by dk95 » 05 Mar 2025 Read
I didn't mind Eurosport - I wouldn't have seen any of the PTCs without their coverage of those events (and for what it's worth I actually loved them...pro-am tournaments, carrying ranking points and therefore genuine possibility of progression to the pro tour if an amateur had a good weekend, plenty of chances for good players to pit themselves against the best in the world (and for not-so-good players to embarrass themselves...), plenty of quick-fire entertainment, and sometimes the final would be played in front of 10, maybe 20 people! Potentially even 25, for the Chinese events.)
I didn't mind Mike Hallett's commentary, because they also had Phil Yates, Mark Johnston-Allen, and David Hendon, each of whom made him sound like the second coming of Ted Lowe to me.
I'm not contending that he was - how to put it diplomatically - quite as good a commentator as he was a player, of course...
I think Eurosport always had a certain off-the-cuff feeling, probably because it felt (and I'm sure was) like they were just winging it as they went along and hoping for the best! I liked that. It wasn't polished like the BBC; it was slapdash, it was irreverent at times, it was amateurish at all times, but it was one of the great pioneers of all time, in terms of making the world fall in love with this strange little sport.
How many players are there now, who would never have known what a snooker/billiard table looked like if not for exposure to the game by Eurosport? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?
If there had been only one, Eurosport would have served its purpose well.
Farewell, old friend.