Tell me, good Wordies, why is it that when a former great of the sporting arena dons a network blazer and gets behind a microphone, their vocabulary seems to be reduced to 100 words, 3 or 4 stock phrases and the compulsion to speak backwards.

Sheeeezzz it gets my goat!!!!!! (Come to to think of it, where did that one come from?

Examples:

The ad-nauseum use of, "<insert participant's name> took a great catch ON THAT OCCASSION." (For Antipodeans, Mark "Tubby" Taylor, former Oz Cricket Captain and recent arrival to the microphone is driving me nuts with this during the current One Day series).

Or, adding the person's/team's name to the comment, almost as an afterthought...."Been making up some lost ground in the last few minutes, <insert participant/team name>."

I'm pleased to say that, after a week or so, some of the "on-mikers" at the Sydney Olympics started to mock the verbal short comings of their competitors at other broadcasters. Can't remember more than the odd example, but things like, "<Competitor A> is LAYING DOWN THE GAUNTLET to <Competitor B>" was in extreme overuse on one TV channel - to become the subject of much hilarity and (deliberate) ridiculous overuse by a radio station in response.

Why don't the networks put these people through some sort of owtaspeak class before they roll the tape? (OMG - You say they DO??? - OMG!!!!!)

Glad to share my peeve - It's comforting to think that I may not be alone in getting grumpy about this verbal twaddle (and isn't twaddle a fine word - I vow to use it at least once today!!).

stales