Peter Drury
Peter Drury (born 24 September 1967) is a football commentator, formerly with ITV Sport as their number two football commentator, a role he had held from 1998 to 2013. Currently, Drury works for Premier League Productions, BT Sport (UK) and Amazon Prime Video for its English Premier League and FA Cup coverage, as well as for BT Sport (UK) and CBS Sports (USA) on their UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League coverage. Early life. Peter Drury was born on 24 September 1967 in England to a priest. The first club he supported as a 4-year-old  was West Ham United, but he has since gone on to support different clubs. He went to St John's School, Leatherhead in Surrey. While growing up, Drury's commentary idol was BBC Radio's Peter Jones, who Drury describes as having a "beautiful, authoritative, and poetic voice". When he was 18 and he used to see Hull City matches, he was usually the first man at Boothferry Park a couple of hours before the other spectators came flooding in. Previously, he has worked as an accountant for a period of one month after graduating from university. Before joining BBC  Radio Leeds, he worked for sports journalism agency Hayter's. Commentary career. Beginnings with BBC Radio (1990–98). In March 1990, Drury got a job with BBC Radio Leeds and he was there at a time when Leeds were champions of the Football League First Division in the 1991–92 season. His early works with Radio Leeds included matches involving Halifax Town, Bradford City and Huddersfield Town. He also commentated on both legs of Leeds United's UEFA Champions League first round tie with VfB Stuttgart in September 1992, in which after coming back from a 3–0 first-leg deficit to win  4–1, he remarked that their fans were 'proud as punch' of Howard Wilkinson's team and they were to be eliminated on away goals, but it went into a play-off which they won 2–1 on 9 October. He soon moved to Five Live following its launch on 28 March 1994. His credits include the 1996 UEFA Champions League Final (alongside future ITV colleague Jon Champion) and UEFA Euro 96, where he covered Group D matches involving Portugal and Turkey. In 1997, he also commentated on The Open Championship and the Ryder Cup with 5 Live. Televised commentary (1997–present ). Drury later moved on to Broadcasting House in London at the start of 1997–98 season where he got an opportunity to cover matches of the day including the third match which was Everton vs Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday 4 October 1997 at Hillsborough Stadium. He then joined ITV in February 1998 and his first match for the network was a replay of an FA Cup sixth round tie between Sheffield United and Coventry City on 17 March. After finishing 1-1 in both the original and replay matches, the Blades came out victorious, winning 3-1 on penalties. He was  immediately selected to be part of the commentary team as their junior correspondent for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, replacing John Helm. During his 15 years with ITV, Drury commentated on four World Cups (1998–2010) and four European Championship tournaments (2000–2012). He also commentated on the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup / Europa League, ITV's 'The Premiership' (coverage of the English Premier League between 2001 and 2004) and the This is Football video game series, starting with "2 (2000)". Other than football, he presented The Boat Race, as well as snooker tournaments such as the short-lived Nations  Cup. Drury commentated on the 2014 FIFA World Cup final match between Germany and Argentina on 13 June 2014 at the Maracanã Stadium. In 2013, he joined BT Sport for their coverage of the Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. In 2015, Drury replaced Jon Champion as the primary commentator in the "Pro Evolution Soccer" video game series, starting with "Pro Evolution Soccer 2016", having also narrated Sony's "This Is Football" series earlier. During the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, he commentated on matches for FIFA's international feed  and its YouTube channel, including the final between France against Croatia. Drury has covered most of the Premier League matches alongside co-commentator Jim Beglin, whom he has worked with since 1995 including his early work with 5 live. Drury insists that viewers normally tune in to watch the match and not because of both of them. He signed with SuperSport in 2019. Drury joined CBS Sports (USA) for its UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League coverage in August 2020, as the co-#1 play-by-play commentator (alternating with former ITV colleague Clive Tyldesley). Style of commentary. Drury has  been famed for his expressive and extremely literate style of commentary. He is known for his poetic style of commentary, often using phrases such as "in a trice" instead of common language. Here are some of his most famous lines throughout his commentary career: