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I'm always disappointed by the poor quality of the football commentaries we get from BBC Radio Devon. Last night's was a particularly bad example from Alan Richardson.

We expect a radio commentator to describe accurately and concisely what is happening on the pitch, and with his choice of words to put a clear picture in our mind's eye of the spectacle before him, as if we were there beside him watching the game ourselves.

All we got was a match-long discussion regarding this, that and the other, interspersed with references to incidents and events on the pitch, so that we had no clear picture of what was going on and were unable to follow properly the progress of the game. And when he did attempt to describe what was happening, he too often got it wrong, and confused the listener.

For, example, he would say: 'there's a free kick in a dangerous position.' Dangerous for which team? Ah, got it, it's a free kick to the Gulls on the edge of Barnet's penalty area. So why is that dangerous for Torquay? Dangerous for Barnet, surely, and in a good position for Torquay.

And the Barnet goalie brilliantly tips the ball over his bar. So it's a corner kick to the Gulls, right? No, no mention at all of the corner, just another discussion about something else, before the commentator decides to get back to describing a Barnet attack.

I could give other examples, but I'm more inclined to give up. Doesn't the BBC train its staff these days, or are they simply not bothered to do a competent job?

He even said TWICE that Barnet had scored, when infact they hadn't.

Totally agree with your comments. Is Alan Richardson a city follower ? , he really comes across as quite uninterested in our team in fact biased towards Barnet. I except we were not at our best last night but he gave us very little credit throughout & begrudged us the goal we had scored by constantly reminding us how lucky we had been!!. Lets have Julian Gaunt covering the southern games ..

Last nights commentary was abysmal! Are Radio Devon ever going to credit Torquay being on the up? And Exeter and Plymouth on the slide?

Thanks Alan Richardson for making things even more stressful! And he even said before the game he doesnt think we will finish in the top three!

All night he was saying how Barnet were clear on goal, when in-fact the ball had been cleared sometime before. And he did say the penalty had gone in!

Annoying thing with Julian Gaunt, he never makes it clear if we have scored, he never changes his tone or emotion. Dave Thomas needs to keep them all in check!

Radio Devon commentators are pretty abysmal at the best of times but that T**T last night took the biscuit. I got that fed up listenung to him prattle on about how good Barnet were and how crap Torquay were and telling me Barnet had scored, that I had to turn the radio off. Also my wife kept telling me to shut up shouting at the radio as he could'nt hear me, I only wish he could. Let's hope he crawls back under his stone and leaves future matches to the other prats.

At least Alan Richardson could string more than 5 words together,which is something Julian Gaunt can't do, think the worst commentry ever was away to Rotherham, Julian Gaunt was managing to get about 3 words out before his voice went, and the lad who he kept refering to as the Bradfut based Torquay fan who was so boring, I think I would rather have been on Crewe station talking to a train spotter.

Someone who can speak clearly with Steve Breed plaese.

Dave Saunders and Ross Reid are the best combo for me. Our away commentaries have always been poor.

we had that idiot who could only pronounce about half the team properly last season, glad to see the back of him

agree the away games are the problem, i really like all the co comms, breed, Reid and dt, it's the main voice thats often the problem, the man who's full time job it is to be a sports reporter and very often fails miserably!

duplicate sorry

I agree that the commentary for the Barnet game was utter dross. Alan Richardson really made us sound like we were terrible, which may have been the case for the first half, but from what i've heard from a few people, we improved in the second half.

As for Julian Gaunt, can't stand him when he's on commentary. He always sounds like his voice is going to give way and I find myself switching over to the other teams commentary.

Dave Saunders, Dave Thomas and Ross Reid are the three best commentators for us by far. The rest are utter dross.

It took about 10 seconds on Friday for Richardson to actually confirm the penalty had missed - he initially announced something along the lines of 'Up steps Mcleod.. and that is a fine penalty' before mumbling for a while and then finally saying 'well i thought it went in but it seems to have hit the post' - to which I'm now screaming, 'where the %^$£ is the ball now??' and then we finally learn it hit the outside of the post and out for a goal kick.

I`ve heard Chris Hargreaves is taking over the microphone with Paul Buckle as his assistant!

well an interesting subject this one firstly i did the old co commentary on friday i dont get paid for it have never recieved any training for the job i just go on and do my best to call the game as i see it. I do my best as did alan richardson on friday we had a pretty poor view on friday being right in the middle of the standing up barnet fans i realize alan didnt call the penalty great but we where trying to see through many fans who had stood up to watch the pen. What i dont like is people calling me a tosser aka brucie on the swindon match thread and being called dross on this thread for simply co commenting my opinions while at the game. People may not agree with what ime saying but that automatically does not mean i am wrong alan and myself arnt richard keys and andy gray you know ime just a normal fan who goes to the games and have been asked to do co com. So please refain in calling me dross or a tosser on a public forum hay my missis and kids read the forum and its not nice to read

traveller gull wrote:well an interesting subject this one firstly i did the old co commentary on friday i dont get paid for it have never recieved any training for the job i just go on and do my best to call the game as i see it. I do my best as did alan richardson on friday we had a pretty poor view on friday being right in the middle of the standing up barnet fans i realize alan didnt call the penalty great but we where trying to see through many fans who had stood up to watch the pen. What i dont like is people calling me a tosser aka brucie on the swindon match thraed and being called dross on this thread for simply co commenting my opinions while at the game. People may not agree with what ime saying but that automatically does not mean i am wrong alan and myself arnt richard keys and andy gray you know ime just a normal fan who goes to the games and have been asked to do co com. So please refain in calling me dross or a tosser on a public forum hay my missis and kids read the forum and its not nice to read

Absolutely agree. To post sensible suggestions, fair comment or legitimate reasoned criticism is one thing, but to resort to personal abuse is offensive and discourteous. Cut it out.

Steve, I don't think anyone was criticising your input. The target was Richardson but thanks for the explanation anyway.