Rob Hatch

Macaloon

How about a thread in praise of Rob Hatch? Articulate, insightful, intelligent commentary enhancing my Giro viewing immensely. Stands accused of making Sean Kelly giggle during today's commentary. Exceptional job.

frenchfighter

I hardly listen to the commentary but I was listening yesterday and am listening today. I agree - it is good. Decent amount of emotion yesterday - could do with more of that and a few more anecdotes.

dolan_driver

Hatch and Kelly are a good combination. Hopefully they will be doing the Tour as well.

DD.

Pross

Yep, hopefully ES will see sense and make him their number one with Stephens / Smith as the backup team and Carlton demoted to tea making duty.

DeadCalm

I'm another fan.

TMR

Misread thread title. Expected to read about Liz Hatch. Left disappointed

argyllflyer

Dolan Driver wrote:

Hatch and Kelly are a good combination. Hopefully they will be doing the Tour as well.

DD.

No luck - Carlton and Kelly for the Tour and Vuelta.

Rob Hatch will be on Radio 5 for the Tour though - TV muted, radio on!

dolan_driver

TMR wrote:

Misread thread title. Expected to read about Liz Hatch. Left disappointed

I'm with you on that score. To console ourselves here is the bonnie Miss Hatch.


I love you, too.

DD.

DeVlaeminck

Yes Hatch is doing a good job, not Harmon standard yet but getting close. If I had to make a criticism he is just that little bit too bland, a little bit more personality or as FF says emotion would complete the package.

Jury is still out on Stevens for me, better as a pundit than a commentator where I'd rather have Carlton Kirby, though to be fair commentary can take time to learn so I wouldn't close the door on him yet. He's a little too verbose, sometimes the pictures can speak for themselves.

Turfle

Oh he's so so so much more pleasant than Kirby.

Always liked Hatch as a commentator, my only issue with him was on twitter where he had a habit of belittling those who pronounced rider names or places incorrectly. He's stopped doing that now, so that's good.

Matt Stephens is getting better by the day. He's tripping over his words less, and he's letter the pictures talk a little more. Having someone he's known for years as his co-commentator is definitely helping.

argyllflyer

For me, you need someone who can fill the dead airtime and Stephens is doing that very well in California. He's very listenable.

Carlton would be the perfect mid afternoon home counties talk DJ, chuckling away at listener anecdotes about robins in the garden and parking tickets. He does that sort of thing well when there's nothing happening in races but loses it when there's something to talk about. I caught a little of the last 1km on Sky yesterday and it was awful - he was about to explode as Rolland and then Moreno both did on screen.

As noted above, Rob could do with some more warmth to his commentary which can be functional, and while I do admire his attempts to pronounce team and rider names correctly, AG2R seems to have fallen somewhere: ah-jay-deuze-err is not correct. ah-jay-deuh-err would be closer surely?

DeVlaeminck

Do you think so ? I've been disappointed by Stevens at California and as a commentator he needs to up his game.

argyllflyer

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Do you think so ? I've been disappointed by Stevens at California and as a commentator he needs to up his game.

There's not a lot of competition on Eurosport though!

For a first attempt, it could have gone worse.

gsk82

Hatch has toned down his OTT local pronunciations and is becoming less annoying. Stevens was trying too hard at the start of the week and now seems to be settling in. I can now watch both without getting distracted by bad commentry, which I can't with Kirby. Hammond is in his own league though and it would be great to have him back.

blazing_saddles

Yes, it's hard to believe that Eurosport are going to turn from the sublime to the ridiculous
for cycling's biggest show.
Having chosen foreign language stations for the Kirby classics, I have found myself switching back to Eurosport, (except for the infuriatingly frequent ad breaks) almost exclusively.
The one area Eurosport consistently come out on tops with is in HD picture quality.

Still, if it's a choice of Kirby and glorious HD for the Tour, against Jaja's lot in SD, or unreliable HD, it's another no contest.

napoleond

Rob hatch has been fab! Although I keep thinking he sung the Neighbours theme tune.

phil s

argyllflyer wrote:

AG2R seems to have fallen somewhere: ah-jay-deuze-err is not correct. ah-jay-deuh-err would be closer surely?

You're wrong, Rob is right.

cc78

argyllflyer wrote:

As noted above, Rob could do with some more warmth to his commentary which can be functional, and while I do admire his attempts to pronounce team and rider names correctly, AG2R seems to have fallen somewhere: ah-jay-deuze-err is not correct. ah-jay-deuh-err would be closer surely?

He is correct, the x in deux is pronounced when it comes before a vowel.

napoleond

My 10yo was asking me the other day why he pronounces all the 'foreign' riders with an accent but doesn't say Michael Matthews with an Aussie Twang. Fair point I thought!

argyllflyer

cc78 wrote:

argyllflyer wrote:

As noted above, Rob could do with some more warmth to his commentary which can be functional, and while I do admire his attempts to pronounce team and rider names correctly, AG2R seems to have fallen somewhere: ah-jay-deuze-err is not correct. ah-jay-deuh-err would be closer surely?

He is correct, the x in deux is pronounced when it comes before a vowel.

I stand corrected - was being discussed on another board that his version was incorrect.

DeVlaeminck

NapoleonD wrote:

My 10yo was asking me the other day why he pronounces all the 'foreign' riders with an accent but doesn't say Michael Matthews with an Aussie Twang. Fair point I thought!

Yes we've made a similar observation in our house, be good to hear Bradley Wiggins pronounced in a London accent, Nicholas Roche in an Irish brogue and so on, just for consistency of course. Could be quite a lot of fun with some British regional accents, should Dan Martin be Brummy or Irish ?

RichN95.

DeVlaeminck wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

My 10yo was asking me the other day why he pronounces all the 'foreign' riders with an accent but doesn't say Michael Matthews with an Aussie Twang. Fair point I thought!

Yes we've made a similar observation in our house, be good to hear Bradley Wiggins pronounced in a London accent, Nicholas Roche in an Irish brogue and so on, just for consistency of course. Could be quite a lot of fun with some British regional accents, should Dan Martin be Brummy or Irish ?

I look forward to the pronunciations of Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe then. Neither should be said with generic Welsh accents, but also neither should be said with full on Cardiff accents - a more softened version would be appropriate. There's apparently a slight change in lilt between Whitchurch and Thornhill.

Of course you can just say Grunt Toma like French TV and no-one will complain.

calvjones

DeVlaeminck wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

My 10yo was asking me the other day why he pronounces all the 'foreign' riders with an accent but doesn't say Michael Matthews with an Aussie Twang. Fair point I thought!

Yes we've made a similar observation in our house, be good to hear Bradley Wiggins pronounced in a London accent, Nicholas Roche in an Irish brogue and so on, just for consistency of course. Could be quite a lot of fun with some British regional accents, should Dan Martin be Brummy or Irish ?

Nico should be an insouciant Provencal drawl perhaps. Brad an Aussie Twang [/tinhat]

argyllflyer

calvjones wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

My 10yo was asking me the other day why he pronounces all the 'foreign' riders with an accent but doesn't say Michael Matthews with an Aussie Twang. Fair point I thought!

Yes we've made a similar observation in our house, be good to hear Bradley Wiggins pronounced in a London accent, Nicholas Roche in an Irish brogue and so on, just for consistency of course. Could be quite a lot of fun with some British regional accents, should Dan Martin be Brummy or Irish ?

Nico should be an insouciant Provencal drawl perhaps. Brad an Aussie Twang [/tinhat]

And I wonder how they say Chris Froome back home! :P

argyllflyer

cc78 wrote:

argyllflyer wrote:

As noted above, Rob could do with some more warmth to his commentary which can be functional, and while I do admire his attempts to pronounce team and rider names correctly, AG2R seems to have fallen somewhere: ah-jay-deuze-err is not correct. ah-jay-deuh-err would be closer surely?

He is correct, the x in deux is pronounced when it comes before a vowel.

An R is not a vowel though? I have seen it said it is pronounced as RH does because the 2 is plural (I don't know enough about what the letters and number stand for in the first instance), which does not seem obvious in the way it is written. I have a French colleague at work who is also a modern languages teacher so I''ll see what she says this morning - I'm being a bit dense about it.

Macaloon

argyllflyer wrote:

And I wonder how they say Chris Froome back home! :P

Immaculate Home Counties, by all accounts.

Rob's not doing an impression of the French Vic Reeves or Steven Gerrard, just stands accused of speaking a foreign language. Not such a serious charge. Merci à tous.

fleshtuxedo

argyllflyer wrote:

cc78 wrote:

argyllflyer wrote:

As noted above, Rob could do with some more warmth to his commentary which can be functional, and while I do admire his attempts to pronounce team and rider names correctly, AG2R seems to have fallen somewhere: ah-jay-deuze-err is not correct. ah-jay-deuh-err would be closer surely?

He is correct, the x in deux is pronounced when it comes before a vowel.

An R is not a vowel though? I have seen it said it is pronounced as RH does because the 2 is plural (I don't know enough about what the letters and number stand for in the first instance), which does not seem obvious in the way it is written. I have a French colleague at work who is also a modern languages teacher so I''ll see what she says this morning - I'm being a bit dense about it.

It would be more accurate to say that 2 is pronounced "deuze" if followed by a vowel sound, rather than a vowel. R is not a vowel, but the pronunciation of it is like "air" and that starts with a vowel sound, so it's "deuze-air".

The first Mrs Tuxedo was bilingual French. She taught me a lot .

cc78

argyllflyer wrote:

cc78 wrote:

argyllflyer wrote:

As noted above, Rob could do with some more warmth to his commentary which can be functional, and while I do admire his attempts to pronounce team and rider names correctly, AG2R seems to have fallen somewhere: ah-jay-deuze-err is not correct. ah-jay-deuh-err would be closer surely?

He is correct, the x in deux is pronounced when it comes before a vowel.

An R is not a vowel though? I have seen it said it is pronounced as RH does because the 2 is plural (I don't know enough about what the letters and number stand for in the first instance), which does not seem obvious in the way it is written. I have a French colleague at work who is also a modern languages teacher so I''ll see what she says this morning - I'm being a bit dense about it.

R is not a vowel but as you have already identified it is pronounced "err", so the x is pronounced before it.

EG if you went into a bar and ordered "deux oranginas" you would also pronounce the x before oranginas.

here is their own youtube channel with proof of how they pronounce it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oashhn4TnY

Richmond Racer

FleshTuxedo wrote:

argyllflyer wrote:

cc78 wrote:

argyllflyer wrote:

As noted above, Rob could do with some more warmth to his commentary which can be functional, and while I do admire his attempts to pronounce team and rider names correctly, AG2R seems to have fallen somewhere: ah-jay-deuze-err is not correct. ah-jay-deuh-err would be closer surely?

He is correct, the x in deux is pronounced when it comes before a vowel.

An R is not a vowel though? I have seen it said it is pronounced as RH does because the 2 is plural (I don't know enough about what the letters and number stand for in the first instance), which does not seem obvious in the way it is written. I have a French colleague at work who is also a modern languages teacher so I''ll see what she says this morning - I'm being a bit dense about it.

It would be more accurate to say that 2 is pronounced "deuze" if followed by a vowel sound, rather than a vowel. R is not a vowel, but the pronunciation of it is like "air" and that starts with a vowel sound, so it's "deuze-air".

The first Mrs Tuxedo was bilingual French. She taught me a lot .

ooh er, Tux :shock:

dolan_driver

The various accents, personalities and styles of commentary of the Eurosport commentary team may not agree with everyone but the fact is we are absolutely spoiled by the current standard of coverage.

If you started following the sport in the 1980's and compare the coverage from then and now, we couldn't ask for more. We get live coverage of entire mountain stages in the Tour De France from roll-out to stage finish. 5-plus hours of coverage! It is hard to complain about that.

DD.

cc78

Dolan Driver wrote:

The various accents, personalities and styles of commentary of the Eurosport commentary team may not agree with everyone but the fact is we are absolutely spoiled by the current standard of coverage.

If you started following the sport in the 1980's and compare the coverage from then and now, we couldn't ask for more. We get live coverage of entire mountain stages in the Tour De France from roll-out to stage finish. 5-plus hours of coverage! It is hard to complain about that.

DD.

Absolutely. Eurosport is brilliant and it will be a sad day if/when Sky get exclusive broadcast rights for cycling.