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Why the �鶹Լ�� Get Inspired Unsung Hero award means so much

2018-08-29T08:00:00+00:00

Denise Shannon, last year's winner, and Graeme Chilvers

Denise Shannon has had quite a year since being named 2017 �鶹Լ�� Get Inspired Unsung Hero at the �鶹Լ�� Sports Personality of the Year show in Liverpool. But it might have been a very different year were it not for Graeme Chilvers, Health and Recreation Manager for Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, in Leicestershire, who nominated Denise in the first place.

Denise had been on my radar: we knew her since before 2012. We worked with her about carrying the Olympic torch.

She really puts herself out. You can see the difference she makes - everybody has something positive to say about her.

I'm a cascade trainer for Walking For Health, I trained Denise up to be a walk leader.

You see the impact, especially with young people and their education - teachers say young people involved in sport have a better attitude to life. They focus more and work their way through problems and get success.

Volunteers are the heartbeat and lifeblood of sport in this country, it's nice to highlight the difference they make. Every year we acknowledge the young coaches coming through.

Young coaches are absolutely amazing. Every Tuesday morning, Sport In Desford has activities for those affected by cancer. In the holidays young coaches come through and help out.

We always look for, encourage and engage with young volunteers. There are lots of roles to do. It’s all about partnerships - getting out into your community and knowing your community. If local authorities can do that it makes a big difference.

Our winners just don't just win [Graham also nominated 2012 �鶹Լ�� Get Inspired Unsung Hero award winners Sue and Jim Houghton] - they go on to do even more. They're the superstars - I'm just lucky to be the storyteller.

Sport in this country wouldn't happen without these volunteers - it's a fantastic way to acknowledge and thank them for the work they do.

For the first time, nominations can be made via video and audio submission. To nominate your Unsung Hero by video, audio, online webform or via email to unsunghero@bbc.co.uk, visit www.bbc.co.uk/unsunghero. Entries close on Sunday 21 October at midnight and the shortlist will be revealed in the days leading up to the �鶹Լ�� Sports Personality of the Year ceremony in December.

Catching up with the �鶹Լ�� Get Inspired 2016 Unsung Hero Award winner

2017-09-06T05:00:00+00:00

It’s a year since Marcellus Baz won the �鶹Լ�� Get Inspired 2016 Unsung Hero Award for his work setting up the Nottingham School of Boxing. To mark the beginning of this year’s search for an Unsung Hero, we asked Marcellus to reflect on his experiences.

It’s impossible to put into words how it felt to win the Unsung Hero award. It was a really surreal moment for me. It was incredible to get such recognition as I never imagined I’d achieve that kind of success. It was really humbling to see that the efforts that I and the team around me had put in were recognised at such a prestigious ceremony. I celebrated with my family, friends and various community groups I’m part of. Winning that award would not have been possible without the support they gave me, so really it was a celebration of the hard work we all put in.

I set up Nottingham School of Boxing in 2013 to create a safe place for people to gain confidence through boxing and use the skills, knowledge and discipline they learn to thrive in the real world. It’s a place where people, regardless of boxing ability, can be part of a warm and friendly environment while keeping fit.

When I was 23, I was stabbed through the hand by a rival gang member, ending my hopes of a pro boxing career. I became a gym instructor instead and I soon noticed that a lot of the people coming to me were from a similar background to me. I started to mentor them and link them up with organisations that could help.

I first started running the boxing club on a voluntary basis, after taking over a disused sports hall. Some of the people who train at the club come from really difficult places and have been through things you can’t even imagine. When they’re in a safe environment, they have the opportunity to escape and express themselves in a way they don’t have to vocalise. We now teach far more than boxing skills and offer a support network for those who might not have one at home. Nottingham School of Boxing only takes up a part of our work – we also deliver a program called Switch-Up.

Switch-Up is more about personal mentoring and life skills. Fundamentally it’s there to help kids get into work and open doors to opportunities they might never have had. I started that because of the place I came from – I wanted to help people as a way of giving back to the community. There were people who inspired me when I was in a really dark place following the knife attack that cut short my boxing career. I want to help people who are going through tough experiences and show them positive pathways into employment, training and education.

More than 800 people now attend the boxing school through the Switch-Up programme. I’ve seen people come into the school that have been totally written off, but today they are different people. The family we have created are there for each other and I’ve watched people grow in such a positive way. We aim to help young people thrive and go on and achieve their full potential in life. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, we have amateur boxers who compete at the highest of levels in the UK. It’s a special place and I would like to think that we help to make a difference for everyone, no matter what their circumstances are.

Marcellus Baz accepting his award in 2016

The young people who train with us were very proud when I received the Unsung Hero award, but I wanted to stress that it wasn’t just for me, it was for them too. Without the people who use our gym it wouldn’t be anything more than an idea. I am so grateful to them for helping create a thriving boxing gym full of inspirational people.

The impact of the award has been incredible to say the least. Obviously, it helped raise the profile of the work we do and has opened so many doors for the club. It’s given me the chance to meet some of my heroes and some incredible people from the boxing world have now come to our gym to meet and train our boxers. We have the backing of some amazing people in sport like Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, Johnny Nelson, Herol Graham and Anthony Joshua, to name a few.

I’ve also had the opportunity to go to new places like Denmark, Norway, Brazil and Los Angeles and speak at conferences about youth violence. I did an interview in LA for a radio station which turned out to be Stevie Wonder’s radio station! I got a call after the show saying he really loved my interview and I ended up going to his birthday party that night.

I wouldn’t say that I have a life motto, but one thing I find myself saying a lot is ‘What you put into something is what you get back’. I tell the people who train with us that if they believe in themselves and commit to something, no matter how big or small, they really can achieve their dreams. It’s important that we help them to realise no matter what their background is or how hard life gets, there are people to help them get through it and help them change for the better.

Sport is about so much more than winning, taking part or keeping fit; it’s a way of expressing yourself and feeling a sense of achievement through adversity.

Marcellus Baz won the Unsung Hero Award in 2016.

Nominations open for this year’s Unsung Hero Award at 06:00 on Wednesday 6 September until 23:59 on Sunday 22 October. See the �鶹Լ�� Sport website for details on how to nominate your Unsung Hero
Find out more about �鶹Լ�� Sports Personality of the Year 2017

�鶹Լ�� Sport new logo and graphics

2017-08-03T09:00:00+00:00

If you’ve visited the �鶹Լ�� Sport website today, you’ll have noticed a few changes as a new brand identity made its debut for the start of the football season, with the roll-out of a new logo and graphics.

This is the first update of �鶹Լ�� Sport brand guidelines in seven years and the work was commissioned to reflect the significant changes in audiences’ consumption of �鶹Լ�� Sport content across TV and digital platforms.

In order to create a more uniform approach across TV and digital platforms, the changes see the familiar �鶹Լ�� Sport yellow updated alongside a new font which has been developed for the entire �鶹Լ�� portfolio.

From today, visitors to the �鶹Լ�� Sport website will be met with the new design. The first TV programme with the new look will be Football Focus, on Saturday 12 at midday on �鶹Լ�� One, followed by Final Score and Match of the Day later in the evening.

The rebrand will then be rolled out across all �鶹Լ�� Sport output, including TV coverage of the athletics from 19 August, PDC darts from 16 September and cycling from 17 September.

The font is called �鶹Լ�� Reith, named after the �鶹Լ��’s founder Lord Reith, and as well as making our text and branding clearer it will also save the �鶹Լ�� money.

The existing fonts that the �鶹Լ�� uses were developed last century and work well in print - but they’re not always clear enough when they appear in small, digital, spaces, and we’re all reading and watching far more on screens and mobiles these days.

So the new font - which we’ll gradually roll out, starting with sport today - will be easier to read and clearer, especially on small devices.

We also expect it to save us a significant amount of money. We have to pay for licences to use other fonts at the moment, but we won’t have to do this for �鶹Լ�� Reith - so it’s better value as well.

The work on the font has been led by the �鶹Լ��’s User Experience & Design and Marketing & Audiences teams.

Over time, the new font will start to be used right across the �鶹Լ�� (though the bbc blocks logo itself won't change) and all our broadcast and online output.

We’ll be doing this gradually. Where there is little cost to make the change - such as text on our website - we’ll do it as soon as we can. But we’ll only replace things like signs when they’re worn out or need replacing anyway to avoid extra costs.

We hope you like the changes.

Colin Burns is Chief Design Officer, Design & Engineering

A day in the life of a Production Management Assistant

2017-03-07T19:19:57+00:00

Esther Cox, 24, joined �鶹Լ�� Sport after graduating in August 2015. Last August she became a Production Management Assistant for �鶹Լ�� Football. To mark International Women’s Day, she takes us behind the scenes during a typical day working on �鶹Լ�� One’s Football Focus.

8.30am

The life of a �鶹Լ�� Sport Football Focus PMA (Production Management Assistant) begins at around 8:30am on a Saturday morning. My first job is always to grab the day’s newspapers and take them into the Programme Editor so he can cast an eye over any major football stories and decide whether or not they would be good to discuss on the show.9.00am – Next, I turn my attention to more important matters; food! Our presenter Dan Walker would be the first to admit he loves a good egg, and Saturday mornings are no different. Three eggs, scrambled with a sizeable portion of ketchup, coupled with a banana and a green tea ensure that Walker’s hanger is kept at bay. I’m also responsible for keeping the production office in working order.

Keeping Dan fuelled for live TV

The office is used throughout the day by guests for Football Focus, Final Score and later Match of the Day to watch all the games. It’s the PMA’s job to make sure it’s fully functioning which normally means plenty of chocolate! Food is very important during a long Saturday at �鶹Լ�� Sport.

9.30am

Whilst tucking into his breakfast Dan will have been working with the Editor to tinker with the script, putting in enough excellent puns to keep the �鶹Լ�� One viewers chuckling.

When the Production Coordinator arrives just before 10am they can get the go-ahead from the Editor to print the final script, which I deliver to the studio floor for the floor manager, autocue operator, camera operators etc. Whilst this sounds a simple task, the printers sense the fear induced by a time sensitive deadline and invariably decide not to work, chew up paper or simply refuse to recognise there is anything to print. Believe me, it’s a constant battle that gives many a Production Coordinator a sleepless night.

10.30am

Anytime from now the two pundits for the show will arrive – today it’s Danny Murphy and Dion Dublin. I make sure they have everything they need before they go into the pre-show meeting with the Editor. Here they discuss what they will be chatting about on the show checking that there will be some good debate and a variety of viewpoints presented.

11:00am

Dan is always first into the makeup chair to get a once over before he goes onto set to begin rehearsing. This rehearsal allows the Director to try out different camera angles, and gives the crew plenty of time to work through any issues which might come up.

If the Director has chosen to use the touchscreen for some analysis then this definitely needs rehearsing with the guests – like the printers, it also has a tendency to be a little temperamental.

Dan having the briefest of make-up applied

11:15am

Whilst the guests are busy rehearsing I use the time to check my work e-mails making sure all the commentators and floor managers covering games for Match of the Day have arrived at the various football grounds across the country without hiccup. During the week it’s my job, along with the other PMAs, to book all the travel for our commentators, floor managers and staff working at the various games. It’s a mammoth task and if something goes wrong I need to be on hand to fix it.

11:30am

The teamsheets for the early kick off are now available. I print them off (more wranglings with technology) and distribute these to the guys in the edit suite and those who help the pundits with analysis. It’s always worth keeping a couple of spare copies for the pundits themselves to have on hand whilst they watch too.

Preparing for rehearsals

12.00pm

Once the show goes on air at midday most of the production team will be in the gallery, speaking into Dan and the guests’ earpieces and making sure Football Focus is delivered without a hitch. However for me, this is when my Focus (forgive the terrible pun) switches to Final Score and Match of the Day.

12.15pm

If there is an early kick off, the two Match of the Day pundits will arrive now ready to watch this game, while the Final Score pundits arrive around 1pm. Again I am responsible for making sure everyone has arrived and knows where to be and when, and ultimately that they get to the studio floor on time for the Red Button to go live a 2:30pm.

3.00pm

My shift ends at 3pm when the Match of the Day PMA comes in to tag me out and takes over until we’re off-air around midnight, whilst I head home usually to eat, nap and catch the end of Final Score!

On Air

The PMA role is certainly varied, I can be organising complicated international travel for a pundit one minute then running around White Hart Lane in search of missing accreditation the next. It’s a great role in which to cut your teeth at �鶹Լ�� Sport, you get to see everything, meet everyone and of course work on some amazing events. Career progression is very much encouraged here and I definitely see myself working my way up the ranks.

Esther Cox is Production Management Assistant

�鶹Լ�� Sport have secured the rights to FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 - broadcasting coverage of every game across TV, radio and online.
Football Focus is live on �鶹Լ�� One every Saturday from noon.

�鶹Լ�� Get Inspired's Unsung Hero Award 2016

2016-08-23T16:32:58+00:00

Damien Lindsay, winner of the �鶹Լ�� Get Inspired Unsung Hero Award 2015

It’s a year since Damien Lindsay won the �鶹Լ�� Get Inspired 2015 Unsung Hero Award for his work setting up St James Football Team. To mark the beginning of this year’s search for an Unsung Hero, we asked Damien to reflect on his experiences.

The St James Football team was set up five years ago in response to a lot of anti-social behaviour in our local community in West Belfast. More and more people came to St James from outside the area. A lot of people in the local area didn’t want the area to be seen like that. So we worked together to set up a group to turn things around. One of the ideas was to set up a football team - a Friday night team. Our idea was that no one would be turned away from the team. It was about giving those people who wanted to take part a clean slate.

It wasn’t an easy idea to implement. A lot of people applauded what we were trying to do, but there was some opposition. But to overcome that, we pointed out that if those teenagers we were trying to help were playing in the team they weren’t on the street corners. We also set up a rule – no drinking on a Friday night before the match. That kind of worked. There were training nights too on Tuesday and Thursday.

We spoke to the teenagers on the street corners. We got them to speak to other teenagers who in turn were asking them if they could join the team. As soon as we saw that happening we saw those street corner groups disintegrating. When the team started meeting for practice and matches, that's when people in the local community started saying ‘that was the most peaceful Friday night in a long time’. It wasn’t just about them playing football – it was all the other stuff which wasn’t going on - the drinking until the early hours of the morning, for example.

We were really proud and pleased about the achievement. But you can’t take your eye off the ball. We noticed that some teenagers were drinking again – so we went down to speak to them and say, ‘look this isn’t on’. We encouraged them to come along and helped them set up their own teams as well.

Collecting the Unsung Hero award last year was nerve-wracking. The �鶹Լ�� had been making a documentary about the St James Farm I also run – that in itself was a big shock. But going to �鶹Լ�� Sports Personality of the Year event was an even bigger affair for me – you know, meeting all the sporting stars. St James didn’t know we’d won. Then my face appeared on the big screen – that’s when I knew. I could have said a bit more when I was on stage collecting the award, but it was best I didn’t. I just handed the microphone back to Clare Balding. It was a big thing – not the kind of thing I’m used to. I much prefer the ‘Unsung’ bit of the award.

After the programme, I left the event and went back to a special party my family had arranged – I wanted to go back to the community and celebrate. I stayed until after closing time and then headed back to celebrate with the Sports Personality team .I was, as the saying goes, riding two horses.

The impact of winning the award on the team has been absolutely immense. We have a lot of new volunteers in. The team has grown from consisting of a senior team and a second team. Now we have seven teams, and we’re setting up a girls football team as well. The take-up has been unbelievable. The volunteers’ contribution has been immense. All of them are in their football training gear - it's very good to see. And the team has a minibus now too. It's fantastic. And the people in the community are describing St James as ‘our team’. All credit to the volunteers. It has had a big effect on the community.

I think it's a great achievement for someone to take the time and nominate someone for the Unsung Hero Award. It's a big thing. Since I’ve got the award I’ve made a point of taking the time to nominate others for awards. Me receiving the award had a major impact on my life. I always say that to people: It's all about somebody taking the time to recognise the work of someone else. The people who work on these things aren’t doing it for praise, but sometimes when you’re working on something and you’re at a low ebb, just knowing you’re recognised helps.

Over these last four months we’ve lost four young men in our community, some of whom were part of the team. That makes things difficult. We have to keep moving forward – we need to put structures in place. We know what we’re doing makes a difference. But in those moments when you question yourself the fact that other people have nominated you really helps.

It's always good to get a pat on the back. A pat on the back pushes the chest out. It makes you go out there and have another go.

Damien Lindsay won the Unsung Hero Award in 2015

Nominate a worthy winner for the �鶹Լ�� Get Inspired Unsung Hero Award 2016
Read winner Jill Stidever reflections on receiving the award in 2014

Rio 2016 Olympics ready, set, press red

2016-08-04T11:56:52+00:00

I’m Jennifer Richardson and I’m a Senior Product Manager in �鶹Լ�� Design & Engineering based in Salford. I’m the Product Manager for �鶹Լ�� Red Button+ and the �鶹Լ�� Sport and �鶹Լ�� News apps on connected TV.

In close collaboration with product and editorial teams from �鶹Լ�� Sport, �鶹Լ�� Live and �鶹Լ�� News – and along with colleagues in Engineering and User Experience & Design, we’ve reimagined the �鶹Լ��’s connected TV experience ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, relaunching our News, Sport and, most recently, Red Button+ products.

We’ve also launched an enhanced experience for all live coverage of our major sporting, cultural and music events, including the Olympic Games.

The Rio Olympic Games presents a key opportunity to provide our audience with the best possible experience on their connected TV; we want our audience to feel like they’re at the event and never miss a moment of the action.

When we set out to rethink Red Button+, our goal was to provide frictionless access from �鶹Լ�� television channels to compelling content from �鶹Լ�� iPlayer, Sport and News and more.

We’ve done this by improving the navigation between all of our �鶹Լ�� TV apps – and we’ve given �鶹Լ�� News and Sport a makeover, unifying design and interaction patterns so that users of �鶹Լ�� iPlayer will discover a familiar pattern when browsing, watching or reading content across all �鶹Լ�� products.

During the �鶹Լ��’s Olympic coverage on television, ‘pressing red’ on your connected TV will instantly connect you with up to 24 HD streams of live coverage from �鶹Լ�� Sport, so nobody needs to miss a moment of the action that they want to watch.

We’ve made it easy to navigate to other sports, restart coverage if the start of an event has been missed, get the latest highlights, see what action’s coming up and catch up on any medal moments from previous days.

Plus it’s now even easier to access �鶹Լ�� iPlayer from a connected TV by ‘pressing red’, giving our audience a quick way to find the programmes they want to watch, or quickly restart the programme they are currently watching.

An innovative engineering solution underpins this change to our audience-facing products, meaning all our connected TV apps now share a common code-base, known internally as TAP (TV Application Platform). This approach eases the burden on support teams, enables faster product innovation and helps us to make our content available on more devices more easily - all through practical adoption of platform-thinking.

Jennifer Richardson is Senior Product Manager in �鶹Լ�� Design & Engineering.

The �鶹Լ�� are the official broadcaster for the Rio 2016 Olympics in the UK.
Find out more about Red Button+ and TV support.
For more about �鶹Լ�� Sports Rio 2016 Olympics coverage read Kieran Clifton's blog 'The Rio 2016 Olympic Games, live on the �鶹Լ��'.

An extraordinary day of sport, in an extraordinary summer of sport

2016-07-13T12:00:00+00:00

Emotions were running high in SW19 and Paris last weekend as Wimbledon and Euro 2016 reached their conclusions. Portugal claimed their first European Championship while Andy Murray was one of four British winners on Wimbledon’s final day. In total more than 31 million people across the UK watched the �鶹Լ��’s coverage of Wimbledon; 45 million watched the �鶹Լ��’s and ITV’s coverage of Euro 2016.

Sport has the power to inspire and enthrall in equal measure, so ‘Super Sunday’ was a timely reminder of the importance of ensuring it is made available to everyone. The �鶹Լ��, ITV, Channel 4 and five last year accounted for 5% of all the hours of sport on TV but delivered a staggering 60% of the viewing. It’s going to be even higher this year.

Many of the biggest sporting events are protected by a ‘Listed Events’ regime that’s designed to ensure they are made available, without charge, to every household in the country. But the regime is underpinned by a piece of legislation that is becoming outdated and must be made fit for purpose for the long term.

The �鶹Լ�� is determined to provide the best possible mix of events with the resources we have available. It is difficult when the costs of rights are going up and licence fee funding is going down. We have secured long term partnership deals for events such as the Olympic Games to 2024, the World Cup to 2022, the Six Nations to 2021, the FA Cup to 2021 and Wimbledon to 2020.

In doing so we have had to make tough choices over the last 12 months or so, relinquishing live TV rights to Formula 1 and the Open Golf. I’ve said it before, they are not decisions we wanted to have to take.

We have been steadfast in our commitment to maximising the impact of sport even in these tough financial times. We are doing that in partnership with sports bodies who share our desire to making sport available to all, regardless of ability to pay.

Credit must go, for example, to the England and Wales Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council for making clips to England cricket and the major international tournaments available free-to-air in the UK. Within minutes of the action taking place, the best shots, wickets and key moments are now available, without charge, on the �鶹Լ�� Sport website. It has been a hugely popular service for cricket fans and a very effective means of expanding the reach of the sport in the UK.

We’ve done a similar clips deal for the Open Golf Championship this week alongside our live coverage on national radio. We’ve also secured TV highlights in a prime-time slot – that’s been possible because of their ‘listed event’ status.

And in a little over three weeks’ time the greatest show on earth gets underway in Rio de Janeiro. The �鶹Լ�� will broadcast more than 3,000 hours of coverage from the Olympic Games – this extraordinary summer of sport is far from over.

Barbara Slater is Director, �鶹Լ�� Sport

Read Get ready for the Rio Olympics

Get ready for the Rio Olympics

2016-07-08T11:33:34+00:00

�鶹Լ�� Sport have given us a glimpse of the new advertising trail we're using for the �鶹Լ��'s Olympics coverage this year. You can see the full version during the men's singles Wimbledon final this Sunday afternoon.

The animation, made by Passion Pictures, is inspired by host nation Rio’s Tijuca Forest and its animal kingdom. Over the course of the trail the skills and strength of the athletes are brought to life by the host nation’s exotic animals competing in Olympic events.

The soundtrack features music by Brit artist Jamie N Commons who has adapted his new single ‘Not Gonna Break Me’ especially for the trail. He's also developed the music for the �鶹Լ�� Olympics 2016 titles.

Wimbledon: The Sweet Spot

2016-07-07T20:53:20+00:00

This week I have been following the Wimbledon Championships whilst tackling joyless household tasks, like ironing. Tennis distracts from the depressing inevitability and irretrievable dullness of everyday life.

My recent success confronting the childhood trauma that stopped me watching and enjoying football in adult life is now the talk of the office. People I’ve hitherto only nodded hello to sheepishly in the corridor now stop and talk. I feel drawn into the inevitable pre-meeting football-related small talk engaged in while we wait for meeting rooms to be vacated. And, thanks to a colleague, I now understand the offside rule. Breaking news: it’s nowhere near as difficult to understand as everyone makes out it is.

There is another unexpected consequence. 'Getting into the football' has reminded that I have, for a long time, quite enjoyed tennis and, having exposed myself to quite a lot of soccer over the past few weeks, that appreciation of tennis has deepened. I have become more entwined with the racquet game. I think I might be a bit obsessed by it.

I am a man transformed.

Wimbledon 2016 on our TV. Yes, it's big. Don't tell the other half, but I'd really be just as happy with just a radio.

Tennis is, for me, the easiest sporting endeavour to understand – two people locked in a battle of skill, agility, and stamina, hitting a ball about a court. It's a game subject to endlessly gratifying permutations, and one which can, at a moment’s notice, turn things on their head. Drama stitched into underlying personal narratives. Whilst there are procedures, stages, and a journey to follow - the structure appeals to the same side of my brain that appreciates left-hand justification, a well-chosen font, or chairs tidied away under a meeting room table. There are, at the same time, no certainties with a game of tennis. Nothing is assumed. Things can take a wholly unexpected turn at a moment’s notice. For those reasons tennis, I adore you.

The �鶹Լ�� introduced me to tennis, filling the void at that difficult in-between stage when children's TV was increasingly failing to meet my gangly teenagery needs. After-school on a Friday was an especially dead time while I kicked my heels waiting for West Suffolk Youth Wind Band rehearsals to start at 6.30pm. I wasn't alone. Principal flautist Caroline Lloynes - a contemporary of mine at school - faced a similar problem. Being one of those irritating kids at school who was good at music, her studies and sport, she had something to fill the gaping void before rehearsals - watching tennis on the TV. And seeing as my parents needed her parents to take me to Wind Band rehearsals, being introduced to tennis whilst round at Caroline’s house was, perhaps, inevitable.

The �鶹Լ�� might have been broadcasting events on TV, but it was Caroline who explained the rules in a clear and concise manner, worthy of the lawyer she told me she wanted to be in later life. I watched her kneel in front of the TV, all pony-tailed excitement. We watched some of a match together.

We were in a weird kind of trance watching that match. Until then, I'd always wanted the wait before Wind Band to race by. Being in somebody else’s home after school felt like an intrusion or an imposition. It wasn’t my home. I wanted the time to pass so that the painful squeaking, misplaced rhythms, and agonising teenage ambition would be over and my weekend proper could get underway. But, watching the tennis, I and Caroline sat in silence transfixed by the rallies; I actually wanted stretch out for as long as it possibly could.

Such is tennis's enduring appeal for me even now. Tennis promises summer will go on forever. Afternoons - normally a juggling act between available time, tasks which must be completed, and jobs which are far far easier to put off - can extend far longer than scheduled or even dreamt of.

My preference is radio commentary. And my preferred device is my iPhone. "I find it difficult to visualise every shot," says Simon, my partner, when he comes into the kitchen to find me slowly chopping onions, "I can't keep up with the commentary. Why don’t you watch it on TV? It’s a 52” screen for goodness sake. You can watch it in HD.” I tell him to keep the noise down.

Wimbledon '89 previewed in the Radio Times (image from genome.ch.bbc.co.uk)

Simon overlooks two key things about radio commentary. First, the concentration required to follow the episodic progression of the match helps focus the mind when it needs to be employed in dull tasks. In that way the beauty of tennis, and in particular Wimbledon, distracts from the depressing inevitability and irretrievable dullness of everyday life.

Listening to tennis on the radio actually gets the jobs done which had previously been relegated* to the bottom of my to-do list. During Wimbledon fortnight, I’ve planned my summer of Proms concerts, ironed bed linen, watered the plants, and completed some long-overdue website updates. More breaking news: tennis gets results.

More importantly is the sense of place radio offers. With TV I'm watching other people at Wimbledon, wishing I was there myself. With radio commentary I imagine the commentators squeezed into their tiny commentary box, watching over proceedings, surrounded by all sorts of necessary paraphernalia. Radio commentary is as much about them in their box as it is about the players on the court. Radio put me in the box with them too.

I notice on day four, for example, when I’m doing some writing in my office at home, how I’ve arranged things on my desk. Everything is crammed on the small surface I sit at. There’s just enough elbow room for my hands to rest of the narrow keyboard. Every space around the laptop has been filled with things I don’t actually need. No matter. It’s as though I'm in my own commentary box. Radio's inherent intimacy prompts a similar approach to my immediate working area. I wouldn’t do that if I was watching on TV.

My own special commentary box in SE6.

From my desk, I can do the work I need to do whilst maintaining a close eye on my neighbour methodically watering her bedding plants. Give me a microphone and I’ll commentate my way through the entire scene. It will, inevitably, lack the drama you’d normally hear from SW1 but there will be peaks and troughs, and imaginary commentator pals will chime in from time to time.

Such is the spell that 5 Live’s tennis commentary cast over me, that I find I’m inseparable from my iPhone during People’s Sunday. iPlayer Radio is on all the time. I’m listening to it in the bath, in the kitchen, out in the garden, whilst using the toilet.

And it’s still blaring out from my pocket - the gripping Isner/Tsonga match in all its nail-biting tie-break joy - when I reluctantly answer the front door to another neighbour, Viv, at 4.30pm. “Didn’t want to interrupt,” she says looking slowly down towards my feet, “Just wanted to invite you and Simon to our party next Saturday.” I make the appropriate noises, smile appreciatively, and close the door. Then I look down to the floor and realise I’m still in my pyjamas.

This same week, I’ve visited Wimbledon for the first time. A friend offered me an unwanted ticket and I booked a day’s leave. I sat in Centre Court and watched proceedings play out in front of me, marvelling at the beautifully choreographed ballet of ball boys and military personnel, gripped by the energy and attitude of players on the court. Six hours later, I turn to Hannah and say, “I think I need to go now.” And what I’m thinking to myself is, “I think I’d really want to listen to this stuff on the radio.”

Wimbledon Centre Court, earlier this week.

It’s there I realise something rather obvious. Broadcasting has made tennis, and in this country Wimbledon, a popular sport in a way that, arguably, football didn’t need so much. Until broadcasting rocked up at SW1, tennis was loved by those who played it and those who paid for membership of a club. Wimbledon existed long before the �鶹Լ�� did, but the reason I derive so much pleasure from tennis now is because the �鶹Լ��, and its broadcasting of it, brought tennis to me. In my world that makes tennis a broadcasting story as well as sporting one.

Sport isn’t quite so alien an experience as I first thought at the beginning of the Euros. It’s given me something else to think about. It’s helping me appreciate how sport is the ultimate kind of storytelling - the most compelling, and most gripping, unauthored, and unscripted, kind of tale. It promises a collective audience experience that classical music hints at, and it is something which connects me up with so many other people I never realised I needed to feel connected with.

I’m already planning the next post. It’s going to be about the cricket.

*I’m particularly impressed I’ve used this word.

Jon Jacob is Editor, About the �鶹Լ�� Blog

Read an exclusive interview with Wimbledon reporter and commentator Annabel Croft.
Wimbledon coverage continues on �鶹Լ�� One and �鶹Լ�� Two, �鶹Լ�� Radio 5 live, with live HD video streams available on the Red Button, online, mobile, desktop and on connected TVs.
Follow @�鶹Լ��Sport and @�鶹Լ��Tennis on Twitter

Annabel Croft at Wimbledon 2016

2016-07-07T08:05:20+00:00

Annabel Croft in the commentary box on Wimbledon Centre Court at the 2005 Championships

Annabel Croft is part of the �鶹Լ��'s team of commentators and reporters providing coverage for this year's Wimbledon fortnight. We spoke to the former tennis player about her career, the sport she loves, and what she brings to her commentary.

What are you doing at Wimbledon?

I’m mixing quite a lot of roles actually. I’ve taken part in studio discussion with Sue Barker. I’ve done some court interviews which I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve mixed it all with some commentaries and some reporting for the highlights programme as well. It’s a multi-roleIt’s a bit of everything.

Is Wimbledon the high-point of the tennis calendar for you?

It is. It really is. I cover tennis from January to November anyway - my whole is life is doing what I do.But I think of all the tournaments we cover. On the whole most players will say that Wimbledon is the greatest tournament in the world.

What is it that makes them say that?

I think it’s the history here. A lot of them will have grown up watching tennis from an early age and will remember watching Wimbledon for the first time. At Wimbledon it’s so beautifully organised; the planting is pristine; nothing is out of place. There’s something about the way the tournament is run which gives it this aura. It’s really special.

It’s the grass too. For some players, that takes many years to get to grips with. The fact that it’s so unusual also makes it really special. When you arrive here, the atmosphere is so special - – itreally buzzes. I think too that when you see the game in real life you get a real sense of the physicality of the game.

What was the transition from tennis to broadcasting like for you?

When I stopped playing it was twenty-odd years ago. In those days tennis wasn’t really covered on television that much apart from the Wimbledon fortnight. Broadcasting in tennis wasn’t an option for me. I definitely felt like I wanted to do something in television generally – I’d really enjoyed being interviewed and being around television cameras. But back then wasn’t really a career option. I had some opportunities to do Treasure Hunt on Channel 4 and, before that, Network 7 which meant surviving on a desert island in Sri Lanka – a raw early version of what we know now as I’m a Celebrity.

I think because I’d been a tennis player – I hadn’t really had a normal childhood because my life had been all tennis since I was quite young so then doing broadcasting opportunities was really fun. I didn’t have to think about backhands and forehands and all that sort of thing. Life was a lot less stressful! I just went after every opportunity that came my way.

Away from tennis I found that doing these other broadcasting jobs gave me an opportunity to mature as an individual away from tennis. That in itself helped me gain some perspective and a deeper understanding of what it was I wanted to talk about when I was commentating or reporting on tennis. I definitely see that when I see young players on the tour, some of whom haven’t known anything other than tennis. Some of them might get injuries and are forced to take time away from the game. That’s when they might study something and gain a different perspective, even for a short while. They come back to the game and end up playing better tennis because in the intervening period they’ve got a sense of what it is they’re trying to achieve in their match play.

I went off and did pantomimes at Christmas, did a murder-mystery musical play across the country, and I did a magic show and interceptor. All sorts of different fun events. That’s what I say to young people: walk through every door that’s open and see what you find.

Tell me about the mechanics of broadcasting. Commentating on a tennis match is like telling the most fantastic story, isn’t it?

It is. I agree. It’s one of the best sports to take an audience on an emotional rollercoaster ride. I think that’s why it’s such a great spectator sport. The scoring system in tennis creates many pressure moments. Not only do the players’ emotions get exposed during that rollercoaster, the audience experience it too. It’s basically modern-day gladiators. The audience is picking their gladiator and then going with them on that emotional journey.

When I watch a tennis match I always find myself backing whoever the person is who is battling: I don’t want to automatically back the person who I assume will win. Is that a common experience for the viewer do you think?

I think that’s a very British narrative. We love our underdogs. We love our fighters. We love the personalities. The other thing about tennis is that the personality of the player comes out when they move around the court. That’s something special about tennis. The body language gives away quite a lot. You can start to get behind somebody purely based on how they’re behaving on the court and how they’re winning you over. Tennis matches have momentum and they have momentum shifts. That’s another excitement element of tennis: it pulls you in and draws you closer.

As a commentator what do you need to do in order to convey that?

What I personally try to bring is my knowledge of what players might be feeling at a particular moment. So I like to bring my experience as a player into the commentary in that way. I like to describe any small body language changes, or any signs of stress.

Sometimes, because they’re under stress – and it might be very very subtle – they can alter the swing and start to pull back from and put extra spin on the ball. That’s when they could playing more ‘safe’ instead of going for it. And that will all be psychological but I try to explain that to the audience.

Or it can go the other way: a player can hit the ball harder and harder and harder as a way of controlling their nerves. It depends on the personality, but as a commentator you try and capture those small moments and feed that into the commentary.

Sometimes you just need to let the pictures breathe and pick the moments when it’s best. On the flip side You want to get a flow to your commentary, and you want to get a flow with commentating partner too. Oh and don’t speak over the umpire!

Wimbledon coverage continues on �鶹Լ�� One and �鶹Լ�� Two, �鶹Լ�� Radio 5 live, with live HD video streams available on the Red Button, online, mobile, desktop and on connected TVs.
Follow @�鶹Լ��Sport and @�鶹Լ��Tennis on Twitter

Learning to love football

2016-06-28T08:15:46+00:00

Euro 2016 triggers the need for a confession: I hate football.

I’ve always hated football, ever since the other boys in my class at school laughed mercilessly at the patchwork gym bag my Mum had proudly made for me on her Singer sewing machine. I’ve long since learned to revel in my distinctiveness. But back then the drawstring bag, and the white PE kit I carried inside it for games lessons, attracted so much guffawing from my contemporaries that football and any kind of sporting pursuit has been linked to childhood trauma.

The PE kit was totally unsuitable for games lessons. The mud stains I managed to get caked all over it was largely because of my inability to spot the ball, or maintain the most straightforward of dribbles. Uncontrollable tears were also a feature of my games lessons, usually shed at the side of the pitch from where I would look on at my contemporaries, knees trembling, wondering where I had been when the love-of-football gene had been handed out.

Such detail may at first seem trifling. This blog is not the place for confessionals nor sob stories, but back-stories are important, because what I notice is that 35 years after the childhood trauma that killed off any subsequent interest in football may well have healed. I may well be catching up on my peers. I may now, thanks to combined influence of colleagues at work and �鶹Լ�� Radio Five Live, I may well be … getting into football. Odd.

It all began with the Eurovision Song Contest. The Eurovision is an event I understand, one I’ve stood by since 1981 (even through the ‘dark’ 1990s) and, to this day, still get ridiculously excited about every single year. I’m one of an army of hardcore fans (and passionate defenders).

Eurovision 2016 in Stockholm's Globen. My kind of football.

This passion provokes a strange kind of bewilderment amongst my football-loving colleagues. Whenever I talk about Eurovision, they display a look on their faces as though I’ve brought my Fisher Price Car Park and Garage (I still have it, by the way) to work, and whipped it out during a serious meeting about metrics.

What is it that confuses them about Eurovision? What is it that makes them smile about my nerdy fascination with broadcasting history? Is it the same thing that makes me roll my eyes about the painstaking detail some of them pick over about the ‘beautiful game’? And, if I could understand the answer to those questions, might I get a taste of the thrills and spills those same colleagues express when they enter into the post-match analysis every Monday morning during the football season?

When I started asking myself those questions I began to notice something a little alarming: I was beginning to get interested in something I’d hitherto completely overlooked. So the implicit private challenge was unwittingly set: could I manage to sustain my concentration for an entire football match. And, if I could do that, might I grow to like the game?

It was worth a shot.

I acknowledge one obvious block very early on in proceedings: my partner, Simon. I propose a change to our usual weekend TV viewing habits with a tentative but hopeful, “but I want to watch the England match for research purposes.” Silence. He reluctantly agrees, trying desperately to communicate his displeasure by forcefully keying ‘115’ on the Sky Remote. We sit. We watch. We leap up and down when England scores. And we sigh when Russia equalise.*

Post-England vs. Russia I’m aware of two things: firstly, I’m not hooked, haven’t been swept away by the emotion and don’t see a need to resort to dramatic measures to ensure future enjoyment. On the plus side, it hasn’t been an agonising 90 minutes. I haven’t been distracted by my mobile phone, I haven’t wanted to participate in a discussion online at the same time and I haven’t flicked over to see what’s on another channel. My most significant learning from this first toe in the water? Getting ‘buy-in’ from my significant other watching any non-England matches is going to be a tough number – not so much low-hanging fruit, more bare branches on a petrified tree.

So, the following night I opt for an alternative option: live commentary on Five Live. It’s here in the kitchen, methodically preparing dinner in between surreptitious sips of cheap red wine, that I hear something different: the sound of people somewhere else in the world getting excited about something I cannot see. There is nothing more riveting than hearing someone else’s fun someplace else described by people I can’t see. In that respect, football on the radio is not unlike Radio 3’s Live in Concert – there is nothing I like better than ‘dropping in’ on somebody else’s party.

This is, it seems to me as I pour myself another glass of wine on my own in the kitchen, my gateway to football. The commentary seems jumbled and packed full of technical terms I don’t understand; I can’t picture the images in my head quick enough to follow the action on the pitch.

I’m struggling, but remain committed to the challenge, remembering a piece of advice a different colleague gave me when attending a Shakespeare: trust yourself, listen to the lines, but don’t get bogged down in the detail; you’ll be surprised how easily to follow what’s going on. Quickly, I get drawn in. My mood elevates, cushioned by a bed of gentle roars from an excited crowd somewhere over the water and far away.

This is when I realise my guard might be down. I’m swept along by the excitement of a distant crowd, an unseen image, and the raw passion of broadcasters. In this way, I’m transported to another place in the same messrs Klein, Derham and Trelawny do when they describe proceedings at the �鶹Լ�� Proms on Radio 3. My delayed entry into watching football seems to be via broadcast, being present with thousands, possibly even millions, of other people: participating in a shared experience.

I relay all of this to my partner on a daily basis. As my confidence grows, I even suggest, “Maybe we could watch the match tonight?” This is met with the inevitable question: “What have you become?” Still conscious he’s not as willing to participate in my personal challenge with the same zeal I am, I turn to Five Live whenever I can. This is my chance to ‘dip in’ to what’s going on in much the same way my A-Level German teacher suggested dipping into German novels from time to time to boost my comprehension and translation skills.

When I go on a last-minute unexpected lone trip to Budapest, I set aside a night to find a (quiet) bar where I can watch a game. This is when I realise something quite surprising: I’m actually looking forward to the prospect. In the space of a handful of matches I’ve gone from fearing the game I was traumatised by as a kid, to now ‘rather looking forward to it’. Now I sit at a table at a bar in central sunny Budapest, watching Hungary play Iceland on the screen on my left, and observing local fans at the bar across the road look on proceedings with a mixture of horror and excitement. It is a delicious experience: a televised event making me feel part of a continent-wide moment.

I return from Budapest with renewed confidence and a spring in my step. Like all good journeys, I’ve been on a personal journey at the same time. I am now someone who ‘watches the football’. Proud of this, I seek to comment on colleagues’ Facebook feeds whenever I am engaging with the game, as if to prove to them that I am good as my word. Sometimes I post pictures of me watching a game so the proof is irrefutable. I think it’s turned into a bit of a habit now.

My new status as viewer is confirmed during the Slovakia vs England match, a combination of TV viewing (on ITV) and listening on Five Live. Needing to watch live (and not via live-pause on my PVR has become important all of a sudden), not missing a moment when I go to the bathroom similarly so. Me and the partner (by this point he’s insisted he’ll only watch England games) now find ourselves commenting on strategy, uttering terminology like ‘passing’ and ‘possession’, and commenting on tackles. My tried and tested description seems to be, “it’s all a bit messy, isn’t it?” This also boosts my confidence, demonstrated in the way I relay our rookie assessments to my colleagues the morning after. Do those views have any validity? Do they trigger any further clarification amongst those more in the know? It seems that they do. Football doesn’t seem all that difficult to understand. I’m met with wide eyes and one or two dropped jaws.

I’m not a convert. I’m not a fan. A lot of the time I’m watching and listening and sort of understanding what’s going on but not really being sure whether I really do understand it. Last night’s England match – listened to at first on Five Live sees me race to break the early score to the partner who in turn leaps to switch over to �鶹Լ�� One. Disappointment follows 37 seconds later.**

But it gives me an ‘in’ with my colleagues. I can empathise with them as they shuffle into the office this morning. Even dipping my toe in the water makes me feel part of the pack. Actually playing a game of football may well be a long way off, but I may well be en route to a new viewing obsession. That journey has started because of Five Live. As to whether I shall be continuing that journey alone or in the company of my partner, I've yet to negotiate. I'll get back to you.

* I can’t remember any other occasion when I’ve needed to use the word ‘equalise’ in anything I’ve written before. In the spirit of full transparency, I’m am excited by this.

** I’m amazed I can even recall the time Iceland equalised.

51 international football matches, 28 Olympic sports, 1 sporting summer

2016-04-06T15:05:24+00:00

In just over 2 months’ time, the fifteenth European Football Championship kicks off as the host nation, France, seek to regain the trophy they last won at the turn of the millennium. Just under a month later, the attention of the sporting world shifts 9000 kilometres to Rio de Janeiro, for the thirty-first Olympic Games. Both events will be live across the �鶹Լ��’s TV, radio, online and digital services.

“The good gold Beeb” was how one national newspaper, the Sunday Mirror, described our coverage of London 2012. Another, the Daily Mail, put the �鶹Լ��, “top of the broadcasting medal table”. More importantly, audiences loved it with over 90% of the UK population tuning in and 96% of those surveyed saying the �鶹Լ��’s coverage met or exceeded their expectations. Our aim was to immerse audiences in both the sport and atmosphere of the London Games. We did things like broadcasting every sport live, basing our main studio in the centre of Olympic Park and deploying presentation teams at venues such as cycling, swimming and athletics. It worked.

As the flame in East London was extinguished we set ourselves the target of living up to those expectations in Rio. So we hope to broadcast on two network TV channels, two national radio stations, an expanded Red Button service, across social media plus each individual sport streamed online. With extensive reportage throughout the �鶹Լ��’s local, national and global outlets, fans of the Olympic Games will have every base covered.

The Games take place at 33 venues in Rio and another 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília and Manaus. It is a resource-intensive operation to do justice to an event of this scale, stature and national interest. We are planning to deliver roughly the same volume of output as London 2012 but with 455 accredited staff being sent to Brazil – around 40% below the total number of accreditations for London 2012 and 35% below Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games in 2014. It is also worth noting that, for example, more than 70% of the personnel covering the action on TV will be drawn from the freelance community, part of the �鶹Լ��’s commitment to supporting production talent across the UK media industry.

We know that staff numbers can often attract criticism, but to put these into context we are deploying about one-fifth the size of the team of the US broadcaster rights holder.

We have purposefully re-prioritised resources over the last four years to ensure we deliver the best possible coverage of Rio 2016. The presenters, commentators, reporters and pundits that lead our coverage require the support of a wide array of production and technical staff. The days are long, intensive and high-pressured, with the majority of staff working from the International Broadcast Centre alongside the rest of the world’s media. As with Euro 2016, we are working in partnership with other broadcasters to share presentation facilities and maximise the efficiency of our production operations. As technology develops we expect to locate more of our major event production (and staff) in the UK without undermining the quality of coverage. But some of the technology we need to use is not broadcast-ready yet.

The month-long European Football Championship are set to be the biggest yet with more cities (up from 8 to 10), more teams (up from 16 to 24) and more matches (up from 31 to 51). Last time 39 million people watched the �鶹Լ��’s coverage of the tournament with a peak audience of 23 million for England’s quarter final defeat to Italy.

France 2016 has added excitement for home nation fans with alongside England, Northern Ireland and Wales qualifying for a major football event for the first time in 30 years and 58 years respectively. �鶹Լ�� Wales and �鶹Լ�� Northern Ireland will be on site to relay the latest news from within the respective camps, capture the stories from the legions of travelling fans and provide Welsh language services.

We are once again sharing the live TV rights with ITV with the most talked about match of the opening round, England v Wales, exclusively live on the �鶹Լ��. World Cup and European Championship winner Thierry Henry and stalwart of England’s recent campaigns, Rio Ferdinand, are set to join Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer in the studio, with more big international names to follow. �鶹Լ�� Radio 5 live will cover every match from France, with more than 200 hours of live output led by Mark Chapman along with Caroline Barker, Kelly Cates and Dan Walker.

Our digital services will provide a daily offer to licence fee payers that is unrivalled in its depth and breadth. The Brazil World Cup delivered more than 100 million page views to the �鶹Լ�� Sport website, demonstrating a global demand for the �鶹Լ��’s coverage of major football tournaments. We’ll send 258 accredited personnel to France – fewer than we sent to Brazil for the World Cup.

On the pitches and tracks, in the pools and venues, a new generation of heroes and heroines will come to the fore, changing the path of their lives. Like a good football referee, the exploits of those working on the �鶹Լ��’s coverage of these events will largely go unnoticed to the public eye. That’s as it should be; the immense effort required to deliver the best possible service for audiences will always be outweighed by the huge sense of privilege that comes with covering an Olympic Games or European Football Championship.

Barbara Slater is Director, �鶹Լ�� Sport

�鶹Լ�� coverage of county cricket in 2016 - our unique game

2016-03-30T12:46:42+00:00

Charles Runcie looks ahead to the start of our county cricket coverage on the �鶹Լ��.

This time of year sees a hardy band of �鶹Լ�� sports reporters getting very busy. They’re checking their luggage, writing preview notes, updating their stats, preparing their broadcast equipment and installing maps and satnavs into their cars. There may even be a thermos or two. Why? Well, all this is needed for spending another 6 months on the road following their county cricket teams all over England (and into Wales, of course) to bring �鶹Լ�� listeners daily news, commentary and reports from the County Championship as well as the many one day matches.

For the fourth year running �鶹Լ�� Local Radio will provide a unique service of ball-by-ball commentary of every first class county game. It’s something appreciated by fans in the UK and indeed around the world tuning in via the �鶹Լ�� Sport website, on their mobiles, tablets and apps, plus many hours of top matches which will be broadcast on 5 live Sports Extra too. Some of them, like our Durham broadcaster reporter/commentator Martin Emmerson clocks up around 10,000 miles each year.

Martin and many of our �鶹Լ�� reporters will have to get used to new journeys, with Surrey and Lancashire having been promoted to Division 2, while Worcestershire and Sussex have replaced them. Some of the venues will look a little different, too. Taunton’s County Ground is now the owner of a sparkling new stand, and Leicestershire’s Grace Road has another of its stands being refurbished to give us another commentary box.

For listeners there are also some team changes to get used to in the commentary box. Adrian Harms succeeds the long-serving John Lees as the principal Sussex broadcaster, with Lizzy Ammon also covering the county at many matches. Dave Fletcher is the new voice of Derbyshire cricket, replacing the former NZ Test player Iain O’Brien.

Dave Fletcher the new voice of Derbyshire cricket

The names of some grounds are ever changing, as the inclusion of sponsors’ names becomes an everyday feature of county cricket life. The broadcasters have to get used to calling where Derbyshire play “The 3aaa County Ground” while Kent play many of their games at the suitably patriotic “Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence” in Canterbury.

Work at Grace Road continues

The rather easier to remember County Ground at Chelmsford was the scene of one of last year’s highlights for many listeners. �鶹Լ�� commentators always strive for objectivity, but �鶹Լ�� Radio Leicester's Richard Rae admits he was taken aback by the strength of emotion he felt when Leicestershire recorded their first championship win there for two-and-a-half seasons last June. The Foxes beat Essex to record a first success in 38 matches, with local boy Lewis Hill hitting the winning runs.

Richard remembers that thousands of people, not just Leicestershire supporters, got in touch with him from all over the world after his commentary was picked up and featured on the �鶹Լ�� Sport website - a number even admitted they’d been in tears. Almost as many in fact as those who follow the photos Richard tweets of the delicious puddings sent up to his commentary eyrie at Leicestershire's Grace Road ground, where lunch is widely acknowledged to be the best in the shires.

So while some things may change for 2016, what won’t change is our comprehensive service of online ball-by-ball commentary, news and updates every day on �鶹Լ�� Local Radio, plus regular online text updates and summaries all season long at www.bbc.co.uk/cricket. We’d love to hear from county cricket fans about the service too, via our new feedback email: cricket@bbc.co.uk. We can’t offer you a pudding, but we can promise you won’t have to drive thousands of miles to hear us.

Charles Runcie is Head of Sport, �鶹Լ�� English Regions

Read a press release about our county cricket coverage on the Media Centre website.
Follow our ball-by-ball coverage on the �鶹Լ�� Sport website.

Streaming Six Nations into Space

2016-02-12T10:33:18+00:00

Last weekend’s Scotland versus England Six Nations match was a close-fought affair watched by millions, with England ultimately coming out on top to retain the Calcutta Cup. As with any �鶹Լ�� sporting event, our Digital teams made sure that UK audiences could watch the match wherever they wanted – but one Brit took this to the ultimate extreme.

Major Tim Peake, Britain’s first astronaut to visit the International Space Station, tuned in live from 400km above the earth as we successfully live-streamed the feed to space for the first time.

This external content is available at its source: https://twitter.com/astro_timpeake/status/695921231166619648

It’s the sort of achievement that makes you sit up and realise just how far technology has come in the last few years. We’ve always taken the long view of innovation in broadcasting - we pioneered radio in the 1920s, TV in the 1930s, data services like Ceefax in the 1970s (more than a decade before the World Wide Web was invented), paved the way for online services in the early 90s, and on-demand video with iPlayer back in 2007. But just recently when we celebrated 90 years of innovation at the �鶹Լ��, in which space was used as the backdrop to ask ‘Where Next?’ for the �鶹Լ��, I don’t think any of us predicted that space would, in fact, be the answer.

How it all came about is one of those typically understated stories that seem to lie at the heart of all major milestones.

Our editorial team had already been in touch with the European Space Agency so that Tim could kick-off their coverage of the Six Nations (you can see their stunning launch video here). Which prompted an engineer and friend of Tim's at the European Space Agency to call my colleague Chris Condron, who heads up the �鶹Լ�� Digital products for Sport and Childrens, and said: “I promise you this isn't a wind-up, but do you reckon....”

Naturally, this created a flurry of excitement in our R&D, Engineering and Digital teams as we soon realised that, yes, it would be possible to live stream the match to Tim in space. Not only would it be possible but, thanks to our world-class production and technology teams, it would be relatively straightforward at no extra cost using existing equipment.

It’s the kind of question that makes working in digital and technology at the �鶹Լ�� so exciting and rewarding. We’re constantly asking and being asked challenging questions, then setting about trying to find the most practical and elegant solutions.

In this case our exam question was: ‘In the most efficient way possible, how would you provide live feeds of the Scotland v England match to NASA Mission Control in Houston?’

In the end, we provided two routes to Houston for the distribution of the feed – meaning we had a back-up plan should anything fail. The first was direct from satellite to the European Space Agency, who routed the feed from there to Houston, where it could be fed to the ISS using their standard video uplink.

The second was using the �鶹Լ��’s iPlayer technology, straight to Houston over the internet. The advantage of using iPlayer is that it supports time-shifted viewing, so in case Tim was unable to watch some or all of the match live, he could still watch it near-live or on-demand.

Ultimately, Tim was able to watch it live via the first method and, as we’d already laid the necessary groundwork last weekend, I’m delighted to say that it wasn’t a one-off. This weekend we’ll once again be making more of the �鶹Լ��’s live and on-demand Six Nations coverage available to Tim (and his colleagues on the ISS) and will be doing so until the end of the tournament.

It goes without saying that we could only make something like this happen by working closely with others, so I’d like to thank the RBS Six Nations, UK Space Agency, European Space Agency and NASA.

It’s not every day you get to broadcast into space. Now we have we’re all left asking one question: where next?

Richard Cooper is the Controller of �鶹Լ�� Online Technology Group.

Introducing our Rugby League coverage

2016-02-08T14:37:50+00:00

Some say the sound of a cuckoo heralds the start of spring. For me, the sound of rugby players’ boots thundering across pitches that signals the start of the season.

Although the Six Nations will occupy minds of the union code for the next couple of months, at the same time, the new rugby league season gets underway this month. In addition, the premier league of the sport - the First Utility Super League - reaches the ripe old age of 21.

The sport enjoys really good times at the moment. Crowd numbers are up; England won over the world’s top ranked side New Zealand in an international series last autumn. Last year’s league revamp was considered a success, and national recognition for its stars came with Kevin Sinfield’s runners-up spot in the �鶹Լ�� Sports Personality of the Year. It was the first time a rugby league player had ever been nominated for the award.

From now until October’s Grand Final at Old Trafford, 12 teams battle through the regular season and then the ‘Super 8’s’ to see who becomes the sport’s ‘top dog’. That side is currently Leeds Rhinos, who won everything in 2015 but lost key players to retirement and transfer during the close season. Watching how they cope with transition, and the ever-increasing quality of several other sides, will make viewing and listening to the rugby league fascinating.

Our coverage will follow the twists and turns of the next eight months in depth and with authority. In addition to the usual live TV coverage of the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup, the Four Nations international tournament in the autumn, plus the comprehensive coverage of 5ive live Sports Extra and www.bbc.co.uk/rugbyleague, the Super League Show returns to TV for its 17th series and is broadcast on �鶹Լ�� One in the North on Monday nights from tonight. Each episode is repeated nationally on �鶹Լ�� Two on Tuesday nights. Each week the programme showcases the best of the action from the weekend’s games, debates current issues in the game with top studio guests and goes behind the scenes with each team’s star players.

The Super League Show is broadcast on �鶹Լ�� One in the North on Monday nights and repeated nationally on �鶹Լ�� Two every Tuesday night. Presenter Tanya Arnold will be joined by regular guests Eorl Crabtree and Darryl Powell.

We have some experienced and knowledgeable faces and voices at the �鶹Լ�� to guide fans through the season. Mark Chapman is well known to sports fans from hosting 5 Live Sport and Match of the Day 2, Dave Woods is the game’s leading commentator on TV and radio, while Tanya Arnold begins her fifth year fronting the Super League Show. Tanya says: “It’s an exciting time for Rugby League, as the sport looks to build on a great season in 2015, both domestically and for England. I love the fact we can follow it in depth each week on the Super League Show”.

�鶹Լ�� Local Radio goes into huge depth following its teams. �鶹Լ�� Radio Manchester’s Trevor Hunt is into his 31st year covering the game around the world, reporting down a telephone line to using the latest digital technology. Sometimes, however, not even digital technology can deal with the weather. During a Bradford v Wigan game when heavy fog descended, Trevor kept on going even though he could only see half the pitch. “A towering kick from centre field was blasted into the gloom at the far top corner”, remembers Trevor, “and although I lost it in the fog I carried on, suggesting to listeners that listening to the the roar of the crowd there was something very near to a score in that corner. A second or two later we saw Brett Dallas emerge from underneath the posts at the OPPOSITE end having gone the length of the field to score a Wigan try."

It’s not just the top teams who get all our attention. Further down the leagues our local radio stations follow the fortunes of all their sides. �鶹Լ�� Radio Cumbria provides commentary on the county’s three fierce local rivals Barrow, Workington and Whitehaven. �鶹Լ�� commentary legend Ray French MBE continues to lead Radio Merseyside’s coverage, with Try Time every Thursday night adding to live commentary all three of their Super League Clubs. Over the Pennines, Radio Leeds will follow the Leeds Rhinos’ defence of their title, as well featuring as all their other sides. Radio Humberside have not one Hull Super League team in their patch but two - fierce local rivals Hull FC and Hull Kingston Rovers.

Don’t let anyone tell you it’s a glamorous life. Through fog or rain, big team or small, we’ll be following the season as it unfolds, every 40-20, every play-the-ball and every try.

Charles Runcie is Head of Sport for �鶹Լ�� English Regions

Watch the Super League Preview Show with Tanya Arnold on �鶹Լ�� iPlayer
Keep up to date withRugby matches on the �鶹Լ�� Sport website.
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