Murray to miss GP!!!!!!!!!

[jvilleneuve2000]

I have just read on Autosport that Murray Walker will not be commentating on sundays race. He apparently dislocated his hip at goodwood, he will be back for the Austrian GP in two weeks time.
The only good thing to come from this is that James Allen will take his place alongside Martin Brundle. We will be able to see if F1 is the same without Murray.

[wodonnell]

Apparently he had competed in the hill climb during the day and dislocated his hip whilst polishing his shoes. Hope he gets better soon cos I doubt F1 will be the same.

Still, James and Martin should do an OK job between them. It does leave a problem as to who is going to run up and down the pit lane checking tyres and stuff though.

[MichaelC]

F1 won't be the same - it means that we'll have two blokes in who can tell the cars apart, and won't give out wrong information!!

But it will be disappointing not to have Murray there - does this mean we'll have James Meets... instead too??

[TimD]

By my reckoning, the last GP that Murray missed was the 1984 German GP, when he was due to commentate on a Donington Superbike race instead. The commentary was left to James Hunt and Barry Gill.

I think a lot of people will be surprised how much Murray makes our Sunday. I would have great difficulty enjoying any substitute.

Speaking of which, if anyone has any footage with Murray commentaries from pre 1979 (Formula 1) or all other four-wheeled classes pre 1992, I am always interested....!

[Peter Mallett]

Originally posted by TimD
By my reckoning, the last GP that Murray missed was the 1984 German GP, when he was due to commentate on a Donington Superbike race instead. The commentary was left to James Hunt and Barry Gill.

In still miss "Master James". Martin is great but James had that ascerbic wit and was so much more subtle than Alan Jones.

[TimD]

Ah, you are so right, Peter. Martin's good, but James was fearless.

The other day I was watching the preamble to the '84 British GP, and listening to James Hunt pulling no punches, and making the BBC's lawyers whimper with his dissection of Jean-Marie Balestre and the Tyrrell disqualification situation.

And oh! how he hated Riccardo Patrese and Andrea de Cesaris, and never missed an opportunity to lay into them on air. I'm told that one time he was getting so vitriolic about Patrese that Murray had to forcibly snatch a microphone out of his hand.

Great days!

[Peter Mallett]

Yeah,

He always blamed Patrese for the accident which fatally injured Petersen at Monza in '78. He later softened his attitude. De Caesaris however fell into that category of less than average "pay driver". He deserved averything he got from JH. Mind you. De Crasheris was a good sportscar driver. A form of the sport which James described as "pootling about".

[Minardi fan]

Blimey. No Muzza? What am I going to do??? We'll see just how much of a difference Murray makes.

As for James replacing him... Look forward to a whole race of him yabbering on about tyres.

Woohoo.

[Crash Test]

I heard someone on another NG say that they wish he broke his jaw instead....

I know im gonning to listen in, but does James Allen have a spark like Murray? Will i fall asleep on the parade lap rather than the 2nd lap?

Get well soon Murray!!

[ccara]

Maybe James and martin will make a special effort to mess stuff up regarding teams and cars

Wonder also will one of them go for it during countdown from lights..something special bout Murray yelling GO GO GO at the very beginning.

As for James and tyres..dont forget fuel strategies etc etc

[Marshal]

Having watched GP's on Eurosport through the late 80's and early 90's, I think all of you who feel it won't be the same without Murray are right. It'll probably be a lot better. He's a great enthusiast but it really is about time we had a commentator who got some facts right. Maybe there'll be less pro Schumi/Ferrari bias too.

Good luck James.

[ccara]

I dont agree marshall, Formula 1 has become dull enough without yawnsville commentators who only get excited at tyre choice and fuel strategy ( not mentioning J Allen at all!!)

As for the pro Schumi balance well Murray makes no bones about his allegience and why not...there are some Schumi fans around you know!
anyway there are enough grey Ron Dennis fans elsewhere let us have some fun, might make up for the lousy ITV coverage

[wodonnell]

I think the GO GO GO thing could be an issue actually. I noticed that its something Martin has never done.

Martin always has to be quiet when Murray is doing his "and it GO!" and "Schumacher wins the Canadian GP" type bits. I wonder if its just an understanding they had or whether its written into his contract? I would assume that Martin is going to get to say "ITS GO!!" in Murrays absence.

[TimD]

Re: the Eurosport coverage of F1, I used to get that as well, back in the old days when there was no terrestrial coverage of qualifying.

I can honestly say that John Watson and Allard Kalff whilst enjoyable to listen to, were no more accurate than Murray, and one got the impression they hadn't done all their homework some weekends.

Murray may miss a fair percentage of his splitsecond calls, but then when the cars are no longer identified with nice clear numbers, but different shades of helmet, or little splashes of colour on the wing strakes, frankly so would I when given a microphone, a live feed and half a dozen monitors.

[Raelene]

Murray also missed the 1988 Hungarian GP as he was commentating on the bikes in England

[Gerard]

TimD, I didn't know you had Alard Kalf on Eurosport.
He's now working for Dutch station RTL4 as a pitlane reporter. He's a racer himself in the Dutch Touring Car Championship, lying 4th at the moment I believe, and he's also a very close friend of Johnny Herbert.

As for Murray, since his departure to ITV I cannot longer listen to his commentaries, but when he was with the Beeb, I always tuned in on them, despite the race being braodcasted on Dutch TV.
What I like most of Murray is his love for the sport.
I have never ever heard a more enthousiastic commentary before.
Get well soon, Murray.

[Green_man4421]

IT will be intresting to see what it will be like without him.

[AL Racing]

I've never heard Murray commentating F1, but BTCC some years ago and he is good. But I prefered Ben Edvards and John Watson on Eurosport, those were great days, eventhough Swedish was covering F1 I always watched Eurosport, I learned a LOT about F1 during 1992-1996. Allard Kalf was ok too, but you could certainly hear that Herbert was his buddy.

[AL Racing]

I remember one funny thing about that, it was Donington '93, Senna was having trouble lapping Herbert, finally passed him waving his fist. John Watson said something like: "Senna is being very unhappy about your friend Johnny Hertbert, and I just want to have your comments on this Allard......

Allard: "Well Senna should have both hands on the steering-wheel shouldn't he!"

-silence-

Allard (more serious): "Well Johnny, why don't you use your mirrors to full effect"

Funny