Sports' Finest Commentators –
Talking at the Top of Their Game
You can call them verbal connoisseurs of sports. The slightest inflection in their voices and the excitement that resonates in their words paint a picture so vivid that listeners and viewers actually feel like they are in a VIP seat at the event.
The invention radio and television and their popularity in our society have made sport commentators staple figures. Pioneers such as Lindy Delapenha, Roy Lawrence and Del Weller, and later Hugh Crosskill and Ed Barnes, took commentary to new dimensions and made it an art form that became as vital as the sport itself.
The four featured in this issue of Buzzz have learnt their trade from the best and have made their stamp on the industry. With a commonality of obsession for sports and a desire to inform and entertain, Patrick Anderson, Simon Crosskill, Lance Whittaker and Hubert Lawrence are today's standard bearers for sports commentators.
Simon Crosskill
From a chemical salesman to a sports broadcaster. It's not the easiest of career moves for most people, but that was the bold step Crosskill made in November 1995 when he joined RJR. Luckily, commentary came natural for Crosskill. Plus, he had help from one of the best in the biz – his brother, the legendary Hugh Crosskill.
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Be Of Good Cheer! –
Jamaican Cheerleading Squad ‘brings it’ to the competition
It shouldn't be a surprise to many that Jamaica has a national cheerleading squad. In fact, it should not be considered strange that the squad made up largely of high school students has already made a sizeable impact on the global cheering stage.
Gone are the days when cheerleading consisted of a few girls shaking pom-poms and singing monotonous refrains on the top of their voices. Today's breed are more in the business of erecting gravity-defying human pyramids, twisting their bodies in ways once thought impossible and commanding the attention of the masses.
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Aaron Lawrence’s Goal of Giving Back
When Patsy Thompson put her 14-year-old son Aaron on a bus from Westmoreland to join the national Under-16 football squad in 1986, she had no idea that he would have to walk and run the 24-mile uphill journey from Papine to the army depot at Newcastle because he was left behind by the bus!!
This was the determination of Aaron Lawrence, who later achieved national prominence as the goalkeeper of Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz team in the 1998 World Cup finals. Neville “Bertis” Bell, the then Under-16 coach, declared that Aaron, by virtue of his fortitude and determination, was the first pick of the Under-16 National football team.
* To read more pick up your copy at the nearest bookstore
