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We Love David Duffield Reader Submissions Part 7

Here's the latest batch of emails that we received at Addiscombe HQ over the winter months. Sorry if you don't always get a personalised reply from us (we are all mega busy promoting beginner's cycling in London and the South East) but you can have a warm feeling inside knowing that thousands of DD fans from all over the world will be reading your prose and that the great man himself often gets  these pages printed off for him when he goes down to see Mike Smith in the dungeons at Eurosport

From: James M
Subject: David Duffield

Has anyone ever seen David Duffield and Alan Partridge in the same room together?

I think they are the same person.

Thanks James, I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not although I could certainly imagine Alan Partridge talking for hours about the cold showers at Roubaix!

From: Ian W
Subject: Eurosport Scandinavia and DD

Hi there, This evening I discovered the DD site on the Internet. I'm British, but have lived in Norway for 30-odd years. A few years back we got Eurosport, and for the first time the chance to see cycling live. And what a privilege it was to hear DD. I was so inspired by his commentaries that I made sure I had my summer holidays when he was rabbiting on for 6-7 hours a day. Then, inexplicably, after allowing DD to get us interested in cycling, Eurosport decided to cut him out and subjest us first to a screaming Swedish comentator and later a Norwegian one, who, knowledegeable though they may be, had nothing of the breadth of knowledge that DD has, and nowhere near the charisma and poetry. David makes mistakes, God bless 'im, but it is precisely this sort of thing that makes him so charming and eminently worth listening to. You know when you turn on the telly that you're going to be entertained and you're gonna learn something - bikes, wines, grub, women...you name it.

Since Eurosport cut out his commentaries in Norway, I and most of my friends (who are Norwegians) no longer bother to rush home from work to get the tail end of a day's racing. I have written to Eurosport Scandinavia and complained, but to no avail. To those of you who are irritated by DD's commentaries I say, you don't know what the alternative is.

Carry on DD. You're great

Ian

You aren't the first overseas viewer to have lamented their loss when David's commentary is replaced with a localised one. The only solution I have is if you connect to the www.eurosport.co.uk website when a big race is on and listen to the live realplayer audio feed at the same time as watching the TV with the sound turned down. There is about a 5 second delay but when you are listening to wine, cheese and Fausto Coppi, five seconds are nothing.

From: Richard
Subject: Mr Duffield's autograph

David provided this autograph at the London Bike Show, September 2002.

Regards, 
Richard.

Thanks Richard, thats a lovely autograph and wasn't it great to be able to get up close to the stars at the bike show.

From: Brian McC
Subject: David Duffield

What a tonic reading your web site is.

I was out of action during the summer three  years ago due to a broken leg sustained in a cycling accident and stuck at home. If it had been a diet of Trisha and Oprah I'm sure that madness would have set in. Instead I had 7 hours of TDF on eurosport every day and reading your pages had me chuckling again as it brought back the pleasure of listening to the inspired rambling of Mr Duffield.  Up until that point I had really only caught the old C4 coverage and the eurosport highlights when we first got cable. Now I had every detail I could want, even what I could expect for dinner in the hotels on that years route.

Special mention should be made of the fact that no other commentators make the effort to explain their sport to a new audience in the way that David does.

I share many of your readers feelings that it is a gift to cycling to have someone as passionate and eccentric on tv The marriage of David and Sean Kelly is particularly inspired. 'That's roit' is often as vocal as Sean gets, David having quite clearly been the one that kissed that blarney stone.

Thank you also for putting up all the stuff about David's cycling career. I didn't realise the extent of the mans exploits and my respect for him has  'gone up a gear'. I am in awe of the men and women who were sporting cyclists in the era of wool jerseys and porridge breakfasts.

Brian McC

And after a reply back from Addiscombe about various cycling matters Brian sent  this through

From: Brian McC
Subject: David Duffield

Hi (again!)

I found this (excellent) article on the guardian web site .. thought your readers might like to know they have a journalist ally who regards David as 'one of the greats' ....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4035269,00.html

Brian McC

And another one...!

From: Brian McC
Subject: David Duffield

Just found another fan .. this time at 'The London Evening Standard' ... some inspired observations  ...

http://www.thisislondon.com/sport/articles/602867

God I really had better get on with some proper work!

Thanks Brian - We've got a page now with your news links on as well as some other newspaper links to our hero. If anyone else finds David in the news please send it through to us.

From: Julliete G
Subject: david duffield

Hi - just enjoying your latest update on duffieldisms.

One I'm not sure you've got is "Never wear a tie that would frighten a cat".

I also enjoyed his ramblings on the subject of perrier water during the 2003 Paris - Nice and how he enjoyed it so much "especially with whisky in it"!!

My year always brightens when David's back - long may he reign!

Thanks I hadn't heard that one before but knowing his fondness for pussies it makes sense. It almost feels like my year starts when I hear DD on TV for the first time. When Het Volk is broadcast live and you hear DD utter "Welcome to cycling on Eurosport" you know spring has sprung!

From: Andrew H
Subject: recent Duffieldism

Hello there, 
A recent quote from the Paris-Nice. A CSC rider was on a bit of a breakaway and was said by Duffers to be "bringing home the bacon" in which the context of CSC being a Danish team certainly wasn't lost on the great man. May he never retire! The younger generation of commentators just don't have the flair and individuality of oldies like D.D, Murray Walker in F1 and Brian Johnstone in the cricket. 
Best wishes, 
Andrew H, 
Lowestoft

Thanks Andrew. Did you hear Dave Harmon standing in for DD earlier this year? He was pleasantly surprising and it looks as if he has been taken under DD's tutelage and is quite able to go off at a tangent at an inappropriate moment!

Thats about it for this update - I guess while there was no racing on TV over the winter that gets reflected in the number of emails we get over the off season. Here's to a good racing season and lets hope our hero gets along to all the major tours and keeps us entertained for hours on end.

Thanks everyone for the emails. Please keep sending any info you might have on the great man and for those of you out there who don't like David's style of commentary then in the words of the man himself:

"If you can't stand the heat of the kitchen then don't come into it!"

Has anyone got any pictures of themselves with David? It would be great if we could display them on here, perhaps with his autograph is someone has that as well.

Other Duffield Pages in The Agreeable World:

We Love David Duffield Intro and index