There’s no excuse – apart from going to work and having a life – for missing any of the Betfred.com World Championship.
The BBC and Eurosport will provide hour after hour of coverage in the UK and Europe with Chinese TV also taking live matches.
The BBC, who instituted live daily coverage from the Crucible 32 years ago, start their terrestrial programming on BBC2 at 2.30pm on Saturday.
The interactive streams on Freeview, cable and satellite and the BBC website (for UK viewers only) start at 10am.
On week days, Eurosport are showing one table in each session on the main channel and the other on Eurosport 2. It’s also all live on eurosportplayer.com.
In the meantime, I thought we could get in the mood by watching some old stuff on Youtube.
First up, from the days before the theme tune got pimped, a montage of winners from 1977 to 1994.
A little talked about match from 1985.
Stephen Hendry becoming the youngest ever champion in 1990.
The first Embassy final.
Some classic Alex Higgins aggro.
Joe Johnson’s remarkable 1986 triumph.
Here’s the BBC’s most fondly remembered musical item (surely due an update).
People forget how close the 1982 final was.
Some cheer for Jimmy White fans.
Five minutes of genius.
The best match-saving break of all time.
And finally, John Virgo’s impressions of the stars of the 1980s, which were a regular feature of the World Championship back then.
Enjoy!
15 comments:
According to the BBC website, the weekday afternoon transmissions are starting as late as 3pm on some days. This may be due to the election coverage, but it is not on really as coming on at 1.30 pm enables them to show the morning action.
No sleep 'til May Day - never a truer word Dave!!!
I've heard that the BBC presenters have been told to only mention Betfred a handful of times each day. The reason is the massive free advertising they are getting on an advertisement free public broadcaster.
That may explain the reduced coverage for this year's championship.
"There’s no excuse – apart from going to work and having a life – for missing any of the Betfred.com World Championship."
Or living in Australia.
I meant to mention that Eurosport's coverage is in HD
Totally not true about Betfred being the factor for reduced coverage. It is because of the election. It is only the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon transmissions that are affected. 45 minutes will be lost on these days, to show a riveting new series called Daily Politics: Election Debates. Also last year the coverage on BBC 2 didn't start until 4.30pm, this year it will get underway at 2.30pm.
EuroSport are not on all the time either, on the sunday they are off doing other sports at certain times. You would think the snooker would hold precedence.
Eurosport are live for every session on two channels Monday to Friday.
At the weekend there are a few interuptions for other live sports.
Jamie - why don't the BBC put the election programme on BBC1 instead of Escape to the Country?
Why are they only showing 35 minutes coverage on Saturday night before screening three repeats?
Why aren't they showing the tournament in HD?
Why isn't this tournament on Sky Sports where it belongs?
'This year it will get underway at 2.30pm'
Play starts at 10am!
I think some of the BBC coverage is in HD
The weekend though is when most people can see it, I'm not knocking EuroSport as it has been important for the growth of the game in Europe. Just the BBC coverage is right up there as thier red button service is more available than EuroSport and is the only place if you have it where you won't miss a ball on TV.
To the person who asked why Sky aren't showing it: they didn't bid for it
True, they didn't bid for it. But back in 1995, they were prepared to pay ONE HUNDRED MILLION POUNDS for a 10-year deal to show the World Championship and the other three BBC events.
What a thought. And bear in mind £100 million was worth about twice as much 15 years ago as it is now.
How about this one? Fred Davis in 1978 (skip to the second half of the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqh-4WQVeiM
Watching those old musical clips takes me back to all-day coverage and magazine programmes between sessions! On the BBC nowadays with the web and red button stuff showing just the frames, it seems something has been lost - it's much more for the purist rather than the general viewer nowadays.
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