Joe Singh, in his day the voice of football on Fijian Radio and prominent in business and community work, has died.

He coined legendary phrases like the soccer ball curved like the “Waidina banana”.

It was on Thursday that Joseph Singh, most commonly known as Joe Singh, was admitted at the CWM Hospital in Suva and later passed away.

Former Fiji Broadcasting Commission radio commentator Sashimendra Singh described Joe as someone who had a very apt and to the point way of describing football.

Sashimendra said “Waidina banana” was to last for the ages and become part of the annals of Fijian soccer.

“Those of us who loved soccer passionately, either as players, administrators or spectators, grew up first listening to Graham Eden and later to Joe Singh,” he said.

He said Singh, of course, was the English commentator and his vernacular co-commentators were the late Odhoji Bhai in Hindi and the late Sakiusa Bose in Fijian.

“One thing was sure though, whenever Suva were playing and doing well, Joe Singh always had this bounce in his voice, and when Suva were on the receiving end, his delivery pitch would be quite low.

“Joe Singh’s memories will last us all a lifetime, when we think of him, especially those of us from that era who loved soccer and that got their thrills from live radio broadcasts.”

He said Singh was a man who did not take life seriously and always had a joke to lighten the mood.

“We grew up in an era where the wireless was the main source of information, news and entertainment.

“One had to paint a picture of the game using words and one of the very best that Joe described one day was a corner kick that curved towards goal.”

He said while Singh had hung his hat as a soccer commentator, he took up doing live cross-overs of golf tournaments and was the main contributor for golf in the Saturday nights ‘Sports Round-up’ programme.

Edited by Paula Tuvuki