Voice of reason Davies back for one-off Match of the Day slot
By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) - The dulcet tones of one Britain's favourite football commentators will return to the microphone on Saturday when Barry Davies offers his pearls of wisdom in a one-off appearance in Match Of the Day's 50th birthday edition.
The 76-year-old will be on duty for Crystal Palace's home match against West Ham United, 10 years after he retired following 35 years with the BBC's iconic highlights show.
His first game for Match of the Day, in 1969, was also at Palace, describing a 2-2 draw with Manchester United.
Davies, whose expertise includes many other sports, was widely-regarded as one of the best in the business - his sharp eye and economy of words providing the accompaniment to some of the game's most memorable moments.
His autobiography, "Interesting...Very Interesting," was named after his famous description of Francis Lee's goal for Derby County against Manchester City in the 1974-75 season.
"It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it," Davies, who got his first breakthrough into commentating at the 1966 World cup finals, recalls in an interview with Reuters when asked for some of his favourite moments behind the microphone.
"Some people only quote the first part. It was simple really. It was interesting when he got the ball, and it was very interesting when the ball went into the top corner."
The follow-up "just look at his face" was uttered twice by Davies as Lee celebrated.
"I actually lost my voice on the second 'just look at his face' which helped add to the drama," he said.
Davies, whose voice has provided the soundtrack to numerous Olympic Games, World Cups and Wimbledon championships, belongs to the old school of sports commentators, preferring to embellish what the viewer is watching with the odd well-chosen phrase, rather than provide a non-stop monologue.
"I have found over the years that it's really nice when people come up to me and say 'remember when you said so and so' but the reality is that I don't.
"I tend to just open my mouth and hope my foot is far enough removed. If I went into the match eager rather than over-prepared. When the unexpected happens you are ready for it.
"In the day when I first started the producer would tell you to shut up if he felt you were talking too much."
BLANKET COVERAGE
Davies said the success of Match of The Day, despite blanket live match coverage on Sky Sports and BT Sport, remained its simplicity, with the important parts of each game stitched together, followed by brief analysis from the likes of Alan Shearer and Ruud Gullit, who has joined the team this season.
"For the viewer it's a wonderful service," Davies said. "It's the total package that has meant the football-loving audience has stayed with it.
"There is such a competition between Sky and BT that to some extent they are in the selling process whereas Match of the Day is in the reporting process. It's succinct."
Davies said he occasionally misses commentating on matches, and would have liked to have gone to the World Cup, but he is delighted have been asked back on a landmark day for the show, these days presented by former England striker Gary Lineker.
"I am looking forward to it. I'm quite excited and I shall probably be - not quite as scared as all those years ago - but the adrenaline will be flying a bit," he told the Daily Telegraph on Friday.
"It's lovely to have the chance to come back after this huge gap for an away day, as it were."
"They offered me this game and this game alone and I assume this was the reason why. There's a symmetry and then it can be a final goodbye."
(Editing by Ed Osmond)