With the Masters snooker championship on at the moment with tonight's final staring soon. It would be great to tell about what was the best era of the snooker being televised. How many make Hazel Irvine, Ray Stubbs, Steve Davis and John Parrot good presenters or do anyone prefer David Vine, He was the longest running presenter of the BBC's coverage (How many remember David Icke in the 80's) along with Ted Lowe's commentries
With the Masters snooker championship on at the moment with tonight's final staring soon. It would be great to tell about what was the best era of the snooker being televised. How many make Hazel Irvine, Ray Stubbs, Steve Davis and John Parrot good presenters or do anyone prefer David Vine, He was the longest running presenter of the BBC's coverage (How many remember David Icke in the 80's) along with Ted Lowe's commentries
Certainly the days of the Ted Lowe, Jack Karnehm and Clive Everton were commentating was the a classic era, even if the general standard of the game then, i.e. fewer consistent contenders, was not quite as good as it is now .
I miss David Vine, and yes I remember the David Icke days fondly as well. Sport on Friday was great as well when the snooker was presneted by Helen Rollason.
Before the nonsense of the BBC introducing the 3pm and 3.50 bulletins, and going to Westminster Live, it was great when the snooker was continuous from just after 2pm to 6pm.
I also remember ITV's coverage when Dickie Davies, John Pulman, Mark Wildman and Jim Meadowcroft were the major part of their snooker team. Very good, but not quite in the BBC's league back then.
One of my earliest memories was of my parents watching the 1986 World Snooker Championship Final on BBC2. And I remember watching Snooker all the time as a nipper, so probably the late 80s era.
What year did the partition in the Crucible lower when Ted Lowe was introducing the tournament? I remember seeing that when I was younger.
Has anyone got footage of the theme tune for ITV's coverage. We all know what the BBC's is and I don't like the modern version shown at the moment (the one with the metal table and ball titles)
With the Masters snooker championship on at the moment with tonight's final staring soon. It would be great to tell about what was the best era of the snooker being televised. How many make Hazel Irvine, Ray Stubbs, Steve Davis and John Parrot good presenters or do anyone prefer David Vine, He was the longest running presenter of the BBC's coverage (How many remember David Icke in the 80's) along with Ted Lowe's commentries
Mine was the one before "Snooker Extra" was concocted to plug any gaps before the Learning Zone...
i dont like Ray Stubbs, he's definately trying to take Vine's place, he does Darts and has an irritating double act with Bobby George.
Stiil would prefer the zany coverage of snooker in days gone by, its all a bit serious these days. interesting that whilst the coverage has tried to get serious the snooker players are ditching their dinner suits!
also prefer the old theme music, but have you noticed with all the classic bbc sport themes they have been shortednend and remixed. if it aint broke dont try to fix it!!!!
Has anyone got footage of the theme tune for ITV's coverage. We all know what the BBC's is and I don't like the modern version shown at the moment (the one with the metal table and ball titles)
I asked the very same question in the 'Requests' section a while back. The BBC used it one week on 'Watchdog' as part of a segment last year.
Anyway, yeah, as I remember the BBC commentators in the golden era were:
Ted Lowe, Jack Karenhm, Clive Everton, Rex Williams, John Spencer (get well soon John, sorry to hear about your illness) et al
In the 'Golden Era' the ITV commentators were:
John Pulman, Mark Wildman, Jim Meadowcroft and David Taylor.
Mark Wildman has done some commentary for Sky Sports in recent years but since the only snooker they have the rights to now is the Premier League they don't need too many commentators. Wildman has also been used by British Eurosport in recent years. His rich tones are great for commentary if you ask me.
ITV made a snooker comeback around five years ago when they showed the Nations Cup and Champions Cup, which was presented by Russ Williams with studio analysis from Steve Davis with commentary from: Phil Yates, Peter Drury, Terry Griffiths, Willie Thorne and Mark King.
ITV showed the Charity Challenge (coverage variedd epending on which region you lived in, with host broadcaster Central being the most thorough), coverage was introduced by Eamonn Holmes with commentray from Dennis Taylor and Willie Thorne, with some others I can't remember.
I personally thought ITV's coverage in the 'golden era' and in more modern times was more than a match for the BBC's and if more tournaments spring up (there really aren't that many around these days) I think ITV should seriously consider bidding for them as snooker's audeinces are consistently high.
The current BBC coverage irritates me. I find John Parrott big headed and find John Virgo and Dennis Taylor useless and annoying and don't know why they disposed of the services of the excellent Ray Edmunds.
My ideal commentary team would consist of:
Phil Yates, Mark Wildman, Ray Edmunds, David Taylor, Jim Meadowcroft and Willie Thorne.
These may not be the 'big names' of snooker but I find their commentaries far more insightful than those of the 'household' names of the BBC. I know I'm not alone in my thinking.
Eammon Holmes also presented the BBC's coverage in the early 90's for a couple of years before he joined GMTV. He presented the Masters and the 2nd presenter of the World Championship to David Vine. He also presented Pot Black when the programme returned after a few year gap at the same time.
Also Clive Everton has also commentated Sky Sports coverage as well with the BBC alongside Phil Yates and others. He's commetating Premier League snooker tonight with Neal Foulds.
I still think Jeff Sterling was the best Sky snooker presenter of all time with Willie Thorne alongside him.
Yeah, Neal Foulds also commentates for British Eurosport, he was commentating on The Masters just last week!
Sky Sports took over as host broadcaster most of the tournaments ITV lost interest in at some point in the early 1990s. I Know ITV were showing snooker as late as 1990 as I have an old TV guide when they were showing the Mercantile Credit Classic.
Jeff Stelling and Wille Thorne (sometimes Mark Johnson- Allen) were a great presenting duo, pity we only see Jeff on Soccer Saturday nowadays seems Gary Newbon has taken over as presenter of Greyhound Racing and Darts, Jeff's other 2 sports.
I maintain with Sky losing interest in the British Open (British Eurosport showed it this year) there are far too few snooker tournaments in existence, and therefore not enough snooker on TV these days.
