CUT IT OUT
Sky are stirring it up with their Irish viewers
AQUIET Monday evening allowed time for some live footie on the TV, even if Southampton versus Brighton wasn’t exactly a Premier League block-buster. Leaving aside these are two of 12 teams in the English senior football with ‘ton’ in their name (see below), it was a chance to check on the fine work of Chris Hughton — another ‘ton’ there — and two key Republic of Ireland players for the Nations League next month, Shane Duffy and Shane Long.
Before a slow-burning duel ignited, the chief talking point, was commentator Alan Parry’s irritating description of Hughton as a ‘British manager’.
While Hughton first saw the light of day in London almost 60 years ago, his mother, Christine Bourke, was from Limerick and he played 53 times for the Republic of Ireland, as a dashing fullback. British? I think not.
Parry used to be one of my favourite commentators, back to the boarding school days of the late 1970s when he commentated for BBC Radio 2, as it was then. But I’m starting to wonder about him now.
Three years ago, he said, rather provocatively, of James McClean during a West Brom game on Sky that ‘the Northern Irishman from Londonderry just can’t get involved.’ The remarks did not go unnoticed.
At least last night, he stopped shy of hailing Duffy as ‘a Northern Irishman from Londonderry’ when he pulled a goal back for the team in the Republic of Ireland green.
Maybe somebody had a word in Parry’s ear about his earlier Hughton comment, I don’t know. At 70, you’d think Parry should know better than to stir things up.
He’s commentated on many games in the past involving a cluster of English internationals born outside Blighty, including Terry Butcher (Singapore), John Barnes, Luther Blissett (both Jamaica) and the late Cyrille Regis (French Guyana).
Of the current English squad, Raheem Sterling was born in Jamaica, but you can bet your bottom dollar he won’t be referred to as ‘the Jamaican winger from Kingston’ when Manchester City play Spurs next month on Monday Night Football.
Sky always play a straight bat too with England’s Test cricketers even though they draw heavily (many would argue far too heavily) from former colonies (espeically South Africa). Current test opener Keaton Jennings is from South Africa, not that they’d tell you.
I’ve yet to hear Nasser Hussain described on Sky as the ‘Indian from Madras’, Andrew Strauss as the ‘South African from Johannesburg’ or Eoin Morgan, the one-day skipper as ‘the Irishman from Malahide.’
While ‘Lord Ted’ Dexter, was born in Milan, not exactly known as a cricket hot-bed.
So, I suggest Sky keep things on a level playing field and avoid annoying folk on this side of the Irish Sea by referencing Hughton as ‘the former Irish international’ and Duffy as ‘the Derryman who plays for the Republic of Ireland.’
The latter is Brighton’s rock and he rode to their rescue on Monday night when they trailed 2-0.
First, he scored with a close-range header; then he was bundled over for the late penalty which enabled Brighton to plunder a point.
Duffy has scored two goals this season and completed every minute of Brighton’s five Premier League games. In contrast, Long has not scored so far in 256 minutes, but he never was, nor ever will be, a prolific scorer.
He’s the Republic of Ireland international from Gortnahoe, which, come to think of it, is not something you hear too often on Sky either.
PS: The 12 English League clubs with ‘ton’ in their name: Everton, Wolverhampton, Brighton, Southampton, Aston Villa, Bolton, Preston, Charlton, Accrington, Burton, Milton Keynes Dons, Luton.