Carlton Kirby

DeVlaeminck

The whole thread is getting a bit much, I'm not a fan of many of the current crop including Carlton but when people have a petition going to get him sacked I'm out.

philbar72

Shirley Basso wrote:

Millar's voice is pretty grating but his insight is exceptional.

yep, its the voice. sounds a bit too self serving. I agree with the insight, he's good, but the voice....

ddraver

In the wheelsucker podcast, Ned Boulting was commenting on betting on races. He does not be he hinted at a "co-commentator" who bets significant amounts who he thinks sometimes lets his !!PARTIALITY!! be !!EXPOSED!! during the RACE!!

Would explain a few things...

bobmcstuff

ddraver wrote:

In the wheelsucker podcast, Ned Boulting was commenting on betting on races. He does not be he hinted at a "co-commentator" who bets significant amounts who he thinks sometimes lets his !!PARTIALITY!! be !!EXPOSED!! during the RACE!!

Would explain a few things...

I would have thought most commentators have a degree of impartiality anyway, to be fair.

ddraver

...its the impression, or at least the intonation, Ned uses that is important.

(It's a good podcast episode anyway if you want a listen. He's a really good speaker now...)

dish_dash

Boulting doesn't commentate with Kirby... more likely Millar non?

ddraver

Well that's where the impression becomes important...and I assumed he meant "fellow"

(it's not that important, if you wanna know just listen to the podcast...)

thegreatdivide

sherer wrote:

In the space of 5 mins he managed to get cigarette advertising and then a homophobic comment about the pink pig Porsche .. this is the sort of stuff he can be sacked for.. I'm also not sure why he keeps laughing every 5 mins either

Getting a f*cking grip. Seriously. Away and ride your bike.

thegreatdivide

Vino'sGhost wrote:

yes make a complaint that he might be saying something that someone might get upset about.

He might be irritating but to identify possible mistakes that dont affect you as a person and then complain on behalf of the people that might be offended is crass

Complain if you think his commentary is poor but not because he should be fired for saying things that someone somewhere might be genuinely offended by. thats just virtue signalling.

Agreed Vino. Some of the posters in here really have to have a word with themselves.

argyllflyer

dish_dash wrote:

Boulting doesn't commentate with Kirby... more likely Millar non?

msybe he meant 'fellow' commentator, rather than 'co'. I reckon Kirby does put money on it.

RichN95.

ddraver wrote:

Well that's where the impression becomes important...and I assumed he meant "fellow"

(it's not that important, if you wanna know just listen to the podcast...)

He said "a co-commentator who I work with occasionally". He definitely meant Millar.

If Kirby was a better, he'd stop picking Simon Clarke every day.

richard_t._biscuit

If Kirby backs his favourites it might explain why he has to earn so much money commentating of every damn sport I show even a passing interest in.

blazing_saddles

Well, whether you love him or hate him, you certainly have had more (to put up with) of him this season, than ever before.
As a result, the biggest disappointment of the season for me, is how sparingly Eurosport have employed Rob Hatch as lead commentator.
Most worrying of all is that he hasn't commentated on any race, since Le Tour....

argyllflyer

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Well, whether you love him or hate him, you certainly have had more (to put up with) of him this season, than ever before.
As a result, the biggest disappointment of the season for me, is how sparingly Eurosport have employed Rob Hatch as lead commentator.
Most worrying of all is that he hasn't commentated on any race, since Le Tour....

Can only assume RH has other irons on the fire? Post tour, he did the track stuff from Glasgow for Eurosport I think? Eurosport were clearly short-handed around that time, so much so that they had Tony Gibb doing lead comms, certainly a first on Eurosport - not sure if he's done much like that elsewhere.

Edit: looking at his Twitter he's been covering the Asian Games in Indonesia and then was on holiday in Mallorca.

Vino'sGhost

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Well, whether you love him or hate him, you certainly have had more (to put up with) of him this season, than ever before.
As a result, the biggest disappointment of the season for me, is how sparingly Eurosport have employed Rob Hatch as lead commentator.
Most worrying of all is that he hasn't commentated on any race, since Le Tour....

I thought Rob Hatch was very good. I think Kirby needs a foil, but i do quite like his inanity it helps pass what can be some pretty tedious parts of stages and he can be a good laugh too. (either with him or at him)

inseine

As someone who doesn't watch Eurosport, the worst thing is that half of the stages threads seem to consist of comments about Kirby! I'd just mute or find an alternative if he really is so bad.

Vino'sGhost

inseine wrote:

As someone who doesn't watch Eurosport, the worst thing is that half of the stages threads seem to consist of comments about Kirby! I'd just mute or find an alternative if he really is so bad.

Mostly he drivels on, sometimes he misses things that are happening, sometimes he makes unintentional howlers. He's a bloke not a machine, If you havent listened to him its worth a eurosport subscription

daniel_b

argyllflyer wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Well, whether you love him or hate him, you certainly have had more (to put up with) of him this season, than ever before.
As a result, the biggest disappointment of the season for me, is how sparingly Eurosport have employed Rob Hatch as lead commentator.
Most worrying of all is that he hasn't commentated on any race, since Le Tour....

Can only assume RH has other irons on the fire? Post tour, he did the track stuff from Glasgow for Eurosport I think? Eurosport were clearly short-handed around that time, so much so that they had Tony Gibb doing lead comms, certainly a first on Eurosport - not sure if he's done much like that elsewhere.

Edit: looking at his Twitter he's been covering the Asian Games in Indonesia and then was on holiday in Mallorca.

Have to agree that Hatch is probably my favourite cycling commentator, with, for me, the right blend of enthusiasm and knowledge - my heart would sink when he handed over to Kirby for the latter part of the stages, but sore when I tuned in early to hear Kirby, as I knew Hatch would be taking the last shift.
Matt Stephens is also developing nicely as a commentator imho, would be good to see him get some other bigger gigs, and less of Kirby.
I think he must have a book of puns and cliches that he trots out whenever he can - aside from 'French raiding party' that was way too popular for 3 or 4 stages, the other one that popped up was when he remarked on a gap of 6 or 7 seconds, and then went on to announce that such a such a rider was also at 6's and 7's :roll:
Made me think of

DeadCalm

Since the start of the Tour, I've done most of my race watching at my local bar (for its convenience obviously) who have a subscription to Eurosport. While the owner is happy to let me commandeer one of the TVs for my personal use, he baulks at the idea of the sound being turned up. Saturday, the racing clashed with Premier League football and I was forced to find an alternative venue which had the sound turned up. I was surprised to discover that I didn't find Kirby to be nearly as bad as I remembered. Not once, for example, was I tempted to put my fist through the screen. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it was not offensive to listen to.

craigus89

DeadCalm wrote:

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it was not offensive to listen to.

The gold standard for commentators?

m.r.m.

Think it's just a moment of weakness. You will realize the dire truth very soon again

daniel_b

Was there many many beers involved?

norvernrob

Kirby does bet on races, he’s tweeted about backing someone at decent odds (25 or 33/1 I think) and them winning, it was a year or two ago though.

awavey

I thought he was only going about backing certain riders with cheeky bets. but if he was that good at picking stage winners, he wouldnt make such a continual muck up calling the finishes would he ?

but there you go I couldnt understand why Matt Stephens missed that Bronzini took the stage win for ages, it was like Cyclance kit, rainbow stripes on the sleeve, sprinting, Vos is doing cross, who else could it be !?!?

though Kirby sounded like he'd gone full Terry Wogan eurovision style on the presentation ceremony at the end, though there was a funny bit where he said something like and Im paraphrasing as I was only half listening, "I hope the viewers havent suffered me too much", and Im sure Sean Kelly replied "weve all suffered"

argyllflyer

Hatch back and in top gear at Giro Della Toscana yesterday.

blazing_saddles

argyllflyer wrote:

Hatch back and in top gear at Giro Della Toscana yesterday.

I was going to say that something strange occurred on Eurosport yesterday.
Some bloke turned up and actually commentated on a bike race.

thegibdog

I watched about half an hour of Eurosport coverage of the Vuelta. It would’ve been nice to watch some more of the live coverage, especially given who won, but it’s just not worth the effort when ITV do such a good job of the highlights.

DeVlaeminck

Each to their own, I caught a couple of the ITV highlight shows, the entire team are just so downbeat about everything.

daniel_b

Blazing Saddles wrote:

argyllflyer wrote:

Hatch back and in top gear at Giro Della Toscana yesterday.

I was going to say that something strange occurred on Eurosport yesterday.
Some bloke turned up and actually commentated on a bike race.

Just about to watch this now, with a turbo session - ES player confused me initially by labelling it as stage 2 :?

daniel_b

What an entertaining race, Dunbar looks like an inspired signing.