The BBC irked me yesterday. Minor irk on the scale of things but it riled me enough to consider complaining to them directly, which in the end I did not.
On the 'Red Button' they are covering the Nottingham Open womens' tennis tournament, like Devonshire Park in Eastbourne, one of the lead-ins to Wimbledon where you get to see who is in form and whether any British players have a chance of making their mark there.
I just happened to turn on the TV at teatime and saw that after rain delayed play they were only halfway through the first set of the match between current UK number one: Katie Boulter and Harriet Dart who is probably the third ranked UK women's player. Damned good contest with some great tennis which turned into an epic; Dart took the first set and then Boulter slowly got back into it. Dart really lost her cool and was chuntering away to her support team and nobody in particular about lousy line calls and arguing with the umpire for ages. Loved it, really fun entertainment.
Then, here's the irk: at 18.30 the BBC simply stopped coverage halfway through the final set at 3:3. WTF were they thinking! They desperately needed to show us some European athletics instead, in particular that incredibly popular sport of hammer throwing. Again WTF!
The tennis was apparently continued on the IPlayer and BBC app but I couldn't access my PC at that time (in the middle of a full backup and defragging) so I thought I'd catch it later. But oh no.....................when I ploughed through the annoying IPlayer sports' menus the only video available of the tennis I could find was ended at the same point in the match. I had to go on YT to find the highlights which skipped to the final game and I was irked even more.
Sunday 16.06.24 EDIT
The BBC bloody well did it again today. Literally just into the last set in the WTA Nottingham Rothsey Open Womens' Tennis Final Final they cut the broadcast.
This was with Brit: Katie Boulter looking like she might be going to retain her title in a very good three set match against past winner and once world highest ranking player: Karolína Plíšková. That took almost 2 hours with Boulter only having a couple of hours rest between the final and playing and winning, obviously, the bulk of the rain affected epic 3hrs 13mins semi-final against Emma Raducanu, also coming back into form.
So we have a Brit winning a significant grass tennis tournament that is, like Eastbourne, an important lead in to the Wimbledon fortnight and an indicator on who is on form and they cut off the broadcast to give us what? The fatuous hour long build up to the England v. Serbia football match which they were already showing on BBC1/HD as well.
Irked.
On the 'Red Button' they are covering the Nottingham Open womens' tennis tournament, like Devonshire Park in Eastbourne, one of the lead-ins to Wimbledon where you get to see who is in form and whether any British players have a chance of making their mark there.
I just happened to turn on the TV at teatime and saw that after rain delayed play they were only halfway through the first set of the match between current UK number one: Katie Boulter and Harriet Dart who is probably the third ranked UK women's player. Damned good contest with some great tennis which turned into an epic; Dart took the first set and then Boulter slowly got back into it. Dart really lost her cool and was chuntering away to her support team and nobody in particular about lousy line calls and arguing with the umpire for ages. Loved it, really fun entertainment.
Then, here's the irk: at 18.30 the BBC simply stopped coverage halfway through the final set at 3:3. WTF were they thinking! They desperately needed to show us some European athletics instead, in particular that incredibly popular sport of hammer throwing. Again WTF!
The tennis was apparently continued on the IPlayer and BBC app but I couldn't access my PC at that time (in the middle of a full backup and defragging) so I thought I'd catch it later. But oh no.....................when I ploughed through the annoying IPlayer sports' menus the only video available of the tennis I could find was ended at the same point in the match. I had to go on YT to find the highlights which skipped to the final game and I was irked even more.
Sunday 16.06.24 EDIT
The BBC bloody well did it again today. Literally just into the last set in the WTA Nottingham Rothsey Open Womens' Tennis Final Final they cut the broadcast.
This was with Brit: Katie Boulter looking like she might be going to retain her title in a very good three set match against past winner and once world highest ranking player: Karolína Plíšková. That took almost 2 hours with Boulter only having a couple of hours rest between the final and playing and winning, obviously, the bulk of the rain affected epic 3hrs 13mins semi-final against Emma Raducanu, also coming back into form.
So we have a Brit winning a significant grass tennis tournament that is, like Eastbourne, an important lead in to the Wimbledon fortnight and an indicator on who is on form and they cut off the broadcast to give us what? The fatuous hour long build up to the England v. Serbia football match which they were already showing on BBC1/HD as well.
Irked.
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