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The ubiquitous Carlton Kirby

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  • June 2, 2013 at 10:24 pm #18977
    ruffest

    An old chestnut, I know but… Argh! Why is Carlton Kirby determined to ruin my procycling enjoyment?! The man is everywhere. I cannot understand how he keeps getting work. To listen to his commentary is to hear a man drowning – the guesswork, the misidentifications, the tedious Partridge-esque turns of phrase, the needless shouting that does not inject excitement in the final… The way he ‘wings it’ reminds me of those psychic charlatans doing ‘cold reading’. Anyone else would be preferable. Anyone. There are many other commentators who actually know what they are talking about. His co-commentators often sound embarrassed. I know I am. He makes watching almost unbearable. As each new race starts I pray it won’t be him but increasingly often I am disappointed. :”( Sorry for venting but thanks for listening. I couldn’t hold it in any more. Hearing his voice in the opening seconds of tonight’s Dauphine coverage finally sent me over the edge X(

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  • June 1, 2016 at 9:16 am #739961
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    flyingpitman

    That may be right,but I am

    That may be right,but I am watching on British Eurosport 😉  where the rest of the commentators say AG2R .For non cyclist’s watching they won’t have a clue.

    I lisetened to him at last years Tour of Britain,he kept saying Prood Hoe (Prudhoe) the locals were shouting it’s Prudd Oh.He didn’t listen.Like I said you cant please every one all the time.Oh I forgot Greg Van Aver A mart or as the rest may say Avermaet.I always laugh when I hear Sean Kelly as he doesn’t mince his words.”Valverde is lying turd”He ended up 2nd 🙂  

    I prefer commentators to add to the racing,and not make it about themselves,turns his grannies back to the wall for the incoming.

    June 1, 2016 at 8:48 am #739959
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    stenmeister
    flyingpitman wrote:
    I don’t like either of them.Rab Hotch and his adjee jeez eer,tomma leclere pele tin,he may well be right with adjee jeez eer but everyone else say’s AG2R

    I think the French say it correctly as well

    June 1, 2016 at 7:47 am #739957
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    flyingpitman

    I don’t like either of them

    I don’t like either of them.Rab Hotch and his adjee jeez eer,tomma leclere pele tin,he may well be right with adjee jeez eer but everyone else say’s AG2R It’s confusing for the neutral fan.I have also had to learn all riders names again 🙂  but turn sound down when the screaming banshee is on.Also his obsession with Cadel Evans was awful.Even when Evans wasn’t racing kirby got in a frenzy about him.So I guess hatch beats him.

    David Harmon was very good.I like to hear Sean Kelly and Magnus Backstedt as colour commentators .Matt Stevens is ok too.I prefer Declan Quigley to either of the main commentators.Shame about Harmon,he and Sean had a good rapport.It’s a hard job and we all have our favourites and they cant please all of us.If like me you don’t enjoy the commentator turn the sound off.

     

    Talking of Tomma lecleer does anyone else think he looks like the late Robin Williams,just by the faces he pulls.

    May 23, 2016 at 9:48 am #739955
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    pjay
    Cachao wrote:
    Leviathan wrote:
    Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP! What is wrong with you people, leave the man alone. So you don’t like his style, write to Sky or Eurosport or whoever. Are we going to see this fossil thread again in 2015 when this person is still employed? Just leave it. ~X(

     

    As it’s 2016 I’d like to bring up this fossil thread and ask: who’s worse, Rob Hatch or Carlton Kirby?

     

    Simple: Kirby is still an expert in verbal diarrhoea, Rob Hatch is excellent. I can’t understand why Eurosport still use Kirby when they have a roster of  much better commentators they can call on.

    May 23, 2016 at 7:30 am #739953
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    stenmeister

    One thing that I like about

    One thing that I like about Rob Hatch is that he is better than most at pronouncing European names, both places and people, as they should be. 

     

    May 23, 2016 at 7:14 am #739951
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    MandaiMetric

    If Carlton would cease

    If Carlton would cease endlessly chuckling at his own humourless puns, perhaps I wouldn’t find his commentary so grating. IMHO he also comes across as a bit overly excited by UK riders and Team Sky. He does like a good whinge too (don’t we all) – particularly about motorbikes – I wish he’d concentrate on the race, and less on the perceived imperfections in the periphery. I can only imagine the woe if he’d been commentating Baggio interfering with Nibali on yesterday’s Giro mountain time trial, or the Tinkof team car getting stuck in the way of the unfortunate Gazprom rider midway up the climb.

    Haven’t heard much of Rob Hatch, was he on the ITV TdF Podcast last year? I found that way too much “lads on tour” – I think they may have been drunk when recording it. Chris Boardman doesn’t have a voice for radio – give me The Cycling Podcast every time. 

    Off topic, but I was living in the US during the peak US Postal & Armstrong TdF years, they used Liggett/Sherwin for commentary, but had their own pre/post race coverage team – now that truly was unwatchable jingoistic triumphalism.

    I concede bike race commentary must be tough, 4+ hours every day, sometimes with only 15 minutes of true action to actually comment on.

    OT, but both are still both are infinetly preferable to the like of Danny Mills commentating on football. 

    Maybe I’m just a grumpy git 🙂

    May 22, 2016 at 11:34 pm #739949
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    Cachao

    Leviathan wrote:

    Leviathan wrote:
    Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP! What is wrong with you people, leave the man alone. So you don’t like his style, write to Sky or Eurosport or whoever. Are we going to see this fossil thread again in 2015 when this person is still employed? Just leave it. ~X(

     

    As it’s 2016 I’d like to bring up this fossil thread and ask: who’s worse, Rob Hatch or Carlton Kirby?

    August 28, 2014 at 12:40 pm #739947
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    Eebijeebi

    Really like listening to him
    Really like listening to him even if sometimes the cycling version of Murray Walker.

    August 28, 2014 at 10:59 am #739945
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    praveshkumar796

    I like to watch my favorite
    I like to watch my favorite TV show Bigg Boss in the free time 😛

    April 27, 2014 at 5:46 pm #739943
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    ruffest

    I see there is there is now a
    I see there is there is now a petition to bring back David Harmon:

    http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bringbackharmon

    April 19, 2014 at 8:47 pm #739941
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    Rob Simmonds

    He’s bloody awful. I might
    He’s bloody awful. I might ditch my Eurosport Player sub and go back to pirate feeds from Sporza. Their chaps might be just as crap as Carlton, but as it’s in foreign I won’t know or care.

    April 19, 2014 at 8:33 pm #739939
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    Anonymous

    I must surely be missing
    I must surely be missing something, but I’ve paid to watch cycling on Eurosport and therefore I’m perfectly entitled to sing their praise when I feel it’s deserved, just as I feel I can criticise a commentator not up to the standard expected. And I don’t need to be a better commentator myself, why should I? If you are dissatisfied with the quality of a dish/wine in a restaurant, do you want to be told that if you can’t cook it/make the wine better yourself then you have no right to criticise? The cook works in unbelievably stressful conditions/ it’s hot/ long nights etc.

    If you like CK, so be it; if you don’t, you’re stuffed! At least for the time being 🙂

    April 19, 2014 at 7:13 pm #739937
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    crazy-legs

    So everyone on here could do
    So everyone on here could do better could they? You could sit there for up to 6 hrs at a time, race radio in one ear (probably in French) and your producer in the other ear; 2 or 3 TV monitors in front of you and a co-commentator alongside and you could not only talk knowledgeably about all aspects of road racing including equipment, teams, tactics, the rider roster for that race, the potted history of each rider, some gems of information about the area they’re riding through but you could also pass all that on to the viewers (who of course vary from your die hard know-it-all racer to complete newcomers to the sport) ideally with some humour or banter thrown in as well while also reacting instantly to all the crashes, attacks etc that happen live during the race.

    Great, I’m sure Eurosport would love to see your résumé.
    Personally I like Carlton, I think he does a generally very good job. Rob Hayles is well worth listening to as well, he often does Radio 5 Live commentary.

    So long as its not Hugh Porter or Phil Liggett…

    April 19, 2014 at 5:30 pm #739935
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    Leviathan

    Shut up. Shut up! SHUT
    Shut up. Shut up! SHUT UP!
    What is wrong with you people, leave the man alone. So you don’t like his style, write to Sky or Eurosport or whoever. Are we going to see this fossil thread again in 2015 when this person is still employed? Just leave it. ~X(

    April 19, 2014 at 4:19 pm #739933
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    keirik

    “Race X was completely ruined
    “Race X was completely ruined because Y was commentating and he knows nothing about ‘my’ sport, and I’d be much better”

    feel free to fill in the blanks with your preferred nadir.

    Personally I don’t mind who’s commentating as they all bring something to the table, and not all of us can identify a rider by the particular scar on their left knee that they got when they fell over on corner p, in stage q of the 2001 tour of Barnsley

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