Enjoy those golden voices, you won’t hear them again

There will come a point where we no longer feel like being deferential to the ostentatious voices of sport. That’s probably a good thing, on balance.

But the passing of James Alexander Gordon on Monday was a poignant reminder of when we were less cynical, less weighed down by the snark (and convenience) of social media.

The BBC radio reader of full-time scores from the football leagues in England and Scotland made so many of us — even in Ireland — hang around by the speakers in a semi-trance, the crackling medium wave an inconsistent babbling river of voices and interference, chaotic but generally going in the right direction.