Saturday sports watch

I decided that today my post would centre more on sports coverage than the sports themselves.

TMS with ball-by-ball commentary on the third day at Edgbaston was on my radio all day.

It threw up such statistical gems as that a Warwickshire player had never scored a century at their own ground – an extraordinary stat if you think that the likes of Derek Amiss, Bob Wyatt, Bob Barber, Brian Lara, Rohan Kanhai all represented the ‘Bear and Staff’ county.

I had hoped the extremely likeable Chris Woakes might do so yesterday but he fell short, as did the Surrey keeper Jamie Smith, by 5 runs.

Everyone has their likes and dislikes and my latter is Vic Marks.

“If you are such a clever clogs, why did you not do better when running Somerset?” I found myself asking the radio.

Aggers is a reliable chief presenter but tends to gild the past. He was praising umpires of yore who had a better rapport with cricketers.

But what about the biased home-chosen umpires of the Sub-Continent and the Caribbean, not to mention England’s ‘twelfth man’ David Constant?

In the evening I watched the Olympics, first the Rugby Sevens in which Antoine Dupont’s French team beat Fuji in the final.

Then the swimming.

I watched on Eurosport presented by a nervous Reshmin Chowdhury (above) and Paralympian Ellie Simmonds.

I thought at first that the mike Simmonds was clutching was too big, then realised she was small.

Still, it was an innovative invitation and the 2012 gold paralympian knew her stuff.

China won 2 golds but the controversy over their substance abuse was avoided. The camera-work, with shots under the water and identifying the 3 leaders with flags of their country, was impressive.