Syd Waddell

Terry Ardeno

Terry Ardeno

I still love my wife
Silver Member
In another thread, I heard Syd Waddell doing some commentary. The thought crossed my mind that there are probably many fans of pool who have never heard Syd do commentary.

He's kind of hard to describe. Unless you've ever heard him, it's like trying to explain to somebody how water feels wet...hard to do. In a few words, he's funny, loud, excitable, funny....and that's when you can understand him! :grin:

I first heard him on some old World Pool Championship tapes. I like his style, but not before bed. Listening to him and then trying to clear your head to fall asleep is next to impossible!

Maybe Jay or Jerry can share some first hand accounts of Sir Syd!

Here's a link to some of his quotes......
http://www.xlab.co.uk/extras/quotes/?source=waddell
 
He is one of those guys you either love or hate, except me, I'm neutral on him.:smile:
 
I sat right next to Syd during the WPC in 1999 and 2000. We were doing commentary "together". At first I tried hard to understand what he was saying and talking about. Finally I just gave up. I would let him do his thing and then I would get back to the match and what was actually happening on the table. It seemed to work well and our director was happy with how we worked together.

Syd was a great guy and fun to hang around with, even though I could comprehend only a few words coming out of his mouth. Kind of like Larry Lisciotti when he was slightly toasted. :eek:
 
He is the best!!!
He is the only one that brings some excitement into TV pool and tries to pass the tension to the viewer.
We need more like him and maybe pool will get more air time.
 
I see that even native english speakers have trouble understanding him...

Just wondering...isn't there any rule on either US or British television regarding use of accents and dialects during sports broadcasts?

In my country any TV broadcasts are done using sort of 'by the book regular' Croatian language only...sports commentators are NOT allowed to use their native dialects...they have to adjust or they can't work on TV...
 
The Voice...

Mr Waddell is a lovely man and we miss him. He did have a problem with his North East England (Geordie) accent. He was given the prestige job of working on Britain's National Lottery TV Show - he was The Voice of the (Lottery) Balls, But his thick dialect made it difficult for the majority of UK viewers to understand what he was saying. So he only lasted about two weeks on the show.
He is an interesting man with a University Degree. He makes a good living writing children's TV programs and he still can be heard commentating on darts.
 
He's normally a darts commentator, but Matchroom sports needed someone to do pool and so they grabbed him.

Listening to him is like someone running their fingernails down a chalkboard!! It's just terribly uncomfortable!! Add that to the fact that he has absolutely no knowledge of the game and you see why he's my least favorite.

Real nice, and funny guy when not commentating, but stings the ears when he does. Kind of like Jim Wych!! Them two belong together. One can ramble on and make no sense and the other can commentate on how the player is going to make the yellow ball, or the green ball. I guess that's what you get when you have one that doesn't know anything and the other is a snooker player. JMHO
 
Syd is a funny guy and pool needs him. Now my wife is as far removed from pool as we are from the planets on the outer rim of the galaxy but when Syd is on it gets her attention. He makes you pay attention to what is going on and I mean really. We are all looking at the same thing but he see and makes the same thing that much more exciting. Now my favorite even though no one asked for it is Danny D hands down.
 
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