15-07-2023, 09:26 PM
I feel a little guilty for moaning about him earlier now, but today was John Inverdale's final day of commentary at Wimbledon after 39 years of attendance for the BBC.
I think that is likely retirement for John now as I don't think he has any other regular roles left. Although his tennis TV commentary career wasn't the finest, he has been a familiar prescence across BBC Sport and elsewhere for all my sport watching life, most notably on rugby union of course. Despite the odd gaffe, he has always been a safe pair of hands and has lead many sporting events in a calm and informed manner.
His career has come to a bit of a limp end in my mind to be honest, with his roles as lead rugby presenter for the BBC, French Open host for ITV, and work across Radio 5 Live most notably at Cheltenham and The Open all coming to an end without much fanfare or tribute, in a space of a few short years. I imagine with him leaving many of those roles without said fanfare was exactly what John wants, which sums him up as a broadcaster for me: professional but never deliberately the centre of the action, letting the sport take centre stage.
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I think that is likely retirement for John now as I don't think he has any other regular roles left. Although his tennis TV commentary career wasn't the finest, he has been a familiar prescence across BBC Sport and elsewhere for all my sport watching life, most notably on rugby union of course. Despite the odd gaffe, he has always been a safe pair of hands and has lead many sporting events in a calm and informed manner.
His career has come to a bit of a limp end in my mind to be honest, with his roles as lead rugby presenter for the BBC, French Open host for ITV, and work across Radio 5 Live most notably at Cheltenham and The Open all coming to an end without much fanfare or tribute, in a space of a few short years. I imagine with him leaving many of those roles without said fanfare was exactly what John wants, which sums him up as a broadcaster for me: professional but never deliberately the centre of the action, letting the sport take centre stage.
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