Four Seasons, Via The Dial

Sydney Morning Herald

Sunday August 23, 1992

TONY SQUIRES

IT'S BEEN said that Australia is a country without clearly signposted seasons. Rare are the autumnal strolls through parks carpetted with red leaves, avoiding nut-collecting squirrels.

Just last week it was spring in Sydney, with several audacious buds sticking out of the ground to get a bit of the action. Back came winter from a quick trip to the Bahamas to lop off their presumptuous heads.

And so it is with television sport. There is now nowhere to hide. Winter no longer means feet up in front of the football, with summer reserved for sweltering in curtained rooms while the sun beats down on cricketers running around on some nearby playing field.

Television dishes up an international smorgasbord of sport.

Take tonight, for example. Nine gives us the opportunity to escape the chill of a late August night for the chill of a late English summer and a cricketing match-up between the World Cup finalists, England and Pakistan.

Here, we can hope our traditional rivals are knocked around by the brilliant Pakistanis while, much closer to home, Australia is playing a Test series against Sri Lanka in camera. The lack of coverage of the Sri Lanka tour is a bonus for those who like their sport with victory in-built. Prime-time viewing of the supposed "minnows" of world cricket slashing our bowlers about is probably too much to handle so early in the season. The great escape would have made good viewing though.

The Wallabies have also been on a decidedly dodgy tour. Although they were forced to play rough politics as much as very tough rugby, Channel Ten was keen to smoothe over most of the nasty edges.

"There are absolutely no safety problems for the Wallabies," Ten's voice of rugby, David Fordham, assured viewers before the cameras trained on the giant farmer-forward from Eastern Province as he worked on tearing limb from limb anyone in a gold jersey.

Although it will pay due respect to the political situation, Ten would hate to see the reborn sporting association with South Africa severed. With the loss of rugby league to Nine, Ten's investment in rugby is floating on a strong international competition, particularly among the Southern Hemisphere powers of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Club rugby is not yet in a position to drag in big ratings figures.

Ten's coverage has been fine, with Fordham a suitably articulate replacement for viewers mourning the loss of the ABC's Gordon Bray.

On the sideline, though, Russell Fairfax seems to have a degree from Basil Fawlty's School for Stating the Bleeding Obvious.

Many football fans are happy that Balmain rugby league forward Steve Roach, another alumnus of the BFSSBO, is able to play out his remaining games after his apparent tackling indiscretion during a recent game. Officials may have been shuffling their feet and looking the other way.

Television fans should also be happy that Blocker is on the field rather than on the sideline commentating for Nine. While Roach has performed adequately in the famed "sideline eye" role, his replacement, North Sydney's Peter Rae, does an excellent job.

Perhaps Fairfax and Roach should spend some time listening to the league coverage on 2KY, where gags run thicker than a forward's ear. Then again, perhaps they shouldn't.

How's this one from Peter "Peter" Peters, while calling Souths forward Sean Garlick's attempts to get the ball during a game against St George: (To be read at 10 times the required volume) "Garlick's got a whiff of it."

Boom-tish.

Meanwhile, our sense of displacement should be enhanced by the kick-off of the British and European soccer seasons. Actually, Australian residents should be OK with this one, since this traditionally winter sport is played here at the highest levels during the stifling summer months.

The round ball contest off the field will see the occasionally feuding relatives, ABC and SBS, nipping at each other as they cover different sections of the game.

The ABC continues its English soccer coverage tonight at 11.05, while SBS begins Italian and world soccer programs early next month.