when there was an insistence on exclusively locally based personnel.
Last year, there was a six man commentary team: myself, Terry Griffiths, Dominic Dale, Darren Morgan, John Evans, a general purpose BBC Wales sports reporter in both English and Welsh language, and Geraint Jones, primarily a BBC Wales continuity announcer but also a local league player for Fairwater Conservative club, of which I was, coincidentally, a member in my Cardiff days. Evans and Jones were, from the start, stalwarts of snooker commentary in Welsh.
I was, however, told that Jones and I were to be dropped this year because of budgetary constraints arising from extending the tournament from last year's six days duration to this year's seven.
I did volunteer, in these tough economic times, to reduce my daily fee by half so that I was on the same level as Dale, Morgan and Evans and also offered to be responsible for my own accommodation but this offer was rejected.
Dale is due to play his opening match in the tournament on its first evening. If successful, he will play second on its third afternoon.
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Dear Clive
Do you realise there is a channel called British Eurosport, which shows exactly the same pictures that the BBC do?
OK you'll be commentating from a cupboard in Feltham, but at least you will still be commentating on live snooker - and I'm sure they'll be only to delighted to have you, and you will be ten times better than Mike 'back in Paris' Smith - who appears at times not to understand the basic rules of the game - And, as bonus, you won't have to put up with John Virgo shouting "where's the white going" everytime the white goes remotely near the pocket.
Sore loser is the phrase that comes to mind - most other sports have seen their commentary line up change in the last 20 years, so why not snooker too.