Fantoni, Barry; Larry (1984). Private Eye's Colemanballs: No. 2. André Deutsch. ISBN 978-0-233-97700-3.

From Fern Britton asking if a guest’s great grandfather had any children, to Anthea Turner urging people to use cars as fridges, to Geoffrey Boycott saying Indian police have “atomic weapons”, 2010 has been a vintage year. Fantoni, Barry; Larry (1988). Private Eye's Colemanballs: No. 4. André Deutsch. ISBN 978-0-233-98337-0. Don’t tell those coming in the final result of that fantastic match but let’s have another look at Italy’s winning goal. WORTHY SUCCESSOR

humorous one-liners, quotations, proverbs, Murphy's Laws & more

Throughout his broadcasting career, he saw himself as the hard-nosed, everyman-journalist. He was no celebrity presenter, and could be scathingly dismissive about more starry, chummy screen performers chosen more for winsome looks and winning smiles. Everyone’s got tough games coming up. Manchester United have got Arsenal, Arsenal have got Manchester United and Leeds have got Leeds.” Brendan Foster, Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist: "David Coleman was the greatest sports broadcaster that ever lived. He was a giant of sports broadcasting. It was a privilege to know him and it was a privilege to have him commentating on races during my career."

Fantoni, Barry; Larry (2004). Private Eye's Colemanballs: No. 12. Private Eye Productions. ISBN 978-1-901784-36-7. While Colemanballs are primarily associated with David Coleman's athletics commentaries, gaffes are to be found in most other sports, here some of Will and Guy's collection. For those of you watching who do not have television sets, live commentary is on Radio 2. Ted Lowe (Snooker) Bayern will have the added advantage of playing in their own stadium – that’s like a home game for them.

By the age of 22 he was editing a local newspaper in Cheshire, with hopes of developing his running career. The death of David Coleman at the age of 87 signs off an already distant era when television broadcasts of Britain's national sporting events – the so-called "crown jewels" – were almost the sole and exclusive preserve of the BBC. Coleman was the very embodiment of that pre-eminence. As the corporation's champion sports presenter through much of the second half of the 20th century, he had an enthusiastic, knowing, taut professional style and a crisp, classless delivery that seemed all-pervading. In addition, he was the pathfinding master of ceremonies for such long-running regulars as Grandstand, Sportsnight and A Question of Sport. Until his retirement, motor racing commentator Murray Walker frequently featured in the column. His excitable delivery led to so many mistakes that they began to be labelled "Murrayisms". [1] Examples include "We've had cars going off left, right and centre", "do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna's Lotus sounding rough?", "with half of the race gone, there is half of the race still to go", "There is nothing wrong with the car, apart from that it is on fire", "That car is totally unique, apart from the car behind it, which is identical", and "The gap between them is now nine-tenths of a second; that's less than a second!". The late Brian Moore, who was a football commentator for ITV, was disparaging about Coleman in his autobiography.

There was never a shortfall in drama when Coleman was at the microphone. Spitting Image caricatured him as a commentator who literally explodes at the merest hint of athletic action. In one sketch he reaches fever pitch as Seb Coe breaks for the line with 600 metres still to go. "And I've gone far far too early!" he screams with about a minute of commentating time to fill. "I'll never be able to keep up this level of excitement!!" Kevin Keegan, former England striker and manager: "You just felt he was a master of what he was covering and he knew everything about it. He probably did. He just had that voice. He is a true legend."

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Undeservedly or not, it is the lot of the British sports commentator to suffer the barbs and carping of his or her public. Some of them, and Coleman was certainly one, are as much a part of the national picture as the sportsmen whose acts of valour they describe. Private Eye's Colemanballs is the distillation of that. That the sports blooper column should be named after him has never remotely undermined Coleman's position as the undisputed founding father of modern British sports broadcasting, the commentator who moved the hearts other commentators cannot reach. Coleman was famously prone to gaffes, including: "That's the fastest time ever run - but it's not as fast as the world record."

Laura Robson has just made the best possible start to her professional tennis career, she won the first set and lost the next two and is out. As well as fronting Grandstand for 10 years, Coleman also co-presented the BBC Sports Review of the Year from 1961 to 1983. Coleman was one of the BBC commentators for the 1966 World Cup finals Fantoni, Barry; Larry (2002). Private Eye's Colemanballs: No. 11. Private Eye Productions. ISBN 978-1-901784-30-5.In these days of dedicated sports channels, it is difficult to appreciate the importance of Grandstand, which led the way in showcasing a wide variety of sporting action each week. On the set of Grandstand in 1978 Fantoni, Barry; Larry (2006). Private Eye's Colemanballs: No. 13. Private Eye Productions. ISBN 978-1-901784-45-9.