By Paul Majendie and Mike Collett

LONDON (Reuters) - The cheery announcer at the women's volleyball urges the crowd to join in a perky chorus of "Is This The Way to Amarillo?"

At Lord's, the commentator tells archery fans, "Come on people, let's hear it for Ukraine." Surely a first for the hallowed home of cricket.

But at the athletics and swimming - showpiece sports in the Olympic Park - the announcers are full of facts and figures. They have clearly done their homework, even if they do get drowned out by a cacophony of cheering fans.

However, the brigades of "Come on and make some noise" warm-up merchants can grate. Remorselessly jolly, they sound like desperate DJs in a rain-soaked English seaside resort. Half the fun is comparing the contrasting styles from venue to venue.

Down at the equestrian dressage, the plummy voice of the commentator matches the well-heeled audience.

Some sports like beach volleyball readily lend themselves to showbusiness - it's all Hollywood in the sand.

The atmosphere at the velodrome is electrifying enough. But the announcer gets full marks for originality, organizing a slow motion Mexican wave to classical music.

Ear plugs should have been issued at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium when the British women's soccer team played New Zealand.

A high-pitched announcer yelled, "Let's show the world what Cardiff can do." Then, remorselessly and at top volume, she bellowed, "Are you having fun?"

They had been until she started screaming at them.

ROCK CONCERT

The debate has raged for some time about the level of entertainment stadium organizers should impose on sports fans.

Organizers feel the need to pretend they are staging a rock concert. But blaring music and strident announcers can kill the atmosphere, not enhance it.

Come the halfway point at London 2012, organizers decided it was time for a tweak to tone it down in the main stadium. But they have consciously decided to ramp up the presentations and add loads of music.

Paul Deighton, Chief Executive of the London organising committee, told reporters on Sunday: "We worked very hard from the moment we got the Games to try to do some more interesting things with sport presentation.

"And you see we try and tailor it for each sport. Whether it's the lighting, you know the dramatic effect you can get in a sport like fencing, whether it's the music - how you can really gee-up what you might call the rock ‘n' roll sports."

"There are some people of course who would prefer complete silence and focus on the athletes, " he said.

And you cannot please all the people all the time.

International Basketball Federation secretary general Patrick Baumann told reporters: "Personally, I may agree that it is too loud but the spectators love it. It also does not bother the players. It was the right choice. People like it."

Pity the poor announcers themselves, especially at the gymnastics where a diplomatic gaffe was narrowly avoided.

In one final, there was a long pause before the loudspeaker introduction of South Korea's Kim Soo-myun. The announcer appeared to be checking which Korea the gymnast was from.

Kim, standing in front of the vault, appeared amused as the audience collectively held their breath in what was an otherwise flowing list of introductions.

After a dramatic pause, the announcer correctly introduced Kim to loud applause.

(Additional reporting by Avril Ormsby, Karolos Grohmann and Sarah Young; Editing by Matt Falloon)