Me too. In my opinion he's up there with the legends of sports commentary - Murray Walker, Bill McLaren, Ted Lowe, Peter O'Sullevan, etc.

Hearing his voice reminds me of watching Grandstand back in the 80's and 90's. Happy days!

And how typical of some rugby league fans on here to take the negative approach and seek to rubbish everything connected with the game.

Well done, Ray.

In that case you should have no difficulty in naming a few commentators who'd be sucessful in transforming us into a national sport.

Name away.

There's no need to be asinine. We both know a commentator, no matter how great, couldn't ever make the game a national one.

For arguments sake I could name thousands of commentators who'd improve the image of the game. But I won't, because there'd be no point. If you have an argument it can be made regardless.

How about Jon Champion, who did a few games for the BBC when Dave Woods wasn't available, including IIRC a Challenge Cup Semi Final.

No stupid comments

Up-to-date on current rules

Coherent, with you could even say a middle-England RP accent

And none of this 'Fourteen stone former Blackbrook amatuer' routine

Sadly, it was shortly after these games that Champion left the BBC for ITV and I think currently is earning his corn on something like ESPN ....

Fair point although it's equally unlikely that French's commentaries have contributed in any significant way to the game's failure to spread much beyond Yorks & Lancs.

I'd have no problem with Champion as a commentator, nor do I have a problem with Dave Woods (other than his raging, pro-wigan bias. In fact it's always a surprise when he doesn't leave the commentary box 15 mins from the end when they're losing ).