Games TV survives hail of cliches

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33443, 26 January 1974, Page 4

Games TV survives hail of cliches

With the exception of the odd unsporting grammatician or the occasional disgruntled viewer with an aversion to sporting cliches, the X.Z.B.C.’s television coverage of the first day of competition in the Commonwealth (James yesterday must have given almost as much satisfaction to viewers all over the world as the excellent broadcast of Thursday’s pompous opening cercmonx.

As Keith Quinn, or one of the other commentators would undoubtedly have put it. showing the form we know so well the team pulled together, romping away from a strong field to take the honours in fine style.

Only the fact that the) commentaries, generally accurate if sometimes a little biased, were laced with the! lack of imagination in de-i ascription that has become; the traditional fault of sports; description detracted from' the performance. The Games have been ballyhooed as the biggest) task facing the corporation,) and if the broadcasts of the! rest of the Games are up to) yesterday’s standard it will) seem that the N.Z.B.C. has finally achieved, in sport if; in little else, a presentation) comparable with the 8.8.C..] where so many of its past) hopefuls have gone. Bill McCarthy, the memo-, ries of bumbling, shirtsleevedj conversations on a secondhand setee with Winston Me-) Carthy during the All) Blacks’ Rugby tour now; safely behind him, provided!

an assumed and efficient ■'link between the various ■ sports. ; The co-ordination of •jvarious colour cameras d round the surprisingly .; sparsely-populated ' stadium, 'in the brilliant colour (if you ■know the right people) of I the swimming pool, and (hidden incongruously in a hot. high corner of the ! Cowles Stadium was without a fault—almost. . Only ■ in the hammerthrowing event did the I cameraman seem to let his (fascination with the sport I allow his, hand to stray. And (viewers found themselves (watching blow-by-blow, slowmotion (Description of how (the thrower had incurred a fault by stepping out of the (circle —when the picture (showed nothing below the ;contestant’s knees. I Even the most ardent of

1N.Z.8.C.-phobes must now| start to wonder if the collection of bright, young men; promised for years has' been assembled. Cer-I itainly, the directors will be! feeling almost as proud asj, Richard Tayler. whose win 1 ’ in the 10,000 metres was as| good television as it was! sport.

If Tayler had lost, it would certainly not have been for want of an encouraging—not to say biased —commentary. In the same way that Brian Allpress, at the opening ceremony,' seemed unable to resist fre-i quent mentions of how much; bigger, better and more there was in Christchurch' than at other Games, some; of yesterday’s commenta-' tors at times forgot their objectivity.

But they have little to learn from the 8.8. C. in that direction. —J.M.C.