23.4.09

TALKING A GOOD GAME

Rob Walker may have to be cloned judging by the various duties he is performing at the Betfred.com World Championship, which include master of ceremonies and interviews for BBC television.

And I credit him for his contributions to worldsnooker.com's coverage of the event, which come in the form of audio reports and packages featuring interviews with the players.

I think snooker fans would prefer to listen to the players speak in their own words rather than read what they have to say filtered through journalists (although the excerpts are obviously edited down versions of what has been said).

What you don't get when written down is the intonation of what has been said. For instance, Stephen Hendry joked last year about the number of ice buckets in the arena and it became a big deal.

The sponsors, Betfred, could not be more enthusiastic about their involvement with snooker's biggest event and they are running video interviews with players on their special website.

By the way, I'm not doing any podcasts during the tournament because I figured that with 13 hours plus of live snooker every day nobody would have time to listen!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rob Walker should be moved into the commentary booth. His enthusiasm he showed for boats at the Olympics will easily be transferred to to talking about balls on a table.

Anonymous said...

problem is it comes over as cardboard enthusiasm and it gets right up peoples bogey homes

andy said...

His interviews with the players when they come off the table are very good.

I have to turn the sound down and not look at the TV when he's compering (way way too cheesy).

He's good in "On The Red" but should be a little less animated and not grin as much.

I think if he tones his enthusiasm down a little bit, takes away all the cheesy lines, removes the cheesy grin, and keeps still a bit when on camera, he could be very good.

And in my view, snooker needs more class than cheer.

Andy

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave,

Are you, or do you know of anyone 'Twittering' from Sheffield this year?

Thanks, Joe

Matt said...

I'm twittering on it and tonight Janie Watkins for Global Snooker has started so there that could be good over the coming days.

Anonymous said...

Hi Matt,

Could you post up the usernames to them, that would be great!

Thanks, Joe

Anonymous said...

Dave - I'm missing your podcasts so you should definitely get some recorded whilst the main event is taking place and maybe release them later on?

Personally I loved the interviews with Joe Johnson and John Higgins and I hope you manage to grab some more legends of the game to talk about their career highs and lows and how they percieve the game. Take your pick from Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams, Terry Griffiths, Ray Reardon, Graeme Dott, Shaun Murphy, Marco Fu, Mark Selby, Stephen Maguire, Neil Robertson, Steve Davis etc etc.

With your podcast output you have the potential to reveal a lot about the personalities of the players the public don't know.

Keep up the good work.

Devil's Advocate said...

Any reason why Walker got the kids to do introductions this morning? A well-intentioned move, but in my opinion a mistake and not suitable for an event like the World Championship. He's improved this year, but that was a step back.

It's a shame, as it undermines the good job he does generally with MC and reporting duties - as an MC, he's far better than his predecessor, the competent but dull Richard Beare - and only adds to the impression of 'cardboard enthusiasm', which is a little unfair.

Dave H said...

The lad had been in hospital. It was a nice gesture of Rob's to get him out there before play began, however this is the World Championship and the players shouldn't be introduced into the arena by children.

Anonymous said...

he is still a cardboard enthusiastic presenter

Matt said...

Joe,

Mine is: ProSnookerBlog

Global Snooker's is: globalsnooker

Also CueSportTV have one which is: cuesporttv

Matt said...

As for Rob Walker, personally I don't have a problem with him having the kid out to help with the introductions. I know that it is the World Championship but it is relatively early on and I don't see any harm caused. If it were the semis or final then maybe I'd have taken issue with it a bit more.

To be fair to Rob I think he does a good job generally, not just his work on the camera but the 10-15 minutes before the BBC roll the cameras he's great with the crowd. I'm sure that his predecessor Richard Beare was a nice guy but as an MC he was woefully out of his depth unfortunately.

Anonymous said...

cheers matt, joe

Devil's Advocate said...

I didn't realise the lad had been in hospital, and I agree it was a nice gesture - still not sure if the World Championship was the right place for it (even in the 2nd Round).

As I said in my original comment, I think Walker does a good job overall, and I agree with Matt's comments regarding his ability.