[Closed] Liggett / Sherwen drinking game?

Yeah, you always get the same stuff from them although I couldn't sit and commentate on cycling for five hours.
I think my favourite Liggett quote so far this tour is, "the Manx missile has launched and when that happens, there's no catching him.... and Kittel wins...."

Past being entertained by those two bell ends tbh - wish Phil would [s]FOAD[/s] - retire to a nice cottage with a big garden in Southern France. Paul can join him - [i]with his mountain bike background, Cadel Evans will relish putting his superior handling skills to work on this tricky descent.[/i] Please get tae f_k with these appalling cliches.

What is it going to take to displace these two clowns from the commentary box - thought Phil might call it a day when Armstrong finally coughed up but no, he's hanging on in there like a geriatric limpit.

Or when someones 'great bike handling skills' are down to him 'being a former mountain biker'

What is it going to take to displace these two clowns from the commentary box - thought Phil might call it a day when Armstrong finally coughed up but no, he's hanging on in there like a geriatric limpit.

Please don't insult the men who have taught me everything I know about French Chateaus!

"suitcase of courage"
"heads of state"
"licking their lips"
"this sport of professional bike racing"
"you have to ride at the front"

Or when someones 'great bike handling skills' are down to him 'being a former mountain biker'

heard this so many times!

It's gone 10 here no need for a game

[url= http://www.geocities.com/fourlakes_99/home/cycling/pnpbingo.htm ]Sherwen and ligget bullsh*t bingo[/url]

I like the Ventoux climb stuff from Liggett.

"Up here absolutely nothing grows" (camera shows riders passing a load of scrub/trees).

Completely agree, they are far too long in the tooth now.

I watched yesterdays stage on Eurosport and it was such a refreshing change not having they two muppets commentate.

"dancing on the pedals" and " he's joined a select few."

Love the pair of them, the Tour wouldn't be the same without them.

barrykellett - Member

Sherwen and ligget bullsh*t bingo

Shot every time he says machine though

Or when someones 'great bike handling skills' are down to him 'being a former mountain biker'

That wasn't the hex that sent Jean-Christophe Péraud out of the TDF perchance?

How about "diesel engine"?

As per dknwhy, I certainly couldn't describe blokes riding bikes for 5 hours a day everyday for 3 weeks and not repeat the odd phrase! But the pair of them do tend to trot out the same ones far too often!

Cheers,
Jamie

I think my favourite Liggett quote so far this tour is, "the Manx missile has launched and when that happens, there's no catching him.... and Kittel wins...."

I chortled at that.

I like them, they're a seminal part of the TDF coverage for me, having watched it since the early 90s they're all I know! I flirted with Eurosport when C4 dropped it and before ITV picked it up and Duffield and Kelly (I know it's not them anymore) are far and away the biggest morons ever!

David Duffield was the Murray Walker of road race commentary. Always wrong, always missing crucial information like "oh look, there's an attack" cos he was too busy dribbling on about food and chateaux.

Carlton Kirby is very good, probably the best of the current batch. Sean Kelly is good once you get past the accent, he's certainly amazingly knowledgable, it just loses a bit in translation sometimes. 😉
And as actual presenters, Ned Boulting, Chris Boardman and Gary Imlach are superb.

Difficult job though, much as I like watching the Tour I couldn't sit there for 6hrs every day talking about it. The most interesting ones to listen to are the quieter stages where they start talking about things other than the actual racing.

'Job of work'.

Dissappointed I haven't heard the mountain biker thing this year. Probably cos Cadel has been out of the reckoning.

OK, so if Liggett & Sherwin are so long in the tooth and due to be put out to retirement who would you replace them with?

Dissappointed I haven't heard the mountain biker thing this year

Cheers,
Jamie

The Pinkster - Member

OK, so if Liggett & Sherwin are so long in the tooth and due to be put out to retirement who would you replace them with?

Warner and Page?

😀

Warner and Page?

Now that would be good.

"Chris Froome descending is uglier than a lion raping a goat"

They would be class. I bet viewing numbers would rocket!!

I think my favourite Liggett quote so far this tour is, "the Manx missile has launched and when that happens, there's no catching him.... and Kittel wins...."

What I particularly enjoy is that, being a dramatic stage ending moment, it's been, and will continue to be, shown a shedload of times. I can picture Liggett wincing every time. That makes me happy.

I like them. I grew up watching the tour with phil commentating.

Better than the bloke who did the giro. The number of times he said 'ooooh hello'

or,

"* me Nige, after a couple of hours, all these *ing french villages all look the ****ing same."

Warner would probably start his own drinking game, 1 bottle of beer for every pissed up Frenchie running up a mountain wearing only his pants - an extra bottle for every animal the Frenchie is carrying.

Grew up watching Phil and Paul, back When all you had was the 1/2 hour highlights show, which they gave a great soundtrack to.

When Roache caught Delgado on the mountain top finish and Lemond v Fignon TT on the last stage were great commentary moments but over the years they seem to have lost some pages out of there quotes book and roll out the same phrases time after time 'very select few' being a particular non favourite.

Switched to Eurosport now and Carlton does a great job, supported by Sean Kelly, who sounds like he is playing the Paul and Phil drinking game whilst commentating.......good double act and massively knowledgeable.

😆 loving the Warner & Page suggestion.

'clavicule'
Poor old Peter Kenn-Arr/Ken-OR/Kenn-Ogg/Kenn-Yack must be having an identity crisis.

Keep em I say, still good value. Boardman, Boulting & Imlach are always good for entertainment and sneaky asides.

I have the same issues as most above with them and I really dislike Ligget for his lame defence of LA even when it was going beyond loyalty and trying to blame everyone else.

But... despite also having Eurosport, I prefer to watch their commentary. I'm not really sure why though. I guess maybe because I don't think much of Sean as a commentator (though granted there is the odd jewel in there) and whoever he's teamed with never seems much good either.

Ah, well, as above, I suppose that the muppets have almost become part of the tour.

How are you supposed to pronounce Kennaugh BTW? I can't believe how they do it is right.

Sean and Carlton ftw, and on this tour the Lampre drinking game is a lot easier.

Is the Lampre drinking game based on drinking [url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mantova-judges-sends-27-to-trial-for-doping-charges ]whenever one of their riders is caught for doping[/url]?

@richmtb PMSL 😆

My Manx neighbour reckons Kenn-yock. I think, don't quote me on that, nobody reads this do they?

clubber - Member
Is the Lampre drinking game based on drinking whenever one of their riders is caught for doping?

No, just when you see one on screen!

I loved Sherwen saying there has been a "massive distillery of the group" just after Liggett pointed out the field were "literally spreadeagled all over the road".
Wrong.

Carlton is good but Sean is awful-

C: "And just look at Contador accelerate as he tries to drop Froome- what do you reckon Sean?"

S: "fffmfmmhhhhhh- what?"

C: "What do you reckon to Contador's acceleration?"

S: "Oh, I dunno. *mumble* I was snoozing. *mumble* ****. Yeah, look at him accelerating there."

It's like he doesn't realise that he's being paid to contribute, he only talks when Carlton prompts him, and when he does it's unintelligible mumbling.

But yes, definitely the better combo, even if it's only because they can pronounce the rider's names without making an utter has of it. If I hear Kennaugh's name hacked to bits with a verbal machete again I will kill someone.

Keep em I say, still good value. Boardman, Boulting & Imlach are always good for entertainment and sneaky asides

I like the "support cast" far more than Waldorf and Statler, who are the Bruce Forsyth of cycling. Liggett can't even get riders names right, usually he's an entire bloody generation out. Sherwen uses "and you know" and "in this, the sport of professional cycling" as punctuation in between the groan-inducing cliches.

I grew to despise them during the LA debacle, both are close friends, business partners and basically paid-up henchmen of LA. Liggett was a vociferous denier right up until Oprah asked the questions, and they've made a fortune off the back of LA and the dubious Livestrong organisation (paid to give speeches at motivational seminars, which is where Livestrong spent most of its $450m, only spending ~$20m on research). And this when theyre not counting the profits from their (co-owned with LA) African gold mine, which I'm sure is a paragon of human rights, excellent conditions and a workers' cooperative spirit, and not the embodiment of hateful western exploitation. Sorry, just fell off my soapbox typing....

http://road.cc/content/news/74348-phil-liggett-says-lance-armstrongs-accusers-were-motivated-jealousy

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/lancearmstrong/9810988/How-Lance-Armstrongs-dwindling-band-of-backers-reacted-to-his-doping-confession.html

The ITV4 podcast is entertaining; Boulting, Boardman and Rendell have real chemistry, I think B and B are genuine friends (they rode Ventoux together before the racers came through and apparently go running a lot). Imlach is very dry and arch, Boardman is comically direct and quite happy to totally undermine or contradict on-air (which Imlach takes in his stride).

Pair of ****s, I grew up watching them from when it used to be on channel 4 every night and I still have no idea which ones which. Next time one of the daft idiots says "he's free to fly" again I'm going to kill a kitten, its usually accompanied by Contadors brief attack being pulled straight back.

The ITV4 team sound like they would be great on the race commentary - but wasn't CB part of the outfit who massacred the olympic roadrace last year? Technical difficulties, but as bad as Phil is, he must have to work under similar conditions. It sounds like he is often working off the same pictures that we're seeing on the TV?

Everyone else on itv4 are great. That pair are past it now.

Hugh porter and millar were great during the worlds last year. Hugh porter injecting the excitement with his tone and millar providing considered insight.

The ITV4 team sound like they would be great on the race commentary - but wasn't CB part of the outfit who massacred the olympic roadrace last year? Technical difficulties, but as bad as Phil is, he must have to work under similar conditions. It sounds like he is often working off the same pictures that we're seeing on the TV?

Chris Boardman did the commentary for the Olympic Road Race and the MTBing. The road race had horrendous problems with race radio, I'll cut him some slack for that.
Personally I thought he was good in the MTB but a few people complained about his dry delivery. I like him, he's very deadpan but he's better as a post-race analyst than a commentator.

I agree Boardman's style probably doesn't suit live commentary; if Imlach is dry then Boardman is dessicated. And yes the Olympics was a shambles for technical reasons not down to individuals. At the risk of mitigating my hatred of Waldorf and Statler I expect that you tire of anyone you hear commentating regularly, as their mannerisms and regular phrases begin to irk. I can't stand the idiots that cover MotoGP on BBC Steve "I was Barry Sheene's team mate" Parrish and Charlie "I drove cars in Australia" Cox, they only have to talk for 45 minutes a week but are still a collection of cliches and stock phrases- "back across the stripe" "get them all in the back of a van", "a puffteenth between them" "XXX horse power through a contact patch the size of your palm" etc ad nauseum.

I'm rather disappointed that I've not heard Paul Sherwen use the phrase 'job of work' this Tour.

Liggets been commentating badly for 30 years plus now and I feel like i've sat through every bloody minute of it. At least Sherwin had a fairly desent profesional career which gives him some credibility.
But Sean Kelly was a brilliant rider. There's not much he doesn't know about bike racing. I've got my Skil jersey from the early 80's that I bought because of him.

[img] [/img]

Doesn't fit anymore though. 🙁

I think my favourite Liggett quote so far this tour is, "the Manx missile has launched and when that happens, there's no catching him.... and Kittel wins...."

I'm surprised they weren't on an ad break.

BBC Steve "I was Barry Sheene's team mate" Parrish and Charlie "I drove cars in Australia" Cox

Parish isn't too bad but Cox is awful. Despite it not being live I watch it on Eurosport. Ryder, Moody and Spalding are in a completely different league.

This thread was running through my mind on my evening road ride, I ended up mentally commentating my ride through the eys of Phil & Paul.

[i]Several times, Phil, he's had to dig deep into his suitcase of courage in this, the sport of [s]professional[/s] Strava bike racing.
That's right, Paul, he's asking the engine room for more power and slowly but surely he's getting that big diesel engine ticking and slowly clawing back the gap.

Well Phil, he's taking all kinds of risks on the treacherous Col de Whaley Bridge descent but as a former mountain biker he's got superb descending skills and he knows he can do it.[/i]

Well OK, I found it mildly amusing, it passed the time. 😉

Ligett and Sherwen are just embarrassing tbh-they miss so much that they just cone across as unable to cope with the demands of modern commentary. Kirby is a **** too. Best commentator by far for me is David Harmon-unfortunately he is suffering from depression so is on leave indefinitely.

he only talks when Carlton prompts him

Just watching a replay of the coverage and this is so true! Still better than Ligget.

Ligett ...and the road is straight into the wind all the way to finish
Sherwin ...as they take the right turn out of the headwind

I almost cried

Boardman's an undiscovered comedy genius, I'm convinced of this. He did this little short skit on ITV4 a while back about cycling clothing and it was soooo [i]subtly[/i] wryly funny, in a closely-knowing-North-West-of-England funny kind of way.

We need more Boardman. The guy is ace.

Hugh porter and millar were great during the worlds last year. Hugh porter injecting the excitement with his tone and millar providing considered insight.

God knows why Robert isn't commentating. He's head and shoulders above everyone IMO. Zero BS and so much insight.

It was David and not Robert at the worlds, iirc. Sure Robert would be good though.

You have to laugh when Phil describes Cannondale as Cannonball and Quick Step as Quick Stop 😀

Maybe he is UK Cycling Expert on twitter!

Phil liggett isn't bad. He still has the enthusiasm, although he does seem to be missing a lot of things these day. Paul Sherwen is getting a bit annoying though. The least he could do would be to come up with some new phrases each year but he just regurgitates the ones again and again.

My favourite : His legs are writing cheques his body just can't cash.

Love them both, but sometimes there is a whole world of pain involved in listening to them both. Ligget was interviewed for cycling, mentioned Ligget bingo and knows he says them, knows people play the game, but as he says, the comments are spontaneous and he can't help them. I like that.

And besides, bike racing, except for a few choice moments, tends to be pretty dreary. Just watching the one hour hilights does not tell the whole story...

I'm missing Hammond's analysis to be honest. Boardman doesn't do it for me. After all, he was a time trialist above all else. Maybe it's just his dour demeanor.

Hammond takes the trophy for dreariness though. Suspect he might have been banned from the airwaves for those awful shirts he sported last year 😉