The Sport Thread

A few years ago I mentioned to a colleague how it’d be nice to see Hazel Irvine presenting more outside of Snooker, the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and so on. I remember them saying that their understanding was she that was very happy with the amount of on screen work she was doing and balanced it with other things - possibly some kind of teaching - as well as the rest of her life. It may have been the same person who said they were aware of a presenter who was going to work with her being warned not to try and ‘out stat’ her, because she’d always be able to trump them!

Problems with BT Sport's coverage of the Coupe de la Ligue final tonight with BT losing the pictures several times during the penalty shootout that decided the game:

Shoutout to BT Sport for the excellent coverage of the penalty shootout 👌🏻 pic.twitter.com/Br8BZVCQJ9

— Matt (@mattk_lfc) July 31, 2020

Looks like thegeek has hacked BT Sport.

If they were worried about the public there is plenty of space for them to set up a studio without being anywhere near them. That they haven't is a clear indication that the presence of the public is not the reason they decided to host from London.

There are normally four commentary boxes in the crucible, two per table. The BBC's second table box has been given over to additional space backstage, so while you could put the commentators out in the auditorium, they could have arranged to do this anyway even with the audience in, so again, the lack of a box in the traditional location can't be the main reason for doing it from London.

Looks like Scotland are going to join the FA Cup final build-up half way through today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl6n/2020/08/01 (16:30 on BBC One HD)

but Scotland have Sportscene Results at 16:30 so join at 17:00

https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p013blmc/2020/08/01

Crazy the Scottish season starting on the day of the FA Cup Final. I've almost given up trying to work out what month it is anymore - one day it's July, next day it's August - how on earth are you supposed to keep up.

Eilidh Barbour fronting Sky's Scottish Football coverage.

Wait, it's only August 1st. Is the SPFL starting it's season earlier than usual? I would expect it to be mid August, not the 1st.

I think they always start the first weekend in August.

Does it have a proper theme tune like this

This was last season's theme.

Amazon Prime erroneously listed qualifying matches from the WTA tournament in Palermo today. Qualifying isn't usually televised so it was a surprise to see them, and when the matches started the streaming was unavailable.

What are the BBC cameras like for today's FA Cup Final? Is it the same set up as last year's final?