Video nasties featuring those eleven blokes in red and white

"Exclusively Live" on...BBC 2 Wales

Barry v Wrexham (FAW WPC, September 1998)

Barry versus Wrexham in August - the first round-robin game in the new WPC - isn't exactly Barcelona versus Real Madrid, but BBC2 Wales did their best to make out that it was.

This was not the only Sky-esque feature of the recent football 'special' on the TV station that seemingly no-one anyway can get in north-east Wales. In addition, you had interviews before the game, during the game and after the game; you had a 'pitchside reporter' trying to get all the hot news; and you even had the match score, constantly, in the top-left corner of the screen. Yes, I'm sure the BBC are trying to out-Sky Sky.

The highlights of the coverage were (1) a pre-match interview with Rush at Gresford (he seemed to be stroking his knee for the whole duration of the televised chat) and (2) an interview with the dugout-bound Kev Reeves while the game was actually going on. Mr Reeves was actually quite eloquent (Wrexham had just equalised so he was quite happy). The BBC, obviously, didn't possess enough electronic wire to link up the reporter with Flynn (sat - as usual - about six miles up in the Gods).

The coverage was OK, but you could never escape the fact that it was bloody wet and there were only 900 people in Barry's 'super stadium'. Although I hate to admit it, Barry looked like quite a nice passing side and as one of their anonymous players claimed in the 'exclusively live' half-time interview, "the weather suits us". Why?

Mark Aizlewood and John Hollins (nice man) were the studio 'experts' and Ian Walsh the co-commentator. Walsh is notoriously lukewarm to Wrexham, but on this occasion did say the odd pleasant thing about the team playing in red. Obviously he wasn't feeling well.

And there were some top lines from the commentators: "He's a tough boy that Dave Brammer", "Craig Skinner, Plymouth, Blackburn, and family connections in Cardiff" (does Bobby Gould know?) and "Karl Connolly, fantastic effort". There was also a constant hyping-up of the competition itself. At one point Ian Gwynne-Hughes claimed that there was a total booty of "three-quarters of a million pounds" and then quickly corrected himself: "sorry, a quarter of a million pounds". Don't get carried away, Ian! Oh, and by the way, what did Wrexham spend last year's £100,000 winnings on?

Peter Davies