The ITV regions (Part 1)

STV (and Grampian)

According to the "Scotsport" website: "Britain's oldest dedicated sports programme had its modest beginnings in a community hall on the northwest of Glasgow more than 40 years ago."

During June 1957, the soon-to-be-launched Scottish Television held auditions for presenters in Maryhill Public Hall in Glasgow.  A Glasgow Evening Times journalist and BBC Radio broadcaster called Arthur Montford was amongst those auditioning and was hired as STV newsreader and sports presenter.

Montford would become famous for his turns of phrase ("what a stramash!"), violently-checked sports jackets and support for lowly Morton ("today's big game was the Glasgow derby but we sent our cameras to Cappielow for Morton's local derby with Dumbarton").  Later STV commentators included Jock Brown (brother of Scotland boss Craig) and Gerry McNee.

Scotsport was soon allowed to cover highlights of two Scottish League matches each weekend and later supplemented those with action from the weekend's top game in England. More recently, their level of coverage has depended on often fraught negotiations with Scotland's warring football chiefs.  Currently, rights to SPL games are held by STV and Setanta, an Irish-based satellite station.  STV also air "Football First", featuring highlights from Scotland's First Division.

Scotsport also covered other sports, including curling, golf, ice hockey, boxing, swimming and Scottish Junior Cup finals.

"Scotsport" links

Official history

Does anyone know what has become of Arthur Montford's Jacket Page?

Border Television

After Channel, Border was ITV's smallest region, with only two League sides in its area (both have now gone, Workington losing their Football League status in 1977 and Carlisle United in 2004).

Only once, on 26th November 1995, did Border cameras provide a full football Outside Broadcast, featuring live action from Carlisle v Wycombe Wanderers (Carlisle won 4- 2).  Even during Carlisle's single campaign in the old First Division (1974/75), their only coverage came from Granada.

During the 70s and early 80s, in the absence of any local football programme of their own, Border would either screen LWT's "The Big Match" or Granada's "Kick-Off Match" on a Sunday afternoon.  In recent years, the English-based station has shown "Scotsport".

Tyne Tees

When Tyne Tees first started covering football, with Saturday night highlights in the early Sixties, "Shoot!" seemed a snappy and appropriate title for the programme. It was one which would continue for another 20 years and also be adopted by an even more long-running juvenile football weekly.

Early coverage used film cameras, with the ever-present risk that a goal might be scored whilst the film was being changed. Tyne Tees later acquired a more professional outside broadcast unit, but "Shoot!" never entirely shook off its shoestring image.

Tyne Tees' coverage in the early Sixties would begin with "Cue for Sport" at 10.15 on a Friday night, under the control of long-serving director Bernard Preston and hosted by a man who would later become more famous on the other channel - Mike Neville, for many years presenter of BBC North-East's "Look North".  Then on Saturday night at 11.15 would come "Shoot!", a mere half-hour long in those days.  The programme's first commentator was George Taylor, TTTV's long-serving Sports Editor, and someone still involved in football today, as head of Player Liaison at Newcastle United FC. (See Page 8 for an interview with George).

 He was succeeded by David Taylor, a somewhat mysterious commentary choice, as Taylor was a straight journalist who later went on to report for "World In Action", as well as writing a book about disgraced local politician T Dan Smith. Taylor took the helm throughout the early Seventies, bowing out at the end of the 1973-74 season, his last commentary a 1-1 draw between Newcastle and Birmingham.  One of his most famous commentaries occurred when Malcolm MacDonald ("Supermac") made his debut for the Magpies on 21st August 1971 - "Shoot!" cameras were there to cover  Newcastle's 3-2 win over Liverpool, thanks to a hat-trick from the flamboyantly-sideburned new signing.

 In the football-crazy North-East, it was only to be expected that Tyne Tees would screen their own regional highlights programme, although they were handicapped by the fact that they only possessed one Outside Broadcast unit. When this was required for racing coverage from Newcastle (screened on Saturday afternoon's "World of Sport"), Tyne Tees were unable to cover a local match, and viewers were treated instead to LWT's glitzy "The Big Match".

With only 3 main teams in the area, Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, the choice of fixture to screen virtually selected itself. ITV's contract with the League to cover football did however require their local stations to broadcast at least two Third or Fourth Division games each season. Tyne Tees met this requirement by paying an annual visit to each of the region's two minnows, covering one match from Darlington and one from Hartlepool most seasons.  Here is a list of the Fourth Division fixtures televised between 1974 and 1983:

1973/74 -         Hartlepool 0 Newport 1 (won by a late penalty for Newport.  With regular commentator David Taylor unavailable, Head of Sport George Taylor handled    the commentary, the last time he was to do so)

1974/75 -         Darlington 0 Barnsley 0
                           Hartlepool 3 Workington 0
                           Darlington 2 Mansfield 1

1975/76 -         Hartlepool 1 Barnsley 0
                           Darlington v Tranmere

1976/77 -         Darlington 2 Aldershot 1 (ex-Arsenal centre-back Terry Mancini was now captaining the Shots and was interviewed by Ken Wolstenholme on Friday night's "Sportstime")

1977/78 -         Darlington v Huddersfield
                           Hartlepool v Newport

1978/79 -         Hartlepool 3 Halifax 1
                           Darlington 1 Newport 0 (what was it with Newport?!!  An early commentary for current TTT Head of Sport, Roger Tames)

1979/80         - Hartlepool 2 Northampton 1

1980/81 -         Darlington 2 Brentford 2
                          Hartlepool 2 Wimbledon 3 (eight years later, the Dons would win the FA Cup, but for now they were still a relatively new Fourth Division side)

1981/82         - Darlington 2 Blackpool 2 (one of the Quakers' goals was scored by a young David Speedie)
                          Hartlepool 3 Port Vale 1

1982/83 -        Hartlepool 3 Rochdale 0 (the last-ever local game covered by "Shoot!" cameras in a programme truncated to 30 minutes, to make room for a tribute to Liverpool boss Bob Paisley)
 

Whereas "The Big Match" exuded all the glamour of the King's Road, featuring 3 games, slow-motion replays, studio discussion and celebrity guests (such as a pre-Watford Elton John), "Shoot" was a much humbler affair. The 55 minute programme featured just the one local match, irrespective of quality. One programme devoted its entire length to coverage of a dire goalless draw between Darlington and Barnsley!

There were no slow-motion replays, indeed no replays of any kind, unless a goal was scored, in which case a normal speed replay was shown. There were no on-screen graphics such as team line-ups and no studio was used. The commentator topped and tailed the programme from the ground of the game chosen, generally concluding with a short interview with one of the players or the home manager. Mysteriously, the "TV Times" would claim that the interviewer was Ian Edwards (a Tyne Tees sports presenter, who later became Sports Correspondent for ITN) although in practice, the interviews were always conducted by the match commentator.

Occasionally, where a match involving a local side had been filmed by another ITV region, this would be shown as a second game, a very welcome bonus, especially if the main match was a drab one.

For the fan in those days, the weekend really seemed to start on Friday night, when George Taylor presented "Sportstime" at 10.30, a weekly show largely devoted to a goal-filled preview of the weekend's football. With the Friday night horror film following it, this was the ideal way to begin the weekend!

Come Sunday and "Shoot" normally began at around 2pm or a few minutes after, following "Farming Outlook". Viewers had to sit through many discussions about sugar beet yields or swine vesicular disease, waiting impatiently for the football to start. The programme was invariably followed by the "Sunday Matinee", usually a creaky B-picture from the 1950s.

At the beginning of the 1974-75 season, Tyne Tees announced a major coup. Veteran BBC football commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme, famed for his "they think it's all over - it is now!" 1966 World Cup commentary, had been signed up as their new commentator. Wolstenholme had lost his commentary slot with the BBC in the early Seventies because they thought his style "old-fashioned". It was certainly that. He resisted the trend towards excessive excitement and hyperbole, and so fitted in well with "Shoot!"s slightly archaic production values. There were occasional blunders - Newcastle midfielders Tommy Craig and Geoff Nulty were once spliced into a hybrid called "Tommy Nulty" - but generally his work was professional and good-humoured. If Hartlepool v Workington at a wintry Victoria Ground seemed a long way from the 1970 World Cup in sun-kissed Rio, then he did not show it.

A truncated version of the TTT programme line up for 28/29 January 1977 - "The Muppet Show" normally only lasted 30 minutes so I suspect the paper has missed out "Farming Outlook" at 1.40.  "Shoot!" normally ran for an hour but was sometimes shortened to 50 minutes (as in this case) much to my annoyance!  Thanks to Nick at Up the Maggies! for the scan

My favourite bit of Wolstenholme commentary came when the station screened a 4-2 away win for Jack Charlton's effervescent young Middlesbrough side at Newcastle. As promising striker Stan Cummins broke away to grab the fourth, Ken reached back into his distant childhood for an appropriate schoolroom metaphor : "That gives him ten out of ten and one for neatness!" (This game was featured recently in Tyne Tees' "Football Flashback" series and is also included on the "Middlesbrough - Match of the Seventies" videotape).

By now, Tyne Tees had at last dragged their coverage into the modern era. The programme was now presented from the City Road studio, initially by David Burton and subsequently by George Taylor. The local game was supplemented by two other matches and the wonders of slow-motion replays were introduced.

But on the commentary front, all was not well. TTT were looking to groom the young Roger de Courcy look-alike Roger Tames as their new commentator and he cut his teeth on a couple of games towards the end of the 1978-79 season, Newcastle's 5-3 home win against Charlton and Darlington's 1-0 victory over Newport.

During the close season which followed, Wolstenholme was allegedly told by Tyne Tees that he was to be relegated to the commentating sub's bench, expected to travel up from London every Friday merely to stand by in case Tames was indisposed. Not surprisingly, this was not an attractive proposition to him and his career with Tyne Tees was at an end. He had covered some memorable games during his spell at the studio, not least Newcastle's thrilling 4-3 win over then powerful Derby County, and his presence had brought some welcome kudos to TTT's somewhat cash-strapped football coverage.

"Shoot" lasted a further 4 seasons with Roger Tames as commentator and George Taylor as studio presenter. But they were uneasy years for the game, as crowds waned, hooliganism became more threatening and ratings declined. Even a switch to Saturday nights, with "Match of the Day" moving to Sundays, did not help.

1982-83 began memorably, with "Shoot" covering Kevin Keegan's triumphal arrival on Tyneside, scoring the winner in Newcastle's opening game against QPR. They covered some exciting games that season but there were storm clouds on the horizon. TV bosses were eyeing a new format, in which live games would largely replace the traditional highlights package. Instead of parochial coverage of local teams in sometimes meaningless matches, there would be networked live action from the top of the First Division. The days of Darlington v Barnsley being the star attraction were clearly numbered.

On May 7th 1982, "Shoot" covered its last local action. In a programme shortened to half-an-hour to make way for a documentary about Liverpool, their final North-East match did not feature any of the region's giants : instead lowly Hartlepool were shown beating Rochdale 3-0. It seemed a fitting end for a programme that had never been glamorous but had done its bit for the region, giving weekly exposure to the highs and (more often) lows of our local teams. Another match in that same programme, Oldham v Leicester, featured a gawky young visiting striker with a cheeky grin and an eye for goal - his name, of course, was Gary Lineker.

But that was not quite the end of "Shoot". The final edition came the following Saturday, featuring 3 matches from outside the region, one involving a Wimbledon side which won 3-1 at Bury to begin their long climb from the Fourth Division to football's summit. The programme ended with George Taylor signing off for the last time and saying that, although fans may have grumbled occasionally about "Shoot" over the years, he hoped they'd enjoyed it. We did, George.

That was not the end of football coverage on Tyne Tees, however. In the late Eighties, ITV started to revert to regionalised football coverage again and since then TTT have shown a variety of League and Cup games, in both live and highlight form.  The format is somewhat dull, however, with an over-reliance on talking heads (current or ex-players keen not to offend anybody and rarely saying anything controversial).

Yorkshire Television

A long-standing complaint from football fans in Yorkshire is that YTV's football coverage is dominated by Leeds United.  Some have even dubbed the channel "Leeds-shire" and the unusual title of Sheffield Wednesday's fanzine ("War of the Monster Trucks") reflects a notorious occasion at the end of the 1991 Rumbelows Cup Final (won by the Owls) when YTV cut away from Wednesday's victory celebrations to screen the eponymous Monster Truck programme!

Don Revie's Leeds, then at their peak, featured regularly on Yorkshire's "Football Special" programmes of the late 60s and early 70s.  Many will recall Eddie Gray's two famous goals against Burnley that were screened by Yorkshire.  Their commentator in those days was Keith Macklin, who became very noisy and excited when a goal was scored!  In fact, Keith's main sport was not football but Rugby League - he has written 3 books on the subject (The History of Rugby League Football {1962}, The Rugby League Game {1967} and The Story of Rugby League {1984} ).

According to Red Rose Radio, Keith is still busy today, "...clocking an incredible 46 years broadcasting up and no plans to slow down yet."  He regularly contributes to Magic 999, Red Rose and Rock FM and has been involved with The Burn 106 FM covering Darwen and Blackburn, who have just finished their third Restricted Service License.

When he left the station in 1976, Keith's commentary duties were taken over by a young Martin Tyler, who had previously been commentating for Southern Television.  Tyler in turn was superseded by John Helm in 1981, when Tyler moved on to Granada.  Yorkshire's final season of coverage (1982-83) under the old recorded system was a somewhat unhappy one; by then, Leeds had been relegated to the Second Division and Yorkshire were left with no teams at all in the top flight.  As a result, YTV chief Paul Fox decided to downgrade local football coverage and local games were screened only about once every three weeks on a programme now titled "The Big Game".

"Football Special" employed a variety of presenters, one being the ubiquitous Fred Dinenage.  Dinenage popped up all over the ITV network, whether standing in for Dickie Davies on LWT's "World of Sport", hosting mid-day quiz show "Gambit" for Anglia or (most famously) presenting tricks with matches and ineptly cooking Burnt Alaska on Southern's "How".  Derek Dougan, despite having no obvious Yorkshire connections, also appeared as an analyst on "Football Special".

Despite the "Leeds-shire" jibe, "Football Special", to its credit, covered just about all the region's sides down the years, even perennial strugglers like Doncaster and Halifax.  Here are some examples:

Halifax v Bury (14/9/74)

York v Bristol R (12/10/74)

Lincoln v Rotherham (22/3/75)

Rotherham v Mansfield (20/12/75)

Mansfield v Sheff U (8/10/77)

Doncaster v Barnsley (23/9/78)

Chesterfield 0 Watford 2 (21/10/78)

Huddersfield 3 Lincoln 2 (12/1/80)
 

Granada Television

One of ITV's "Big Three", Granada benefited from having some of the League's most famous sides in their patch.  They also employed one of the most durable of commentators, Gerald Sinstadt, who is still behind the mike today for the BBC.  On the "True Blue Stories" page of one Manchester City website (link below), D M Gilbert writes:

But I think the main man I have to thank for initially becoming Blue is a little man with a moustache and glasses who looked uncannily like the cartoon  tax inspector who keeps popping up to tell us about self-assessment... his name was Gerald Sinstadt, and he comes from a time long gone, when Sunday afternoons meant not Sky Sports Super Sunday, Manchester United vs Anybody, but our very own, free, north-west regional 'Kick Off Match'. The concept of ITV's football coverage in the late 1970s and early 80s is probably impossible to grasp for anyone under the age of 21. Believe it or not, each region had it's own hour-long highlights programme every Sunday at 3 o'clock (usually just after 'The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams', a fictional character reportedly based on Gerry Gow). Granada's 'Kick Off Match' was easily distinguished by it's fantastic theme tune - something that sounded as though it was being performed on a Rolf Harris Stylophone. This classic piece of music began and ended with five seconds of the Stylophone pencil frantically and haphazardly scribbling over the metal bit that made the sound, with the main body of the piece consisting of the same five notes being played repeatedly in ever ascending key. It may not rank alongside 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Blue Guitar' as the most profound of musical statements from the era, but for me it was the highlight of the week, as it signalled the arrival of my ticket to the weird and wonderful world of professional football.

The great thing about 'Kick Off Match' was that City were on it for roughly two weeks out of every three. If we were at home, of course, there was a more than even chance of us being featured, with Gerald Sinstadt doing the commentary. It's so strange to hear Sinstadt's lack-lustre commentaries for the BBC these days, because back in the days of 'Kick Off', his enthusiasm was so infectious, he truly brought some of the unique atmosphere of Maine Road - or wherever - into Sam's old back room. But even if it wasn't a City home week, there was always a good chance that City would be on one of the two supplementary matches bought in from other regions... these introduced me to such commentators as Brian Moore when he used to be good (shouting a lot and well before he became obsessed with the trite 'it's in there!' motif to describe every goal), and the inimitable Hugh Johns, of the staccato speech and catchphrases such as 'wahn-nothing' and 'opens his account'.

When Sinstadt moved to the BBC, Martin Tyler arrived from Yorkshire to take over a programme now hosted by the irritating Elton Welsby.  Granada also aired a Friday night preview programme, "Kick-off", and would continue to air recorded highlights on a regular basis in the late 80s.

Granada links

True Blue Stories

ATV

According to the "Up the Maggies" website (devoted to Notts County):

The ITV weekday franchise for the Midlands had been held by ATV since ITV's inception in the mid 1950s. They had also broadcast to the London area at weekends until July 1968 (when London Weekend Television took control).  ATV then began broadcasting to the Midlands 7 days a week. It has been suggested that ATV first screened a show called "Star soccer" in the London area before the change of franchise, but it doesn't appear to have been a regular programme.

The Midlands Sunday highlights version of “Star Soccer” began in 1969 (possibly mid-way through the 68/69 season) and soon settled into a format in which a main match involving a home Midlands team (usually West Midlands!) would be screened first, followed by edited highlights taken from one or two matches from other regions (preferably involving a Midlands side playing away). It was originally hosted by the ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers legend Billy Wright before Gary Newbon took over in 1972.

Hugh Johns was installed as the commentator, he had previously described both the 1966 World Cup final and Manchester United's 1968 European Cup triumph for the whole ITV network. The classic 1970's theme was composed for the programme by Richard Hill and simply titled "Star Soccer".

The programme would sometimes be screened by other regions who were not covering matches of their own (HTV and Border for example). Tyne Tees also showed the programme on one occasion (the final day of the 1974-75 season, when Derby clinched the title with an anti-climactic goalless draw at home to Carlisle.  Since Carlisle {already relegated by then} were not in the Tyne Tees area, it is unclear why TTT chose this match for their one and only slice of "Star Soccer"!)

Hugh Johns was probably ITV's top commentator during the 1960s and 1970s.  Even after Brian Moore came on the scene, the latter was mainly confined to the studio link-man role for major tournaments, leaving Johns to commentate on 4 successive World Cup Finals and the dramatic 1973 England - Poland World Cup qualifier.  Of all the commentators around in that era, Johns is one of the best-remembered; reporting live from grounds on the "World of Sport" results round-up, he seemed to exude authority with his rich voice and sheepskin coat!  Hugh left ATV in 1982 to move to Wales, where he continued commentating for HTV, although one can't help feeling that watching the struggles of Swansea and Cardiff was a bit of a comedown for the man who had chronicled Derby and Forest's title triumphs in the 1970s.

Hugh Johns is 81 today and a member of the Proscenium Freemason's Lodge in Cardiff, where he is the Director of Ceremonies and also the Preceptor.  He was recently presented with a 'Golden Microphone' Lifetime Achievement Award for services to Midlands soccer by the inimitable Brian Clough at a dinner arranged by Carlton Television. In a 35 years television career, Hugh commentated on one thousand League, International and Cup matches, as well as boxing, bowls, snooker and darts. He was commentating on football matches for HTV Wales until well into his seventies!

Many of these details come from the Province of South Wales (Eastern Division) Masonic Lodge website, which at long last reveals just what Hugh said when Geoff Hurst scored his hat-trick goal during the 1966 World Cup Final.  We all know Ken Wolstenholme's famous commentary, but what was the ITV commentator saying?

21/9/74: Port Vale v Hereford

3/9/77: Walsall v Swindon

16/10/82: Oxford 4 Walsall 2
 

ATV links

Hugh Johns: a consummate and tireless professional

Up the Maggies