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Peter Drury is a football commentator best known for his work with ITV
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Drury currently works for BT Sport and Amazon Prime
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Read below to learn more about Peter Drury’s commentary career to date
Peter Drury was a voice of English football long before football betting online.
Like many of his high-profile commentary peers, Drury began life in radio before becoming one of the most recognisable voices in sport.
Unique in both his tone and vocabulary, football fans will recognise Drury’s commentary in an instant. Certain Peter Drury quotes have cemented a place among the best football commentators.
He’s an iconic, much-loved figure in the sport, who has provided the audio for some of the most dramatic moments of the last two decades.
From World Cup opening goals to ancient cities rising from the ruins, Drury so often captures the moment perfectly.
Like any commentator, his style isn’t for everyone, but few football announcers have connected with fans quite like the 54-year-old.
Career So Far...
Growing up in the south east as a West Ham fan, Peter Drury briefly worked as an accountant after graduating from university.
It clearly wasn’t his calling, though, as Drury moved on to work for sports journalism agency Hayter’s before joining BBC Radio Leeds.
Starting with the station in 1990, Drury was around during a great time in Leeds’ history, with the club winning the league title 1991-92.
He was primarily covering weaker local teams like Halifax and Bradford initially, but in September 1992, Drury’s voice was heard commentating for BBC Radio Leeds as Howard Wilkinson’s side faced Stuttgart over two legs in the first round of the Champions League.
His ascenscion in the following seasons was rapid. Drury was immediately involved with Five Live when it launched in 1994, and he worked alongside Jon Champion on the 1996 Champions League final. Months later, he covered Group D matches at Euro 96.
There was then a chance to branch out into other sports in 1997 – Drury took on golf duties for the station, covering the 1997 Ryder Cup and The Open Championship.
"The Ajax boys have kicked over the Old Lady."
— 888sport (@888sport) April 16, 2019
Peter Drury Champions League monologues 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ENoUpOj2rI
BBC gave Drury the promotion to televised commentary for the 1997-98 Premier League season. In early 1998, though, he made the decision to join ITV, and made his debut on the channel commentating on Sheffield United and Coventry City in the FA Cup.
ITV didn’t take long to place faith in Drury. He was a junior correspondent at the 1998 World Cup, the first of four he covered for the network.
He also was a commentator for four European Championships, ending with the 2012 competition. Gamers will fondly remember Drury on the This Is Football series in the 2000s too, and he was a staple of ITV’s Champions League coverage.
After 15 years with ITV, Drury joined BT Sport. With the network covering the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League and Europa League, Drury was often given marquee fixtures, leading to some of his most famous commentary moments.
He once again did video game commentary work from 2015, replacing Jon Champion on Pro Evolution Soccer.
The 2014 and 2018 World Cups again saw Drury take a prominent role, this time covering them for FIFA’s international feed and their YouTube channel.
Fans all over the world are used to Drury’s commentary by now, after he signed for SuperSport in 2019 and started commentating on European fixtures for CBS in 2020.
Jim Beglin
Peter Drury and Jim Beglin have worked together throughout their careers.
They were first paired on Five Live in the 1990s and remain one of the best commentary partnerships in the sport to this day.
Whether overseeing one of the biggest Premier League predictions fixtures of the weekend or providing the play-by-play for a tense Champions League affair, Drury and Beglin strike the balance between drama and light-heartedness.
Roma Commentary
Alongside so many great moments that swung Premier League odds, arguably Peter Drury’s greatest commentary masterpiece came in a Champions League tie between Roma and Barcelona.
Roma were trailing 4-1 from the first leg, barely given a chance of overturning the deficit.
The hosts, though, rallied with three late goals to provide a barely believable ending. Barcelona were knocked out on away goals. Roma celebrated with gallons of raw emotion.
Drury came out with pure footballing poetry.
"Roma have risen from their ruins... Manolas the Greek God in Rome. The unthinkable unfolds before our eyes... It is a Greek from Mount Olympus who has come to the seven hills of Rome and pulled off a miracle."
Football doesn’t get much better than that. Neither does sports commentary.
A couple of years later, Drury reflected on the game and his performance in an interview with SportBible.
"The first time it occurred to me that I really might have to raise my game was when Roma got to within one goal and of course even then I didn't know Manolas was going to score it.
"Even when Manolas had scored it, I didn't know Manolas had scored it. Somebody at the near post got a flicked header so I had to come up with something until the director showed me who scored the goal.
"That night my planets kind of aligned. This weird series of words about Greek Gods came out. When I left the ground, I had no idea it had resonated.
"That night Liverpool were playing Manchester City - my game was not even the game for the English audience that night.
"Man City and Liverpool became a dead game, a few people turned over and this bizarre incident occurred. You're never quite sure where the story is going to happen."
No other commentator could have produced something quite like that in a moment of such drama. It’s part of what makes Drury one of the greatest of his generation.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
FIRST PUBLISHED: 22nd March 2022
