For this occasion (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury stadium,
London), the BBC had devised a grid dividing the football pitch into 8
squares, which was published in the _Radio Times_. The chief
commentator, Henry Blythe Thornhill Wakelam ("Teddy"), would describe
the action, and an assistant would call out a number indicating which
part of the field the ball was in.

Example: "now up field (7)...a pretty pass (5,8)..."

Eventually they realized that fans could easily visualize the playing
field, and a single commentator could deliver all the necessary
information without the numbers.

This kind of live description belongs to what Koenraad Kuiper calls
"formulaic genres" (the title of his book, Springer, 2009). The speaker
has to respond to sometimes rapidly changing real events, and makes use
of ready-made elements and sequences to ensure fluency. Kuiper's
original interests were in horse-race calling and auctioneering.

Despite having little or no involvement in sports, I have fond memories
of "live" radio broadcasts of baseball games on summer evenings in the
1950s. Only later did I learn that these were probably reconstituted in
the studio by an announcer using a teletype play-by-play feed and a
library of sound effects.
When I got to New Zealand I discovered that radio cricket broadcasts
were even more relaxing.

Lots of interesting historical examples here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting_of_sports_events

Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz> wrote:
> For this occasion (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury stadium,
> London), the BBC had devised a grid dividing the football pitch into 8
> squares, which was published in the _Radio Times_. The chief
> commentator, Henry Blythe Thornhill Wakelam ("Teddy"), would describe
> the action, and an assistant would call out a number indicating which
> part of the field the ball was in.
>
> Example: "now up field (7)...a pretty pass (5,8)..."
>
> Eventually they realized that fans could easily visualize the playing
> field, and a single commentator could deliver all the necessary
> information without the numbers.
>
> This kind of live description belongs to what Koenraad Kuiper calls
> "formulaic genres" (the title of his book, Springer, 2009). The speaker
> has to respond to sometimes rapidly changing real events, and makes use
> of ready-made elements and sequences to ensure fluency. Kuiper's
> original interests were in horse-race calling and auctioneering.

In Portugal it gets really annoying that, maybe to avoid repetition, maybe
to fill up space, maybe to slow the rhythm, sports broadcasts don’t ever
refer to things by their names, but by multi-word paraphrases. ‘The team
from the capital city of furniture’, ‘the spherical (object)’, ‘the
norwegian forward’, etc. Is that a thing in other countries too?

Ar an dara lá is fiche de mí Eanair, scríobh Antonio Marques:

> [...] In Portugal it gets really annoying that, maybe to avoid repetition,
> maybe to fill up space, maybe to slow the rhythm, sports broadcasts don’t
> ever refer to things by their names, but by multi-word paraphrases. ‘The
> team from the capital city of furniture’, ‘the spherical (object)’, ‘the
> norwegian forward’, etc. Is that a thing in other countries too?

I’ve seen it commented that it’s a thing in Spain, the argument being that too
many pronouns would be unclear. I haven’t sufficient interest in sports to
verify one way or the other locally, though there is plenty of commentary to
fill up space (one that is well known: “Seán Óg Ó hAilpín: his father’s from
Fermanagh, his mother’s from Fiji. Neither a hurling stronghold.”)

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)