By Nick Powell
The first time I heard Ian Robertson’s name
was sitting down and switching on my Play Station 2 in December 2007 to play
the new game my sister had got me for Christmas, Rugby 08.
Robertson’s
clear, concise commentary couldn’t have suited the game better. His,
straight-to-the-point, unsubtle commentary was perfect to suit every
kind of game and situation, as well as providing an educative function, and his
warm, dulcet tones were perfect for young gamers. Still, they didn’t stop me
from lobbing plenty of controllers in fits of pure rage.
Maybe it’s
because of that nostalgia of gazing up at a screen, with all the problems of
the World put to one side for 20 minutes that makes me have the respect I do
for Robertson, but there’s a refreshing clarity to his commentary which is
simply textbook when it comes to radio.
Clarity, I
should make it clear, is not tantamount to blandness. When emotion and
excitement was needed, Robertson provided it in bucket loads.
As his
career went on, Robertson had a reactive ability to describe events like no
other radio or television commentator in any sport I’ve ever seen.
It was this
ability which produced, what in my opinion, will always be, the greatest 15
seconds of sports commentary of all time:
"There's 35 seconds to go, this is the one. It's coming back to Jonny Wilkinson.
"He drops for World Cup glory. It's up! It's over! He's done it! Jonny Wilkinson is England's hero - yet again.
"And there's no time for Australia to come back. England have just won the World Cup."
If you’ve
never heard it before, watch it hear with pictures.
Whilst Rugby
08 was indeed the first time I heard Robertson’s name, it wasn’t the first time
I heard his voice. Two years prior I’d received an alarm clock that played
those iconic lines of commentary over and over, and made me fall in love with
the game.
Being 6, it tended to wake up my parents across the corridor before it woke me up, and
when it started going off intermittently in the middle of the night the
batteries somehow vanished from the clock, but it’s a possession I cherish
dearly.
The kind of
sentimentality that has defined this article was something you didn’t get from
Robertson, yet without trying, he managed to produce nine short sentences of
commentary that will be remembered long after his retirement.
It also
meant that Robertson celebrated the achievements of every nation, including the
most bitter of rivals to his nation, Scotland. Just like his compatriot the
late, great Bill McLaren
Perhaps
Scots make the best commentators, because with so little to shout about north
of the border, they can’t help but celebrate when any home nation does well.
But all
joking aside the BBC, and rugby as a whole will miss Robertson, and his generation
of commentators hugely.
Ian Robertson worked on the BBC for 47 years prior to his retirement last Saturday
In a modern
age, where so many commentators seem desperate to pointlessly fill the void
that silence can bring, describe action as if they were writing a book and year
for iconic lines of commentary, even if it means going to embarrassing lengths
of ‘goalgasms’, Robertson was different, he told you what was happening, when
it was happening, and could capture the excitement of any moment.
The only
thing subtle about Robertson was his immense talent, and that, for me, should
be the mark of a commentating great.
All pictures can be found on the BBC Webstie unless stated
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