The Sport Thread

The logo is all in lowercase, as for other graphics, not sure. The draft versions I have seen are 'glass' textured similar to the sky+/sky generic branding, however I assume there will be a colour swatch applied at some point.

Hazel would not be back today if it wasn't for the last match of the day being on tonight which Gary will be hosting

She's probably the most knowledgeable presenter the BBC has got - a proper sports journalist too, unlike Lineker.

I agree she should get the Athletics over Sue Barker, who personally now I'd restrict mainly to tennis and move to off-peak coverage at things like the Olympics.

Personally I think John Inverdale and Hazel Irvine should be heading our coverage in 2012 - but you just know it'll probably be Sue Barker and Jake Humphrey.


Considering the BBC only had two days live coverage it would arguably have made more sense to have Hazel cover both if they knew Gary wasn't available for the Sunday.

Have Sky had any coverage of the final two days - they seemed to have live rights on Thursday and Friday but it looks like nothing since.

So something like this then?

Apoligies for the not so good effects on certain letters.

Close, but the 'sports' is in a lighter, rounded font. It is also missing a fundamental part of the branding. That's all I'm saying for now, as I'm not sure BSkyB will go ahead with the idea.

Did anyone else catch part of a special programme on ITV4 earlier, basically a highlights programme of The Match from May 1989 with Liverpool playing Arsenal. Quite a nice change to see Football from this era repeated, they even kept in the theme tune to The Match in aswell. I hope they bring The Big Match Revisited back for another run, I've thoroughly enjoyed them.

Didn't catch this unfortunately - was it the same format as Big Match Revisited, with the original presenter etc? ITV are pretty good at delving into their sporting archives - shame the Beeb couldn't come up with a modern version of 'Match of the Seventies' or the like - might fit in quite well on BBC4 perhaps?

On a separate point, looks like the BBC aren't bothering to compete with the Cup Final on ITV on Saturday - they have the European Slalom Canoeing Chmpionships ( ) on BBC1 until 2.30pm, then two films, then live rugby league on BBC2 post-5.00pm.

And today, the Murray-bandwagon is rolling back into town with live coverage of his second round French Open match on BBC2 from 10am. Convenient being the first match on court. Somehow I feel that an early-evening highlights programme might be a more attractive option for Grand Slam tennis when it is unclear when Murray will be playing - at least this could be scheduled and advertised, rather than just interrupting normal schedules with live coverage at the last minute, with probably rather low ratings as a result.

Really there is nothing on BBC Two that couldn't be sacrificed from 10am-7pm every day over the next two weeks to have live coverage on the main channel, certainly during the later stages of the event.

Yes, the original title sequence and Elton Welsby's introduction and chat with Bobby Robson. There was also Jim Rosenthal on the pitch interviewing Tony Adams and overseeing the presentations, and then Elton signing off and saying that was it for "this series of The Match". It wasn't a series, Elton, it was the football season. There was no chat with Bobby at the end, not because it had been edited out, but because they didn't have any at the end. Those were the days when football coverage was still five minutes before the kick-off and five minutes at the end.

Unlike The Big Match Revisited they didn't put a scoreline or date on screen throughout, just the ITV4 DOG, and the original graphics. Also at the end of both halves we had the original cue dot, cue dot fans.

Before they had the red button they did have daily live highlights of the French Open. I remember in 1999 they had highlights on BBC1 every night around midnight, as well as highlights of the Cricket World Cup - and the way it worked was that if they'd shown live cricket that day, the tennis would be on first, and if they hadn't, it'd be the cricket first.

Having not screened the games all season, are STV showing the FA Cup Final on Saturday?

Of course not, it's Inspector Morse, Crocodile Hunter Diaries and On the Buses for STV.