No offence EIM, but Lawrenson belongs on the "people I should hang myself for liking" thread.

Yes, I see this.

But still, there's something about his demeanour I really like. His whole 'I know this is shit, I don't care this is shit, I'm showing everyone I think this is shit, but I'm not Lee Dixon, so I win' schtick is really appealing to me.

And also, when you spend that much time around Alan Green, you're going to eventually come out looking good. Relatively speaking, like.

I won't mourn any football commentator all that much, I don't think. Whereas when Benaud goes, I'll wear widow's weeds for two years.

That's an interesting tangent, Wyatt, and I think the relative pace of the two games has a lot to do with the different relationship people feel with at least some cricket commentators.

I feel the same way about baseball, particularly radio-centric baseball commentators, who really become a part of one's life over the course of a 162-game season that is full of opportunities for random musings. Several generations of Dodger fans will have heard more words from Vin Scully than any other human being.

Malcolm Allen is a universally popular Commentator in Wales. The Allen-isms pearls of wisdom, as well as how his Welsh has improved dramatically (must have been to classes to help his vocabulary at some point) make him a really popular figure on the whole.

I saw him late at night at Tesco, Bangor a few weeks ago and he noticed my Bangor City apparel. He was the one keeping me talking by the end. I'd never met him before that.

For the record, I never much liked Barry Davies.

I'd imagine there would be a lot of obituaries/tributes when Archie MacPherson shuffles off. Don't know about a minute's silence, probably one of those situations when applause would be the better option.

Personally, I'd mourn the loss of Bob Crampsey more.

Macpherson is a rubbish commentator but a surprisingly good writer. I have his books about Scottish football and Jock Stein and they're both very readable.

Yeah, he's very poor. Far too critical for my liking. He's very much an 'establishment'/national treasure type, though.

I spent quite a long time writing a thing about Thierry Gilardi the other day, explaining how decent he seemed, how he also loved rugby, how he was vice-president of Stade Francais, how the French football and rugby communities each gave what appeared to be heartfelt tributes to him on the national news before the England game, how the news presenter only just made it to the goodnight bit at the end without breaking down because he was with him the morning he died, how they illustrated his commentary alongside memorable sporting moments from the last few years, and how it was all really quite moving... and the board timed me out and I couldn't be arsed to re-type it all.

However, on the subject of popular commentators, I will say that despite his tendency to become increasingly precious, I always had a lot of time for Barry Davies.

Mainly this is because I once had to contact him and several other people in the world of TV football. Not only was he one of the few to be decent enough to ring me back, but he also left a message on my home answerphone that began, "Hello, my name is Barry Davies, and...". Not "THIS IS Barry Davies..." It struck me that this said a lot about him as a person. Funnily enough, I never heard a word from Alan Green.

I've got admit Barry Davies is one I find it just a bit too hard to dislike. If only for his schoolmasterly tone ('Completely uncalled for...'). My best mate's got a 'best bits of France 98' video in which one crowd shot zooms in on a bootlicious Jamiacan woman shaking her thang in the stands, and giving a broad smile to the camera. Barry's response said it all: 'Oh, I say!'