What I like: J A Mcgrath Cornelius Lyssaght The camera panning showing the course the race will take What I hate Don't get me started - in fact, I'm gonna allow you all to have a rant about how bad it was and we can see how many gripes we can have. Consider it my joining gift to you all. What I will say is that awful man who presents the fashion stuff is a very good advert for homophobia.
Funny the three things you like are three things I dislike!!! I personally think bar Willie and his facts and the fashion that the BBC do a much better job than C4 with coverage, Barty for instance has been brilliant whilst Clare is always top notch. Rishi and the chuckle brothers are tiresome but they do their job to some degree.
Carson ruins it for me. I really cannot stand him. The Beeb have to do the fashion bit as it is part of Royal Ascot, so I would not slate them for that. And the presenter (Suzie?) is all woman! What really grated was the lengthy Wimbledon trailer 6 minutes before the off of the fourth race. They should have used that time to provide more insight into a tricky race. On the plus side, I agree with Nass that the analysis by the excellent Barty and Darley was top notch. I can see C4 poaching Darley if he wants a job there - he is very sharp.
it is amateurish but what do you expect when they only show racing for I think 12/13 days a year. you have to applaud them for showing the entire card each day though this week
John parrot and Gary Wiltshere, very good. Love 'em should have more time. Gary (if any you have not read his book, you shouid it is very fascinating) knows his stuff! The fashion bits , I dont like. The majority of people who watches it imo dont really care about some rockstar designer and his snake skin stuff. Willie is annoyin at times, but he is knowledgble so is good to have on. Its just the fashion bits im not keen on!
Carson was a fantastic jockey, and what he doesn't know about racing isn't worth knowing. Che may be a little annoying but umi do like him as a "pundit". Clare Balding is as irratating as they cone, she knows very little about racing, yet thinks she has some sort of a divine right to be an expert because of who her dad is. Put me in a racing trivia contest with her, and I'd wipe the floor with her. The Indian boy knows a little, though doesn't act like so e sort of expert, he clearly has a passion for racing, and he is s decent presenter. Don't get me started on the rear gunner who talks about ladys dresses, if it was down to me I'd shoot the lot of them
Forgot to mention McGrath is a fantastic commentator, there is no better buzz in racing than when they switch over to Jim Mcgrath with 2 fences to jump in the Grand National
I just can't believe members are relatively so kind to the BBC coverage. We started off all those years ago with the professionalism of Clive Graham and Peter O'Sullevan. Then we went through the Julian Wilson era -when it started to really deteriorate- they had lost the paddock commentaries and were lucky if didn't miss the start of the race. What we have now is a right pot pourri of shamateurism from BBC's clique of "usual suspects"................... 1.Haphazard paddock comments from Rishi- on the horses HE wants to see. Who is this guy? Collet made him look like an idiot in his post race interview after Immortal Verse had won. 2.Clare Balding....she's just too much! Overbearing and full of sarcophantic rubbish......." Ladies & gentlemen, let us bow down to SIR Henry Cecil and Frankel." Get rid of her! 3. Willie Carson....tongue twisting silliness (eg. Flame and Glory); always loves the fillies above the colts- most of us do! He's worth a laugh, I suppose. 4. John and Gary....What a comedy act! Say no more! 5. Fashions...Don't ask me their names- I might have to lisp ' gay-like' to stop laughing. Where do they 'drag' these men and women from? 5. Darley and his mate... The only redeeming feature of an otherwise disjointed coverage. As Steveo says, I suppose we have to be thankful for actually seeing ALL the races this week. Yet the way the BBC employs this coterie of commentators - in many cases to cover their non-speciality sports- is pathetic. All Royal Ascot needed to sign the seal on their decline was to see another of their little 'pets,' Gary Lineker, offering the Queen a Walker's crisp!
Thank God for the horses. Jim's calling is ok, but it's what I'm used to, so he gets a pass. He might be the best going around, but he beats the hell out of some of those Hunt callers who seem to take only two or three sweeps through a field in a three and a half mile race. Fashions on the field are a shocker. I don't know how many women follow the sport compared to men, but I suppose they have to catered for. Why can't we just go back to the days when little women just brought along a baked something, and just kept looked after the sprogs? Clare Balding is a woman isn't she? And her side kick Willy Carson is a sheila too, right? That man is a waste of time. Surely there must another two people in the UK who can do a better job than these two. I didn't know all that much about Rishi, don't think I want to. I don't know what to make of Abbott and Costello in the top hats. As for the Carnival itself, it's not too bad at all. It's still a bit hard to get used to four consecutive days of racing. It does seem that there are a few too many races over the four days. Great prize money, but I can't help but feel that the quality gets a bit thin by the end.
I was happy with the coverage, mainly. One minor irritation was the fact that, although it was great to have all the races covered, having to change channels twice was annoying and I almost missed a race due to that. Another minor irritation was the fact that the full result appeared on the screen for about 1 sec so sometimes I missed it and had to go to ATR Fast Results to pick up the prices. What was really annoying was that horrible little man(?) doing the fashion. He was even worse than the pompous git who used to do it. Made me cringe.
Willie Carson is a clown. Brilliant jockey but hes cringeworthy, Never known anyone talk so much bollocks live on tele but still have a job...
I must have lived a very sheltered life as I still don't get the Robertson jam reference. My mum once did some work for Carson and said he was right miserable little ***.
Robertson's jam - i sincerely hope that this isn't a not so subtle way of calling a presenter of mixed race a gollywog on my thread.
Considering we've had Shergar's rather crass 'rear gunner' comment as well I wouldn't be surprised, this thread has been rather unpleasant to read in places.
