U S Masters and Hazel Irvine

[oscarina]

Why does Hazel Irvine have to spoil the U S Masters, presenting it and interviewing players, she is so false! At least Clare Balding knows about horse racing, Gary Linekar knows football, what qualifies Hazel Irvine to do these shows, also introduces snooker!!!

[cazzz1975]

wasnt she a replacement for gary lineker who everone moaned about ?(he is a good golfer btw)

[bibblebub]

It's called being a sports presenter. Remember Des Lynam - he wasn't a sportsman; nor were David Coleman nor David Vine.

And we all know what sports Frank Bough got up to, except that they weren't suitable for broadcasting.

[oscarina]

Agree bibblebub but still did a better job! What Frank did was still more interesting than the bland Hazel!

[OrcadianOil]

Here, oscarina, just to enlighten your obvious ignorance about "what qualifies Hazel Irvine to do these shows" :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...ort/hazelirvine.shtml

[New Judge]

You also have to bear in mind that at the recent Winter Olympics the curling competition was overseen by Steve Cram, the world’s leading authority on that sport. As well as providing inane (sorry, valuable on incisive) commentary to the viewers he was also able to help out Rhona Martin (skipper of the Olympic gold medal winning team in 2002) as she struggled to get to grips with the subtle nuances of the game.

Of course neither of them could have managed in the latter stages of the event without the assistance of that world-renowned curling expert, Paula Radcliffe. Her valuable contributions from the commentary box (which included “I didn’t realise just how heavy those things were” and “I can’t believe how they manage to slide about on that ice like that without falling over”) were priceless and enabled me to understand the previously incomprehensible. It also made me realise just what superb value the licence fee is (Staff and presenters despatched by BBC to cover the Games: 74. Competitors in GB team at the Games: 52).

[oscarina]

Orcadion Oil !Still no award for personality, anyone could achieve all that with working at the BBC and hosting and reading from autocues!

[adewebster]

Imagine if Peter Alliss hosted and presented the coverage, with Hazel giving her 'false' knowledge of golf as commentary. It would never happen.
Presenting and giving invaluable commentary and analysis are two very different disciplines.
Clare Balding is no 'expert' on other sports she has successfully presented, but does an admirable job - as a presenter - she's no luge expert, but I'm sure she researches all she covers, as indeed Hazel would.
As for snooker, I think the BBC has a good team with Hazel, John Parrott and Steve Davis in the studio. 7 titles between the three of them, ahem.
(Oh, and as I'm sure you're aware, it's Lineker.)