One of my personal favourites was the late great tennis player Vitas Gerulaitis on finnaly beating Jimmy Conners after 16 straight defeats sat in the after match press conference and said (tongue firmly in cheek)
"Lets get something clear nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row"
"I would love it if we could beat them. Love it. He’s gone down in my estimation. Manchester United haven’t won this yet, I’d love it if we beat them" - Keegan's finger-jabbing rant on Sky TV as the 1995/6 title race begins to heat up.
"Unless I'm very much mistaken -- I AM very much mistaken!" Murray Walker.
Barry Davies - "Where were the Germans? But frankly, who cares?"
Not sure who said this one, but Socrates scored a great goal in world Cup 82 and commentator said ' Goal Socrates - that sums up the philosophy of Brazillian football'
"And here comes Mansell round the last corner. Nothing can stop him now....Wait!.....Mansells stopping!"
"I can see the crowd through my headphones"
"And Piquet has moved from 4th to 6th to 5th to 3rd and now to 1st"
"And I have just stopped my startwatch"
"And Damon Hill is the world champion - and I have to stop, cos I've got a lump in my throat"
"He's obviously gone in for a wheel change. I say obviously because I can't see it" "With half the race gone, there is half the race still to go"
"Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna's Lotus sounding rough ?"
"Anything happens in Grand Prix racing and it usually does"
"Alboreto has dropped back up to fifth place"
"As you look at the first four, the significant thing is that Alboreto is 5th"
"I can't imagine what kind of problem Senna has. I imagine it must be some sort of grip problem"
"He is shedding buckets of adrenalin in that car"
"It's raining and the track is wet"
"And there's just a few more corners for Nigel Mansell to go to win the Canadian Grand Prix...and...he's going rather slow....HE'S STOPPING HE'S STOPPING!"
"and this is the third placed car about to lap the second placed car"
"they say clothes maketh the man... the clothes are Niki Lauda's, but the contents are me..." as Murray prepares to take a drive in a F1 car." [He gets a total distance of... oh, 1 foot before he stalls it.] (Apparently, this was the second attempt to film Murray in an F1 McLaren - the first, earlier that day, had gone very well, but for technical reasons couldn't be used!)
[During a F1 race, describing how the leader can see the driver following him] "... Mansell can see him in his earphone..."
"So Bernie [Ecclestone], in the seventeen years since you bought McLaren, which of your many achievements do you think was the most memorable ?" Bernie Answers, "Well I don't remember buying McLaren." [Bernie Ecclestone used to own the Brabham team].
Murrary: "What's that? There's a BODY on the track!!!" James: "Um, I think that that is a piece of BODY-WORK, from someone's car."
Murray: There's a fiery glow coming from the back of the Ferrari James: No Murray, that's his rear safety light
As an introductory piece for a rallysprint race, Murray was put in the Navigator's seat alongside Tony Pond in a Chevette HSR (270 BHP, rwd, and TWITCHY), added an in-car camera, and wired Murray for sound. The result can be deduced by extrapolating his usual excitement and enthusiasm, and adding a large pinch of raw terror! "And there's a 600 foot drop on my left..AND we're doing 120 mph... AND we're approaching a hairpin...OH MY GOD we're going to die..."
[after a post race interview with Mansell after the Austrian GP 1987] Murray : "How did you get that nasty bumb on your head Nigel?" [Nigel leans forward to show the camera as Murray pokes it with his finger !] Nigel: "OWCH!!"
Murray: And look at the flames coming from the back of Berger's McLaren James: Actually, Murray, they're not flames, it's the safety light. Murray, commentating on rallycross from Lydden, describes how a BMW driver has cut holes in his windscreen so that his visibility is improved in all the muck... as he is doing so, the car crashes heavily into an earth bank...
From the Spanish GP 1995: "and Eddie Jordan is in fifth place"... (actually Eddie Irvine in one of his compatriot Eddie Jordan's cars).
"...and he's lost both right front tyres" (which may have been accurate back in the days of the Tyrrell P34, but it was from 1995!)
"The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey" Brian Johnston "Ohhh, this is getting better and better and better!" Motty during the 5-1 over Germany "and Smith must score" Gordon's Smith in the FA Cup for Brighton (peter Jones R2)
And next May "It's heartbreak for Crystal Palace as they are relegated after an injury time winner for Peterborough"
Comments
Small boys in the park.......Jumpers for goal posts
"I know what is around the corner - I just don't know where the corner is. But the onus is on us to perform and we must control the bandwagon."
"You get bunches of players like you do bananas...though that is a bad comparison."
"One of his strengths is not heading."
"The tide is very much in our court now."
"It's understandable that people are keeping one eye on the pot and another up the chimney."
"Shaun Wright-Phillips has got a heart as big as his size, which isn't big, but his heart's bigger than that."
Larry Holmes
...also the reason I have never left a game early
"Lets get something clear nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row"
Quality!
"Unless I'm very much mistaken -- I AM very much mistaken!" Murray Walker.
Wolstenholme .. some people are on the pitch ... they think it's all over .. it is now
My favourite was about Mourinho " he is the kind of man who would join the Navy so The World could see him"
Not sure who said this one, but Socrates scored a great goal in world Cup 82 and commentator said ' Goal Socrates - that sums up the philosophy of Brazillian football'
"And here comes Mansell round the last corner. Nothing can stop him now....Wait!.....Mansells stopping!"
"I can see the crowd through my headphones"
"And Piquet has moved from 4th to 6th to 5th to 3rd and now to 1st"
"And I have just stopped my startwatch"
"And Damon Hill is the world champion - and I have to stop, cos I've got a lump in my throat"
"He's obviously gone in for a wheel change. I say obviously because I can't see it"
"With half the race gone, there is half the race still to go"
"Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna's Lotus sounding rough ?"
"Anything happens in Grand Prix racing and it usually does"
"Alboreto has dropped back up to fifth place"
"As you look at the first four, the significant thing is that Alboreto is 5th"
"I can't imagine what kind of problem Senna has. I imagine it must be some sort of grip problem"
"He is shedding buckets of adrenalin in that car"
"It's raining and the track is wet"
"And there's just a few more corners for Nigel Mansell to go to win the Canadian Grand Prix...and...he's going rather slow....HE'S STOPPING HE'S STOPPING!"
"and this is the third placed car about to lap the second placed car"
"they say clothes maketh the man... the clothes are Niki Lauda's, but the contents are me..." as Murray prepares to take a drive in a F1 car." [He gets a total distance of... oh, 1 foot before he stalls it.] (Apparently, this was the second attempt to film Murray in an F1 McLaren - the first, earlier that day, had gone very well, but for technical reasons couldn't be used!)
[During a F1 race, describing how the leader can see the driver following him] "... Mansell can see him in his earphone..."
"So Bernie [Ecclestone], in the seventeen years since you bought McLaren, which of your many achievements do you think was the most memorable ?" Bernie Answers, "Well I don't remember buying McLaren." [Bernie Ecclestone used to own the Brabham team].
Murrary: "What's that? There's a BODY on the track!!!" James: "Um, I think that that is a piece of BODY-WORK, from someone's car."
Murray: There's a fiery glow coming from the back of the Ferrari James: No Murray, that's his rear safety light
As an introductory piece for a rallysprint race, Murray was put in the Navigator's seat alongside Tony Pond in a Chevette HSR (270 BHP, rwd, and TWITCHY), added an in-car camera, and wired Murray for sound. The result can be deduced by extrapolating his usual excitement and enthusiasm, and adding a large pinch of raw terror! "And there's a 600 foot drop on my left..AND we're doing 120 mph... AND we're approaching a hairpin...OH MY GOD we're going to die..."
[after a post race interview with Mansell after the Austrian GP 1987] Murray : "How did you get that nasty bumb on your head Nigel?" [Nigel leans forward to show the camera as Murray pokes it with his finger !] Nigel: "OWCH!!"
Murray: And look at the flames coming from the back of Berger's McLaren
James: Actually, Murray, they're not flames, it's the safety light.
Murray, commentating on rallycross from Lydden, describes how a BMW driver has cut holes in his windscreen so that his visibility is improved in all the muck... as he is doing so, the car crashes heavily into an earth bank...
From the Spanish GP 1995: "and Eddie Jordan is in fifth place"... (actually Eddie Irvine in one of his compatriot Eddie Jordan's cars).
"...and he's lost both right front tyres" (which may have been accurate back in the days of the Tyrrell P34, but it was from 1995!)
Brian Moore after THAT goal in Dec 1992............" and it becomes the perfect start"
Richie Benaud at Headlingly in 1981................" it went straight into the confectionary stall & out again"
"Ohhh, this is getting better and better and better!" Motty during the 5-1 over Germany
"and Smith must score" Gordon's Smith in the FA Cup for Brighton (peter Jones R2)
And next May
"It's heartbreak for Crystal Palace as they are relegated after an injury time winner for Peterborough"
Fred Trueman - "I'm not one to blame anyone, but it was definitely Viv Richard's fault"
Jonathan Agnew- "Andy Caddick’s shadow is longer than he is, and he's a very tall man"
Rex Alston - "On the outfield, hundreds of small boys are playing with their balls"
oh and one of the worst
Alan Pardew - "He's the missing piece of the jigsaw" commenting on Andy Gray’s arrival.
'And it's a double fart for Maulty Riessen': Wimbledon legend Dan Maskell
Absolute classic :-)
Classic Motty.
I've got a whole book of them somewhere.
Tell him he's Messi and shove him back out there
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'The goalie's got football pie all over his shirt!'
Both from the legend that is Partridge.
"Reporter: Ian do you have any injury worries
Holloway: no I'm fully fit, thankyou"
Keith Miller