A Game of One Half

16th February 2018. Another excursion to The Smoke by my home town team, Hull City for the Fifth Round FA Cup against Chelsea.

Games in the Capital in respective League and Cup matches have never proven fruitful apart from the remarkable victories in The Tigers first Premiership Season away to Spurs and then ending a stella Home Win Record for Arsenal at the Emirates including a wonder goal the Brazilian, Giovanni.

There was of course the 2014 FA Cup Final with City forcing extra time before eventually capitulating to the Gunners from a 2-0 lightning start. I made the journey to Wembley that year with a car full of family and friends. It was a rare chance for me to attend an actual match.

I am of the generation brought up on radio broadcasts of football and have so far resisted the lure of Pay to View or high cost subscriptions to Mega Media.

I have experienced great and iconic moments in radio commentary over the years listened to via my parent’s wardrobe sized overheated valve set, my teenage years portable transistor and latterly a high tech digital radio.

Many an afternoon and evening has been spent in the company of the likes of Peter Jones, John Motson, Alan Parry and the latter career years of Kenneth Wolstenholme. The combination of sheer knowledge about the game , tone of voice and delivery are rarely matched today.

So, I was prepared for the BBC Five Live Coverage from Stamford Bridge with all of the usual hopes, fears and anxieties even for an armchair supporter of Hull City.

By way of background, my team in early 2018 were in a very different and somewhat darker situation to the Premier League Yo-Yo and Cup Finalist eras.

There had been the usual Second Tier Owner/Chairman issues with a Fan boycott. The Managerial comings and goings included a former Russian National Team Coach to stalwart lower league journeymen. The team were just one point clear of the Championship Relegation places in the last quarter of the season.

The Chelsea game was a welcome distraction and in the previous Cup Rounds Hull City had shown excellent form beating Blackburn Rovers and Nottingham Forest who themselves had knocked out Arsenal.

The selection for BBC Radio Commentary was to be regarded as prestigious and much anticipated with the prospect of a possibly competitive contest and as always the chance of a cup upset.

Nigel Adkins, the City Manager had his game plan. It would be a necessary scenario to hold out for as long as possible and hope for a counter attack.

Unfortunately the game plan went out of the window with a second minute goal by Willian to be followed by three more Chelsea goals before 42 minutes.

Hull City were always better in the second half of a game and the status of being thrashed at 4-0 would hopefully not get worse.

At that point on half time the BBC inexplicably broke off from the commentary and switched to Leicester City v Sheffield United at 0-0..

This was unprecedented BBC behaviour in all of my 50 plus years of listening to radio coverage of football.

I could only stare at the LCD display on my radio in utter disbelief and indignation. I am not one to bear a grudge but the BBC’s decision to move away from the live commentary left me stunned and angry. Yes, Hull City apparently improved slightly after the break and even had a penalty saved by Caballero. I would like to have heard about that first hand. The match statistics showed 45% City possession and in fact a better shots on target percentage than Chelsea even with the 4 first half goals taken into account.

I have regularly returned to the emotions stirred by the Game of One Half.

My sense of bereavement at the loss of the second 45 minutes was raw and very real and I required some form of closure. It was not important that it took me 5 years to act.

The BBC is a State Broadcaster and subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

I wrote to their Information Rights Department seeking an explanation. They said they were happy to voluntarily provide a response which was “It is not uncommon for 5 Live to move between different cup ties depending on the state of play and potential levels of excitement for the broadcast audience”.

I am not aware that the BBC have repeated their abandonment of a match commentary at half time in the intervening 5 years to the present or indeed ever or in any competition. In fact the Leicester V Sheffield United commentary straddled both 5 Live and 5 Live Extra and so the BBC defence was weak and not entirely true.

I cannot help but to constantly re-live the emotions stirred by the Game of One Half.

I have tried to avoid the usual speculation about conspiracy theories, the unprecedented bias of a London centric media against any North of England teams and attempts by the BBC to trim their budgets in their outside broadcasts.

In my mind the Game of One Half will go down as one of the great mysteries of human existence which includes the Bermuda Triangle, the whereabouts of Shergar, the purpose of Love Island and how Boris Johnson got to become Prime Minister.