As part of this Saturday’s Level Playing Field 'Unite for Access' dedicated match against Shrewsbury Town, we are highlighting the club’s Soccer Sight service for blind and visually impaired supporters.
The service has been running at SJP for 17 years but has had substantial upgrades this season with help from the Premier League’s Fans’ Fund. Ahead of the weekend, lead commentator Tom Fowles penned this article on the service.
It was September 2013 when I first took the mic for Soccer Sight – commentating on a pretty dour 2-0 loss at home to Newport.
My poor form rattled on for months, not commentating on an Exeter goal until the last day in November and pondering if I should hang the mic back up for the sake of everyone at City. Eventually the Grecians did win at home (3-0 vs Fleetwood) and somehow, I am still here providing audio descriptive commentary 12 seasons later.
The Soccer Sight service has been in operation at St James Park since 2008, when it received seed funding and equipment from the Royal National Institute for the Blind. The aim of the service has been to support and encourage the attendance of blind and partially-sighted supporters at live football games. We provide free, in-ground commentary of all first-team home and cup games at St James Park, enabling fans to plug in a head-set and enjoy the experience of live football.
The concept of an audio-descriptive commentary does not differ much from that of a traditional radio commentary, but we do focus more emphasis on exactly where the ball is in-play and to add additional description around the key events in the game. We operate with a two-person commentary team, alternative each half between lead commentator and summariser. The commentary is available to home and away fans so we do our best, but don’t always succeed(!) to stay neutral and balanced.
Not only has the service supported the attendance of partially sighted supporters over the years, it has also supported the careers of budding young journalists. Mark Briggs, now an Assistant Producer for Sky, can be spotted on Sky Sports and online as one of the presenters of the Sky Sports Fantasy Podcast. You may often here Ollie Heptinstall’s voice if you listen to City commentary on Radio Devon and you’ll be a beneficiary of Daniel Clark’s journalism if you follow along to the Devon Live matchday blogs. The club’s latest member of the media team, Charlie Howell, also began his journey at the age of 14 volunteering on the service.
We have been privileged to commentate on many wonderful moments at the Park. We’ve described memorable cup games against Liverpool (2-2), Luton (1-0) and of course recently Nottingham Forest (2-2) as well as many fine moments in the league such as the Ollie Watkins Devon Derby double, Jack Stacey’s last minute screamer in the play-offs, and many miraculous and unbelievable comebacks such as the Yeovil (3-3 from 3-0 with 5 minutes left) and Harrogate (4-3, Jack Sparkes screamer) games.
None of this would have been possible without the generous volunteering of time by commentators past and present (Linus Good and Jack McCardle are both part of the current team) or of financial donations to keep the service going. In 2018 we were able to replace and expand the kit thanks to a kind gift from Dave Proud and most recently we were the very fortunate beneficiaries of a significant grant from the Premier League Fans Fund, via the Exeter City Community Trust, which has allowed us to upgrade the kit and significantly improve the user experience (and the commentator experience too!).
The Premier League Fans Fund grant has helped to secure the Soccer Sight service for many years to come and to ensure that we are able to give partially-sighted or blind fans the best possible experience so if you know somebody that might benefit from this offering please spread the word and if you’d be interested in giving commentary a go then get in touch.
Up The City!
By Tom Fowles
Please contact Charlie.howell@ecfc.co.uk if you’re interested in using or volunteering on the service.