First of all Spooki may I suggest that you look up the definition of the word buffoon, ie "Jester, fool".
I probably remember Eddie prior to your memories of the man during the fifties and sixties  long before his latter day health problems.and, believe me, he alienated a lot of rugby league fans by some of the comments that he came out with on national television. There was no comparison between Eddie Waring and his successor Ray French 

Let's not take this in another direction. 
This is a Ray French thread.

Redscat: First of all Spooki may I suggest that you look up the definition of the word buffoon, ie "Jester, fool". I probably remember Eddie prior to your memories of the man during the fifties and sixties  long before his latter day health problems. and, believe me, he alienated a lot of rugby league fans by some of the comments that he came out with on national television. There was no comparison between Eddie Waring and his successor Ray French  sorry poptart but when someone questions my intellect i cannot walk away i am a child of the 60s and my recall has a personal connection to the latter days of Waring's life. I was asked to do something so I did. And will leave it there: buffoon noun buf·​foon 1 : a ludicrous figure : clown 2 : a gross and usually ill-educated or stupid person acting like a ridiculous buffoon

Redscat: First of all Spooki may I suggest that you look up the definition of the word buffoon, ie "Jester, fool". I probably remember Eddie prior to your memories of the man during the fifties and sixties  long before his latter day health problems. and, believe me, he alienated a lot of rugby league fans by some of the comments that he came out with on national television. There was no comparison between Eddie Waring and his successor Ray French  sorry poptart but when someone questions my intellect i cannot walk away i am a child of the 60s and my recall has a personal connection to the latter days of Waring's life. I was asked to do something so I did. And will leave it there: buffoon noun buf·​foon 1 : a ludicrous figure : clown 2 : a gross and usually ill-educated or stupid person acting like a ridiculous buffoon

Since I started properly watching in the early 80s that coincides with Ray taking over from Eddie.   Ray was the voice of RL when I was at my most impressionable.   When I hear his old commentaries now on Youtube it does bring back a big slice of nostalgia.    I remember at the time occasionally getting frustrated when he got names wrong and he a had his fair share of cliches (I bet we can all name a few) but he knew the game and loved it.   I thought the BBC made a great move when they replaced Alex Murphy with John Monie as co-commentator as that dialled down the cliches a bit and allowed Ray to blossom a bit more.  


I later appreciated how much the players all loved him too - in many ways in that sense he was like Eddie Waring.   I remember Trevor Foster held Eddie Waring in very high regard for what he did for players  in the 1940s and 50s.   I was lucky enough to once play in a tag tournament where a couple of teammates (Gary Mercer and Alan Tait) were pleased as punch to get to have a chat with Ray after our games.    Not many commentators can claim to have had that relationship with the players.  

Eddie did become a bit of a comic characture in his later days. But I will always forgive him anything for the "oh the poor lad" comment after Don Fox missed THAT kick in the 1968 cup final.