Mark Saggers

Last updated

Mark Leonard Saggers (born 28 May 1959) is a British journalist and radio presenter.

Contents

Early life

He attended the Perse School, Cambridge, 1970–77 and was a keen sportsman representing the school at rugby, hockey, and cricket. As a schoolboy, he was a regular on the Newmarket Road End terrace at Cambridge United Football Club.

Sporting career

Saggers, or Whanam as he is sometimes known, played cricket as a specialist wicket-keeper for Cambridgeshire County Cricket Club through the 1980s; this included two list A cricket matches, although he averaged only 3.50 runs with the bat. He also represented England at hockey. [1]

Broadcasting career

Saggers began his broadcasting career at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. He also worked occasionally for Clubcall, and according to Backpass, the retro football magazine (issue 39), once commentated for 45 minutes on Northampton Town v Cambridge United, sending the commentary to the Exeter City Clubcall line by mistake. He then joined BBC Radio Sport in 1989. [2] and became a regular sporting voice on Radio 4's Today programme. He won a Sony Award for his reporting of the false start at the 1993 Grand National.

In 1992, Saggers left the BBC to join Sky News as senior sports correspondent. He was perhaps best known to international audiences as the voice of the Premier League football highlights show.

In 2001 Saggers returned to the BBC, presenting Sport on Five.

He has commentated for Test Match Special .

Saggers joined talkSPORT in June 2009. This followed the BBC declining to renew his contract and his reported deep rift with Radio 5 Live commentator Alan Green. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Blofeld</span> English sports journalist

Henry Calthorpe Blofeld, nicknamed Blowers by Brian Johnston, is an English retired sports journalist, broadcaster and amateur ornithologist best known as a cricket commentator for Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. He has established a reputation as a commentator with an accent, vocabulary and syntax that is quintessentially Old Etonian both in style and substance. He also writes on cricket and has authored eight books to date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dion Dublin</span> English footballer (born 1969)

Dion Dublin is an English former professional footballer, television presenter and pundit. He is a club director of Cambridge United.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Arlott</span> English journalist, author, and cricket commentator

Leslie Thomas John Arlott, was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur. With his poetic phraseology, he became a cricket commentator noted for his "wonderful gift for evoking cricketing moments" by the BBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Martin-Jenkins</span> English cricketer, broadcaster and journalist

Christopher Dennis Alexander Martin-Jenkins, MBE, also known as CMJ, was a British cricket journalist and a President of MCC. He was also the longest serving commentator for Test Match Special (TMS) on BBC Radio, from 1973 until diagnosed with terminal cancer in March 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Motson</span> English football commentator (1945–2023)

John Walker Motson was an English football commentator. Beginning as a television commentator with the BBC in 1971, he commentated on over 2000 games on television and radio. From the late 1970s to 2008, Motson was the dominant football commentary figure at the BBC, apart from a brief spell in the mid-1990s.

Brian Christopher Moore is an English former rugby union footballer. He played as a hooker, and is a rugby presenter and pundit for BBC Sport, Talksport and Love Sport Radio. He qualified as a Rugby Football Union referee in 2010.

Barry George Davies MBE is an English retired sports commentator and television presenter. He covered a wide range of sports in a long career, primarily for the BBC.

Stewart Ian Robson is an English former football player and TV and radio football pundit. He played for Arsenal, West Ham United where he was their player of the season in 1988, and Coventry City. After his footballing career ended he took on a role as a TV and radio pundit for Arsenal TV until 2012, ESPN, TalkSPORT and TNT Sports. He is currently ESPN's lead color commentator for FA Cup and EFL Cup working alongside Jon Champion and Martin Tyler, and Bundesliga with Derek Rae, who he also provides commentary alongside in the FIFA/EA FC video game series since 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Cozier</span> Journalist, writer and radio commentator

Winston Anthony Lloyd Cozier was a Barbadian cricket journalist, writer, and radio commentator on West Indian cricket for over fifty years. Scyld Berry wrote that he was both the voice and the conscience of West Indian cricket, the latter because of his harsh criticism of the West Indian board for "squandering the money and legacy that it had inherited".

Jonathan Martin Champion is a British sports commentator currently working as an association football commentator for ESPN and NBC Sports. Champion is a well-established and experienced commentator who has also worked for the BBC and ITV over the last 20 years. Champion currently covers the FA Cup for ESPN and the Premier League for NBC Sports.

Peter Jones was a Welsh broadcaster, best known as a sports commentator on BBC radio in the United Kingdom, although many of his commentaries were also broadcast internationally on the BBC World Service. He frequently worked alongside Maurice Edelston, Bryon Butler, Alan Parry and, latterly, Alan Green and Mike Ingham.

Ewart Bryon Butler was an English writer and broadcaster, best known as the BBC's football correspondent from 1968 to 1991.

David Anthony Gubba was an English journalist and television sports commentator.

Gerald Morris Sinstadt was an English sports commentator, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, usually on football.

John Rawling is a British boxing, track and field, darts and yachting commentator, currently working for BT Sport, ITV and Talksport. He has become known as one of the best known voices of boxing commentary. With BT, John commentates alongside former World Super-Middleweight champion Richie Woodhall, while former World Cruiserweight champion Glenn McCrory is his co-commentator with Talksport. On ITV darts broadcasts, John commentates with Chris Mason, Stuart Pyke, Dan Dawson and Alan Warriner-Little, while Mason and Paul Nicholson are alongside him for Talksport darts coverage. John also commentates on Paralympic sports for Channel 4. He was the lead commentator for Channel 4 in their award-winning coverage of the 2012 Paralympics in London and the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Korea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Mowbray</span> English football commentator

Guy Nicholas Mowbray is an English football commentator, who primarily appears on the BBC and TNT Sports. While working for Eurosport at the 1998 World Cup, he became the youngest ever television commentator on a World Cup Final, aged 26.

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Blythe Thornhill Wakelam, known as Teddy Wakelam, was an English sports broadcaster and rugby union player who captained Harlequin F.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arlo White</span> British sports broadcaster

Arlo James White is an English sports presenter and commentator, originally from Leicester. He is the play-by-play commentator for the LIV Golf league. White previously worked for NBC Sports' live coverage of the Premier League in the United States as their lead play-by-play commentator, BBC Radio 5 Live as a football, cricket, and American football commentator, and for the Seattle Sounders FC and Chicago Fire FC of Major League Soccer.

Alison Mitchell is an English-Australian cricket commentator and sports broadcaster, working for the BBC, Australia's Channel 7 and the Australian Open among others. She was the first woman to become a regular commentator on the BBC's Test Match Special, and has been commentating on men's and women's international cricket around the world since 2007. She also spent many years reporting and commentating on a variety of sports for BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, including Olympic and Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open and Open Golf. In March 2014, she was voted SJA Sports Broadcaster of the Year 2013 by members of the Sports Journalists' Association. She is also the first woman to have called men's cricket ball-by-ball on ABC Radio Grandstand in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Roberts (sports broadcaster)</span> English TV broadcaster

Dave Roberts is a UK-based former TV executive and ex-presenter and commentator specialising in association football. He previously worked for Fox Sports News and ESPN Star Sports in Singapore, ESPN in the US and Sky Sports in the UK as well as a host of UK radio stations. As well as his broadcast work, he is a fully qualified International football referee. He owns and operates his own UK based broadcast production company X-Cel Broadcast Limited. Roberts was also the BBC commentator on West Indian cricketer Brian Lara's world record breaking innings of 501 not out. He now provides coach travel for Middlesbrough's away matches.

References

  1. "England / Players / Mark Saggers". ESPN cricinfo.
  2. "Mark Saggers Biography". BBC Press Office. Archived from the original on 1 November 2006.
  3. Matt Scott (21 May 2009). "Mark Saggers lifted by new role with BBC's rivals". London: Guardian. Retrieved 13 June 2010.