Croft has to go

Croft has to go

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Polite M135 driver

1,853 posts

71 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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PaulWoof said:
the childish shouting to fake entertainment has grown wary on everybodys ears for some time. Let alone that he cleary has very little technical knowledge.

watching any other motorsport and you will see the complete difference. But F1 has been trying to dumb down to an audience for some time. See the AWS insights and wacky car rankings and made up numbers instead of giving viewers the actual data they would like.
this too - the car rankings are particularly odd since they differ between team mates, hence they're not just about the car? what are they? what do they mean? how is the score arrived at?

Kinky

38,800 posts

256 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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Adrian W said:
I watched the Formula 3 this morning, the commentator Alex ?? Was a breath of fresh air
Surely the accent/voice gave it away wink

WonkeyDonkey

2,094 posts

90 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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F1 fans are never happy.

I wasn't around when Bundle was new but when Walker retired then James Allen got a lot of flack, then it went to bbc and Legard got massive amount of stick, then he got binned and even Brundle got stick for now being lead commentator. Now it's Crofts turn.

Mr Dendrite

2,129 posts

197 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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James Allen knew his stuff, and is a very good F1 journo, probably should have been given more time to settle in. Legard wasn’t quick enough As lead commentator, so sounded bad. The best combination was when we had Coulthard and Brundle. It is a skill and craft to be learned, to speak clearly, live commentating. The masters make it look easy.
Croft is appalling. The enthusiasm is fine, getting excited by the race is fine.
But!! As others have said, he gets strident, which very different from excited and the worse thing Is he talks utter ste. Once he gets an idea in his head however rubbish he won’t let it go. You hear the ex drivers trying to gently disabuse him of his more stupid ideas, he doesn’t listen.
Yes lead commentator is tough, but there are others doing a much better job than him. Murray used to make some howlers, but he was watching a tiny little screen and no data feed, the viewers often had more information than he did. But he did his homework, he knew the facts about the race.
Crofty is rubbish, his colleagues are practically laughing at him on air. Time to bin him.

thegreenhell

12,311 posts

206 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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As annoying as he is, and he is very annoying much of the time, I'm sure he's only doing what his employers have told him to do. And I don't just mean Sky, but F1 itself. The Sky team is, I believe, the official English language commentary for F1TV and is also syndicated to many other countries around the world.

Crucially, this is also what will be used on news reports and highlights reels, and for that they need to imbue a sense of excitement at the crucial moments that will be shown in these short clips - the start, any crashes, important overtakes and the finish - even if such shouty excitability seems out of place when viewing the whole thing live.

Teddy Lop

7,340 posts

54 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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thegreenhell said:
As annoying as he is, and he is very annoying much of the time, I'm sure he's only doing what his employers have told him to do. And I don't just mean Sky, but F1 itself. The Sky team is, I believe, the official English language commentary for F1TV and is also syndicated to many other countries around the world.

Crucially, this is also what will be used on news reports and highlights reels, and for that they need to imbue a sense of excitement at the crucial moments that will be shown in these short clips - the start, any crashes, important overtakes and the finish - even if such shouty excitability seems out of place when viewing the whole thing live.
croftys execrable yelling is being immortalised as the soundtrack of f1 for the future generations.

That's a depressing thought.

g4ry13

15,353 posts

242 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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Teddy Lop said:
thegreenhell said:
As annoying as he is, and he is very annoying much of the time, I'm sure he's only doing what his employers have told him to do. And I don't just mean Sky, but F1 itself. The Sky team is, I believe, the official English language commentary for F1TV and is also syndicated to many other countries around the world.

Crucially, this is also what will be used on news reports and highlights reels, and for that they need to imbue a sense of excitement at the crucial moments that will be shown in these short clips - the start, any crashes, important overtakes and the finish - even if such shouty excitability seems out of place when viewing the whole thing live.
croftys execrable yelling is being immortalised as the soundtrack of f1 for the future generations.

That's a depressing thought.
The cars sound like st, it's hardly much of a soundtrack these days.

ajprice

24,943 posts

183 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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I don't have Sky, but I do watch some of the stuff that gets put on YouTube like Ant and Karun with the TV, interviews with Brundle, Button, Lazenby, and the lockdown Zoom call stuff between them before the season started. From what I've seen of them, it's a good (if big) team of people doing the coverage. I've never seen Croft involved in any of that. I did hear him make a shouty mess of the race finish a week ago for Silverstone race 1, it was a video link way back in the race thread, and I'm fine with C4 commentary thanks. Yes Ben Edwards does get shouty sometimes, but not as much as the Sky commentary.

ghost83

5,312 posts

177 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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I can’t stand Crofty tbh

For one he never gets the drivers right

Europa1

10,923 posts

175 months

Sunday 9th August 2020
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For the enthusiast, his errors really grate. For the casual fan, I suspect his enthusiasm is appealing.

I much prefer Channel 4's commentary team, and indeed their coverage generally - such a sham they only get the British Grand Prix live now.

With Sky, I just get the feeling they paid so much for the rights that they have felt they need to throw this hugely bloated team at it, which doesn't always work.


ch37

9,870 posts

208 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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thegreenhell said:
Crucially, this is also what will be used on news reports and highlights reels, and for that they need to imbue a sense of excitement at the crucial moments that will be shown in these short clips - the start, any crashes, important overtakes and the finish - even if such shouty excitability seems out of place when viewing the whole thing live.
Absolutely this, it's clearest as the winner crosses the line. Even if he is 10 seconds ahead Crofty will switch up a gear and really hammer home the victory for 5 seconds. His paymasters must love it as it's clearly what he's been asked to do and he's excellent at it.

Whenever these threads come up, it's always the lead and most appear to want two 'tech/analysis commentators. Of course, have two of those and one of them still has to call things immediately, describe the opening lap in detail etc.


Evercross

4,842 posts

51 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
People really moaned about Ted Allen.
Who's Ted Allen?

Derek Smith said:
I normally listen to Radio 5 Live, and the comparison makes me rather critical of Crofty.
Funnily enough Radio 5 Live commentary is provided by James Allen who has come on leaps and bounds since his work on ITV that took so much criticism over a decade ago.

rolleyes

Europa1 said:
I much prefer Channel 4's commentary team, and indeed their coverage generally - such a sham they only get the British Grand Prix live now.
Getting the opportunity to watch Ch4 and Sky's coverage of almost identical events in subsequent weeks demonstrates painfully obviously that the Ch4 show is just a better quality product all round.

Edited by Evercross on Monday 10th August 07:31

Sandpit Steve

7,618 posts

61 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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As someone who regularly watches international broadcasts, the Sky team are better than most. It’s always a relief to hear that it’s a Sky syndication rather than a local commentator.

Hearing local commentators missing the difference between time spent in the pit lane on a graphic, and the time lost to a competitor during a pit stop, for just one recent example, is really annoying.

Yes, Crofty’s excitable, but so are most lead commentators (MW, anyone?) and he’s doing what Sky and F1 are asking him to do.

swisstoni

14,529 posts

266 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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Croft commentates all weekend including practices. He is much more ‘normal’ for the practices and he’s generally entertaining and perfectly acceptable imho.

It’s when the main events come around that he goes to a heightened level and never comes down. That’s when you get that constant ‘blare’ from him that just becomes a noise.

The Sky lot have probably been at it too long to change anything now.

Muzzer79

7,728 posts

174 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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StevieBee said:
Yeah... bring back Jonathan Legard, James Allen, Murray Walker, Jonathan Palmer.....

You could give anybody that job and these pages would be full of the same regardless of their heritage, knowledge, skill or lack of.

It's entirely subjective. Crofty is excellent at what he does. Some people like his style. Others don't.
This

To those calling for his head; be careful what you wish for.

It's a difficult job sometimes, trying to talk up a potentially boring race that only 2 or 3 drivers realistically have a chance of winning and which is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport.

Yes, they harp on about tyre compounds and strategy but that's the sport. That's what it's become.

Crofty does fine. He's infinitely better than James Allen (what short memories some people have) and others that have sat in the seat.


ajprice

24,943 posts

183 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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Evercross said:
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
People really moaned about Ted Allen.
Who's Ted Allen?
James Kravitz' brother.

LP670

735 posts

113 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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James Allen was miles better than David Croft IMO. They both have a similar shouting style of commentary but at least Allen is knowledgeable on the subject he is commentating on. James Allen also was also the direct replacement for Murray Walker (love him or loath him he is one of the most famous and unique commentators in any sport) and that made him seem worse than he really was, especially in comparison to Legard and Croft who came later.

Brainpox

3,735 posts

138 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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Brundle/Coulthard was a great lineup before Sky got the rights. I shouldn't be able to hear Crofty's voice echoing on what is an extremely expensive and global broadcast when he starts shouting, he must properly be going for it.

But, he's lasted this long, so doubt he'll be going anywhere anytime soon.

Muzzer79

7,728 posts

174 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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LP670 said:
James Allen was miles better than David Croft IMO. They both have a similar shouting style of commentary but at least Allen is knowledgeable on the subject he is commentating on. James Allen also was also the direct replacement for Murray Walker (love him or loath him he is one of the most famous and unique commentators in any sport) and that made him seem worse than he really was, especially in comparison to Legard and Croft who came later.
I'll just leave this here.

Linky

The "Stop the Cock" campaign was quite popular.....


Brainpox said:
Brundle/Coulthard was a great lineup before Sky got the rights.
That wasn't Sky's fault.

Brundle did not and does not want to be lead commentator.



London424

12,751 posts

162 months

Monday 10th August 2020
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Ted did a feature a few years back on the commentary box. There’s a lot going on and it’s not like they have a 60inch high def screen to see what’s what. They are having to look across multiple small screens to piece the info together. They may also then have multiple voices talking to him from the production team etc.