TV sports presenters, like live news broadcasters and stand-up comedians, have to harness a range of qualities. It goes without saying that they need to know their audience and be authoritative on their subjects but it’s also vital to be an articulate storyteller, sufficiently quick-witted to adapt when that story takes numerous unexpected twists and turns and possessed of an entertaining personality. For many years it helped to be a woman but mercifully that has all changed.
With precious few recognisable female sporting icons, apart from Sue Barker, to call upon, TV hosts have necessarily had to graduate via the journalism route, which is no bad thing. Local Radio and what is now Five Live have proved fertile breeding grounds, producing female presenters such as the late Helen Rollason – the first female presenter of Grandstand – Hazel Irvine and Gabby Logan. However it was when Clare Balding stepped away from her equestrian specialism and into other disciplines that I and the rest of the country came to appreciate what a brilliant broadcaster she is.
Horse racing is not a sport that appeals to me. Noble beasts at full gallop are an awesome sight but doing so purely to promote and support the gambling industry diminishes it. That’s why my TV experience of the races has traditionally focussed on the Grand National. I shall forever treasure Clare Balding as the Grandstand presenter who broke the tradition of donning tweed trilbies for the annual afternoon out at Aintree. I’m pretty sure I also once tuned in to coverage of the Derby, be it on the Beeb, ITV or Channel 4, just to witness her double-act with Willie Carson but it didn’t become a regular occurrence. Be it on the flat or over the fences, you always knew that her history with horses made her an informed reporter on the sport.
‘Jolly-hockey-sticks’ voices nurtured in private schools and Oxbridge usually set my teeth on edge but her readiness to be cheeky and irreverent, however famous the person she’s with, leads me to forgive her privileged upbringing. Not even the legendary John McEnroe can escape her sugar-coated barbs on Today At Wimbledon.
On that occasion Clare took him to task over a controversial comment he’d made about Serena Williams. She has always been quick to promote and, if needed defend women’s sport, just as she isn’t shy to speak out about LGBT issues and criticise President Putin’s anti-gay attitudes during coverage of the Sochi Winter Olympics. Maybe the misogynists and homophobes would be more effectively put in their place by heterosexual males like a Lineker, Stelling, Gower - or dare I suggest John Inverdale – but Balding does it so entertainingly.
It’s not just about hosting an afternoon, or even a fortnight of live sport. Twenty years ago she appeared on the comedy game show They Think It’s All Over and held her own in the company of leading sports commentators and comedians of the day, including Rory McGrath who was never afraid to dive into the pool of political incorrectness. Clare’s popular touch made her a perfect foil for Philip Schofield and the ice queen Anne Robinson in an edition of Test The Nation, and she can switch to serious mode to present malaria reports for Sport Relief.
However, it’s the live stuff for which Balding is best suited. It could be the Beeb’s annual Sports Personality of the Year (albeit scripted) or a jokey event at London’s Aquatic Centre for charity. Two years earlier she had been at the same venue for the 2012 Olympics striking the perfect tone for, amongst other things, her interview with the dad of South African swimming champ Chad le Clos.
I’ll even forgive Balding’s occasional swerves into bizarre bonkers territory. Did she really write this intro for a broadcast on the 2014 Winter Olympics? I suppose she scored points for the common man/woman that summer when captured dancing to Kylie at the end – or was it the start? - of the Commonwealth Games. Well, we’ve all done that, haven’t we? It’s not the preserve of the LGBT community.
Yet she is so much more than a human box-ticking exercise in on-screen minority representation. I no longer think of her as a woman or ‘The Lesbian’; she is simply Clare Balding, currently the best all-round sports broadcaster in the UK. End of.
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