I do enjoy a good sports commentary and I recently met and indeed worked with Barry Davies who was guest hosting Fighting Talk on BBC Radio 5Live. He was, as I was unsurprised to discover, a thoroughly charming and friendly gentleman and I made sure to tell him that I thought his commentaries over the years have been in my opinion some of the best, if not the best. They were always delivered with the right mixture of information, intelligence and on many occasions, wit. He also knew that sport can speak for itself at times and didn’t overload the viewer with too much verbal assistance, a skill not shared by all in the field. He will undoubtedly always be remembered for such lines as “Interesting, very interesting… look at his face… just look at his face” which can be heard here as well as other such classics including “You have to say that was magnificent” after Maradonna’s second goal against England in the 1986 World Cup here and the summation after Great Britain’s third goal against Germany in the 1988 Olympic Hockey final of “Where were the Germans?… and quite frankly who cares?” found here. While some of his contemporaries would be content with just one moment of memorable commentary, Barry has a barrel load so here are a couple more. Firstly, there was the Gazza free kick for Spurs v Arsenal in the 1991 FA Cup semi final here and if you fancy more than a quick sound bite, here is five minutes of Barry doing his thing again at the 1986 World Cup during England v Poland. There are many more examples of course, and that is testament to the man and his talent.
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