Peter Drury
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Peter Drury has been a leading member of the ITV Sport commentary team since arriving at ITV in 1998.
A politics graduate from Hull University, Peter began his career as a journalist with Hayters sports agency before joining BBC Radio Leeds in 1990 as a football and cricket commentator, presenter and reporter.
Three years later, he moved to BBC Network Radio Sport. There, he worked for BBC Radio Five Live on a variety of sports, including golf (three Open Championships and two Ryder Cups), tennis, swimming and the University Boat Race. However it was Drury's work on football that made his name. He initially began as one of Five Live's team of reporters on their Saturday Sport On Five programme.
However, following the departure of Rob Hawthorne to Sky Sports, Drury stepped up to the roster, and over the next three seasons was a highly regarded member of Five Live's commentary team, a team which included Alan Green, Mike Ingham, and his future ITV colleague Jon Champion.
During this time, Drury was highly proflic, commentating on many matches both domestically, and abroad. Among his credits was the 1996 Champions League Final, the Division One Play-Off Finals of 1996 and 1997, and Euro 96.
In the middle of season 1997-1998, Drury joined ITV Sport. His first match for the network was a dramatic FA Cup Quarter Final replay at Bramell Lane between Sheffield Utd and Coventry, a match Utd won on penalties. Since then, Drury has held down a high-profile position as ITV's number two commentator to Clive Tydesley. He has commentated at the 1998 World Cup, 2002 World Cup, Euro 2000, Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup as well as scores of matches ranging from the Premiership, UEFA Champions League and FA Cup, to the League Cup and the Football League. He has regularly covered the Championship Play-Off Final for ITV, and has also commentated on League Cup Finals, and more recently, the UEFA Cup Final.
Drury has also contributed to ITV's coverage of snooker, and for the last two years has been the commentator on ITV's coverage of The Boat Race. He has also written for The Independent newspaper and several sporting publications, as well as being the voice of the Sony PlayStation game 'This is Football'. Drury can also be heard commentating on live Premier League games for TWI around the world in places like Australia, every weekend, as well as Champions League games on ITV.
Like all ITV commentators, Drury has attracted a number of criticims from fans and television viewers for his appalling and biased style of commentary. This includes his accuracy, and his inability, as with most English commentators, to pronounce foreign players' names correctly.
Peter lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Vicky and their three children.
