Sunday, June 29, 2008

Motty the Voice retires as World Champion...

As the final whistle is blown in Vienna to signal Spain's well-deserved victory over Germany as European Football Champions, their first Spanish success in a major final since before England won the World Cup, brilliant veteran commentator John Motson finally delivers his pre-prepared classic line:

The Senors have become the Seniors...
Quality Mottie. Quality.

Sadly, tonight's game was Motty's final big-match commentary after more than three decades at the top.

I'm not a footie fanatic, and I know he's famed for his gaffes, my all time favourites being:
it's Arsenal 0, Everton 1, and the longer it stays like that, the more you've got to fancy Everton.
and
for those of you watching in black and white, Spurs are in the all yellow strip.
The Daily Mail devoted a full-page to these and others earlier in the week.

Great fun. But whatever they may say, for me, Motty's meticulous research, infectious excitement, and natural charm made even the dullest match worth watching.

A true professional. Thanks Motty.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to deliver the post to Motty's house in leafy Harpenden many years ago.

The man is a legend!

fairdealphil said...

glad we agree on something Geoffrey!!!

hope you enjoyed the footie, i saw a few games while on holiday with a german commentary...

i can tell you with some authority that the germans have no answer to motty...

we'll miss him.

but now for wimbledon eh??

are you going this year?

Anonymous said...

Went to Wimbledon last Saturday.

Going to Silverstone for the weekend. Hopefully Lewis can pull it off this year. The bookies seem to give him a good chance but Ferrari always do well there.

Won a few quid on Spain and Torres at the weekend and will be laughing all the way to the bank if either of the Williams sisters wins at Wimbledon on Saturday.

Have a nice week.

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid Motty was trumped after the game by Lukas Podolski who came up with an absolute corker on German TV:

"Football is like chess...er, but without the dice"

Top stuff.

fairdealphil said...

clearly a high roller...