I had a chance to watch some of the World Pool Champs in Cardiff courtesy of Mr. Ingrate's chain-video. I have to say, the production by Sky Sports is pretty good! I would rate it close to an Accu-Stat video. What I liked most was the slow motion replay of the players break shots. You get a chance to see it from the side of the breaker, from above the table and behind the breaker. Good stuff. For Ex- on Busta's break, you get a chance to really see what's going on, in slow motion.
The table views were similar to what Accu-Stat does with over head cams, eye level cams, and pocket cams. Again, good stuff.
The commentary teams were pretty good too with the ONE exception:
Who the Hell is Sid Waddell??? This guy sounded like an even Gay-er version of Robin Leach(Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless)! This guy was WAY too excitable to the point of being annoying. I mean, he is definitely "light in the loafers". Now, even though I'm a little homophobic, I can live and let live. My problem is that as a commentator, he was terrible. He doesn't know the game, uses way too much English slang and jargon to the point of being difficult to understand, not to mention his Gawd awful corny-a$$ analogies. At one point, when Efren was playing a difficult shot into the corner, after making the shot Sid says" Well he may not know the equations like ALFRED Einstein, but he knows the science!!"(said with a highly excited nasally voice) Oh, did I mention that Sid continuously called Efren the "Maestro" for most of the tourney? When Sid was teamed up with Jerry Forsyth, I needed subtitles to figure out what was being said! Sid would call Francisco Bustamante "Franzie" and Jerry in his southern drawl, calling him Fran Sisco, I had no idea who was playing.
Either way, I'm gonna watch the rest of the tapes. Overall, everything was great!
Eric
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