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The BBC’s first football commentator, on radio beginning in 1927, was Henry Blythe Thornhill Wakelam, a former rugby player with Harlequins. You can hear a snippet of his commentary, from an Everton game of the early ’30s, here, including references relating to the original Radio Times grid system. The link to the recording is highlighted…

Here’s an entire 45-minute documentary covering the whole story of England v Germany encounters from the very beginning until.. well, I stopped watching after the 5-1 Munich victory, so I don’t know how it ends. Too many talking heads, as is always the case with this kind of thing, although one of those heads is…

Not my favourite part of the game, bound up as it sometimes is in the kind of rivalry and violence that’s dogged the British game. But in looking around for footballing siblings yesterday, I came across this, which I thought was quite clever in its way: (sung to the tune of David Bowie’s ‘Rebel Rebel’):…

No sooner said than done. Listeners to Radio 5 Live Extra (Digital channel) on Sunday 21st January can listen to Arsenal v Manchester United commentated using the original 1927 grid system. On Radio 5 Live (digital and analogue) Mark Saggers’ Sport on Five at 7pm on Thursday 18th January looks back at some of the…

A lot of people have taken the time to be very kind about this weblog of late, and I’m humbled and gratified. Thankyou. Of course, into the room with it alongside the blushes and stammers comes a familiar figure; neckless, skinheaded, wearing white shoes and a romper suit over the tattoos – writer’s block. I…

Watching two 50 year old men qualify for the World Darts Final yesterday, I couldn’t help but be struck by how poor the quality of play was. Too fast – and the players moving far too much of their body for truly consistent scoring. (The second finalist made it through without ever really playing better…

2007 is of course the 80th anniversary of football commentary. It’s good that the best of it is still on radio, although the “chart” system that the BBC set out with in 1927 has long been discarded. When a game is broadcast live on both television and BBC Radio 5, I’ll mute the TV and…

Actually, I’ve been trying to stay low whilst the British commentariat work through their various problems with the sporting life of the United States, but when even Simon Barnes gets involved with this piece of shame-inducing drivel… and I’m saying, if you find this funny… (I don’t really understand why Brits care so much about…

I don’t see this being bettered: Footballers are like mayflies; one minute they’re gangly young things, full of potential, and then before you know it they’re struggling to keep up with the pace of the game and having to find something else to do with the rest of their lives. Harry Rutherford, discussing Beckham’s departure…

It’s years since I read Barthes on photography, but one line has stayed in my mind. It accompanies a photograph of a young man who was executed for murder in the nineteenth century. Barthes puts his picture before us and says, He is dead, and he is not dead. (Or something to that effect!) With…