Carlton kirby - has to go !!

[Akuryo]

I can only agree with all these sentiments, Kerbys knowledge on certain subjects are usually good, when commentating on motor sport he,s a normal person, but on cycling his constant motor mouth makes my ear,s bleed, there are times im sure he doesn't even draw breath, how the hell he can tell us whats in the riders minds, is beyond me, thank god for Brian Smith, trust me, it was calming to not hear him on races up to the Dauphine, I thought he,d gone, but ho no, my God, another Tour with him.

Yeah, I really enjoyed the Giro without his voice. Though I have to admit that I love his enthusiasm: Iljo Keisse - 2012 Tour of Turkey

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Know who I think of every time I read this guy's name?

No, I don't. Who is that?

 

[Afrank]

No, I don't. Who is that?

It's The pink ball of awesome that is Kirby from Nintendo's Kirby video game series.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_(character)

 

[movingtarget]

Thank god for Smith. He even had to tell Kirby at one stage this week "anyway back to the race." When Kirby was rambling about his children or something. Smith concentrates on the race and is usually pretty good at keeping Kirby in check which is impossible anyway.

 

[wirral]

Thank god for Smith. He even had to tell Kirby at one stage this week "anyway back to the race." When Kirby was rambling about his children or something. Smith concentrates on the race and is usually pretty good at keeping Kirby in check which is impossible anyway.

I agree with this. In fact I have been thinking about this quite a bit. Smith is getting better and better and, I speculate, has been making a deliberate effort to improve his commentating and he has definitely succeeded. He has made a clear effort to do a number of things, 1) let the viewer what is going on and who is were on the road 2) build the excitement, 3) explain the big picture, 4) keep Kirby focused and provide a balance to Kirby's meanderings and 5) provide technical and analytical information.

His weak point is his snarling Glaswegian nature which probably works well as a DS but not so good as a commentator. He has worked well to be nicer when commentating. I think he wanted to headbutt Harmon on a few occasions and Kirby too. He drops "near F-bombs" or similar as he did the other night.

Kirby may have seized the opportunity of having a very well-informed and highly observant co-commentator to go "off the plantation" and wax lyrical about anything which comes into his head re local history or geology or his kids.

It should be remembered though that people do catch a bit of Tour of Turkey on tv and decide to go on holiday to Turkey and Kirby plays a part in that. Not everyone needs to know who is leading by how many points in the King of the Mountains competition.

 

[inri2000]

I agree with this. In fact I have been thinking about this quite a bit. Smith is getting better and better and, I speculate, has been making a deliberate effort to improve his commentating and he has definitely succeeded. He has made a clear effort to do a number of things, 1) let the viewer what is going on and who is were on the road 2) build the excitement, 3) explain the big picture, 4) keep Kirby focused and provide a balance to Kirby's meanderings and 5) provide technical and analytical information.

His weak point is his snarling Glaswegian nature which probably works well as a DS but not so good as a commentator. He has worked well to be nicer when commentating. I think he wanted to headbutt Harmon on a few occasions and Kirby too. He drops "near F-bombs" or similar as he did the other night.

Kirby may have seized the opportunity of having a very well-informed and highly observant co-commentator to go "off the plantation" and wax lyrical about anything which comes into his head re local history or geology or his kids.

It should be remembered though that people do catch a bit of Tour of Turkey on tv and decide to go on holiday to Turkey and Kirby plays a part in that. Not everyone needs to know who is leading by how many points in the King of the Mountains competition.

I prefer Kirby to Smith who is way to biased for my taste.

 

[armchairclimber]

Kirby is a pillock, but his incompetence does sometimes make me laugh. Smith was also slow to suss that the time from leader to Contador on Sunday was from Nieve, not Talansky.

 

[MBotero]

Kirby is a pillock, but his incompetence does sometimes make me laugh. Smith was also slow to suss that the time from leader to Contador on Sunday was from Nieve, not Talansky.

Don't worry,local commentators in my country were clueless about interpretation of times too,seems like they choose to have them at the same level of incompetence.Of course,they are clueless about cycling in general,their favorite thing during commentary is read messages received on facebook and give food recipes.

 

[movingtarget]

I agree with this. In fact I have been thinking about this quite a bit. Smith is getting better and better and, I speculate, has been making a deliberate effort to improve his commentating and he has definitely succeeded. He has made a clear effort to do a number of things, 1) let the viewer what is going on and who is were on the road 2) build the excitement, 3) explain the big picture, 4) keep Kirby focused and provide a balance to Kirby's meanderings and 5) provide technical and analytical information.

His weak point is his snarling Glaswegian nature which probably works well as a DS but not so good as a commentator. He has worked well to be nicer when commentating. I think he wanted to headbutt Harmon on a few occasions and Kirby too. He drops "near F-bombs" or similar as he did the other night.

Kirby may have seized the opportunity of having a very well-informed and highly observant co-commentator to go "off the plantation" and wax lyrical about anything which comes into his head re local history or geology or his kids.

It should be remembered though that people do catch a bit of Tour of Turkey on tv and decide to go on holiday to Turkey and Kirby plays a part in that. Not everyone needs to know who is leading by how many points in the King of the Mountains competition.

I agree. They have to make the race attractive to the general public as well, not just informed fans. Paul Sherwen plays the same role with Phil. Option is to turn the sound down or just tune out which is not hard to do.

 

[nowhereman]

Wow, I just spotted this thread for the first time, and please pardon me if I'm redundant because I'm admitting to not having read previous posts. I just felt the need to add my voice to the chorus of protesting people who think this guy has got to go. Comes the end of any particular day this bloke is screeching at the top of his lungs, sometimes manufacturing a riotous atmosphere where one doesn't even exist. He is absolutely too much. Does he realize that his voice is cracking and that he sounds like a shrill idiot? And then last week, at the Criterium du Dauphine all he did was wax eloquent about Team Sky teamwork. And when someone dared to tweet him that he should tone that nonsense down somewhat, he took the defensive position of reading the tweet then attacking the tweeter by saying that he was just telling it like it was, no more, no less. Plenty less! He forgot to address that he wasn't giving anybody else any credit for making the race an exciting event until the Sky train came tumbling down, and he was forced to acknowledge that any one else was in the race. I hate to complain about this because I truly despise Sherwen and Liggett at this point (actually since 2009) But Kirby ain't making things too easy either. I do love Magnus Backstedt on beINsports.

 

[TourOfTexas]

Stage 3 of the Dauphine, final sprint, Dear Carlton was calling the Lotto rider "Jurgen Roelandts" over and over, even after the other commentator properly identified him as Boeckmans AND corrected Carlton.

I guess Roelandts is the only Lotto rider that Carlton knows.

 

[observer]

I like the aussie lineup of Matt Keenan and David McKenzie. They are informative, and factually correct, and also tell you a bit about the surrounds.

The best thing is that Mike Tomaliaris is kept at the studio, maybe for comic relief. He is the anchor, and even after 20 years or so in cycling, still seems to not know much. From what i remember, he was on the soccer commentary team and kind of fell into the cycling thing when it wasn't very popular.

He now gets to spend july in france and fuddles his way through all the cycling coverage. Still, his attitude makes me very happy.

 

[Akuryo]

1) let the viewer what is going on and who is were on the road

Exactly but cycling is not the only sport where (most) commentators still think they are on the radio and have to explain what the viewer is already seeing.

 

[damoski]

During one of the technical and fast descents at the Dauphine on Saturday we were treated to Carlton telling us, in all seriousness, how he was a really good descender and that it comes naturally to him. I almost threw something at the TV!

I wont even begin to describe the mess they made calling the GC situation on Sunday. I quite like Brian Smith but on Sunday he was lead down too many wrong turns by Kirby and we ended up with viewers having to tweet them to tell them to call it correctly and that the gap back to Contador on screen was to the leader on the road and not Talansky. Given what he has to deal with I think Smith should be praised for even remotely keeping the coverage on track!

 

[movingtarget]

I like the aussie lineup of Matt Keenan and David McKenzie. They are informative, and factually correct, and also tell you a bit about the surrounds.

The best thing is that Mike Tomaliaris is kept at the studio, maybe for comic relief. He is the anchor, and even after 20 years or so in cycling, still seems to not know much. From what i remember, he was on the soccer commentary team and kind of fell into the cycling thing when it wasn't very popular.

He now gets to spend july in france and fuddles his way through all the cycling coverage. Still, his attitude makes me very happy.

Tomo has improved, nowhere near as bad as he was.

 

[tony west]

Kerby Makes Mistakes

No he doesn't,Milan-Sanremo 2/3 years age, Cavandish crashes on last bend,Kerby said, his fork broke,Magi, I think wheel collapsed, Kerby said,disaster Cavs fork broke, this goes on for a bit, TV pictures show mechanic picking up bike and fork with collapsed wheel, come the end of transmission, Kerby comes out with, any one just tuning to see how Cav did, sorry to say, he crashed when his fork broke, you could hear Big Magi, sigh and give up

 

[42x16ss]

Tomo has improved, nowhere near as bad as he was.

Could he have gotten any worse? Tan is still an embarassment, I tried reading his opinion "pieces" on CC during the Giro. Totally cringeworthy. Keenan and McKenzie are pretty decent but can get carried away a little if Orica or an Aus rider are doing well.

What I'd love to see is SBS get behind Wade Wallace and the rest of the crew behind CyclingTips "The Bike Lane." A great combo of an ex-pro (Scott McGrory), a decent commentator (Matt Keenan) and the driving force behind the site (Wade Wallace). Their interviews are good, they have extensive contacts in the industry and they know quite a few former and current pros.

 

[movingtarget]

Could he have gotten any worse? Tan is still an embarassment, I tried reading his opinion "pieces" on CC during the Giro. Totally cringeworthy. Keenan and McKenzie are pretty decent but can get carried away a little if Orica or an Aus rider are doing well.

What I'd love to see is SBS get behind Wade Wallace and the rest of the crew behind CyclingTips "The Bike Lane." A great combo of an ex-pro (Scott McGrory), a decent commentator (Matt Keenan) and the driving force behind the site (Wade Wallace). Their interviews are good, they have extensive contacts in the industry and they know quite a few former and current pros.

No one seemed to like Tan. I get a bit tired of listening to Keenan. He just never shuts up. He sort of drones on and has not got a good voice for commentary. McKenzie is good as is Henk Vogels. I watched the Giro on Eurosport and would switch over to SBS afterwards to listen to Vogels and McKenzie. Their intros are good as well.

 

[hywel huw]

He is on the tv all the time because he is amusing and the best around - have you heard some of the others!!

 

[shoobridge]

I agree Kirby has to go

Has not got a clue about bike racing and just makes jokes that only he can laugh at.

 

[avanti]

One problem for the commentators is that they are commentating on one or two TV feeds in French (during TdF) along with race radio and mandatory fed commentary (Such as "this castle used to be where Napoleon used top live"). They also have producers yelling in their ears.

 

[offbyone]

Frankly, I think Kirby is great. Remember, these commentators can't just play to only the very knowledgeable cycling fans. And cmon you might only be watching the 1 hour recap, but these guys need to talk for 5 hours straight. Getting rudimentary is the only option.

Now the Greg Lemond segment is the worse commentating I have ever heard. Lemond just stinks and the guy he partners with isn't much better. Lemond should stick with selling bikes, it is painful to listen to him.

 

[argyllflyer]

For all the Carlton fans out there, here's an interview he did with a motoring website in 2009.

http://2or4.co.uk/2009/01/12/qa-carlton-kirby-on-commentating-motorsport-and-tuvalu/

A few highlights:

I was described as a Marmite Commentator once… and that’s about right.

So he even acknowledges himself people will love or hate him.

You can bore for England if you give a lecture on what you know all the time as some do. It’s what is on the screen that matters. Action, and helping people to enjoy it.

I did have my own radio show on the tropical atoll of Funafuti... Goooooood Mooooorning Tuuuuuvaaaaaloooo was my opening gambit. All the link jingles I nicked from BBC Radio Norfolk…

 

[Samson]

After Froome crashed out of the race - they're like in funeral.

 

[argyllflyer]

After Froome crashed out of the race - they're like in funeral.

Out of interest, how many countries take the English-language feed?