Always remember Illingworth getting a wicket with his first ball in Test Cricket - partly because the rubbish BBC missed it by going to the weather before the lunchtime news just as the ball hit the stumps - remember that, all of you who remember cricket being better in the days of free to air. Plus the rubbish commentary of Tony Lewis and Jack Bannister... alongside the brilliant Richie Benaud!
I remember this exactly - there was also a phase when the post lunch coverage only restarted when Neighbours was finished .... 1.50 pm. And we could forget the cricket entirely whenever it clashed with Wimbledon.
@@David_F579 Spot on. Even the excellent Channel Four coverage on Saturday afternoons was interrupted by racing unless you could get More4 or whatever it was through having Sky. The good old days of free to air cricket are, in reality, a bit of a myth. BBC also missed Gooch getting to his 300 from the first ball after tea on the second day at Lords against India in 1990.
@@stephenkuhrt635 Yes Goochie was the famous one. The one that did some actual damage to the BBC may have been the last day of the Lords Test v NZ in 1994. Eng were fighting for a draw on the last afternoon and BBC instead showed a 1st round tennis match from day 1 of Wimbledon. Got a bit of publicity at the time. In Ireland we got BBC NI which meant we also had to contend with the racing from Down Royal, the Irish open golf and some GAA matches in addition to everything else :))))). Yep as you say free to air was not as good as many would lead u to believe.
I didn't mind Bannister, but Lewis was an awful commentator. His presentational skills as the front man were poor too - he never seemed a natural in front of the camera. I have no idea how he ever got the BBC gig.
