The ITV regions (Part 3)

Southern

Southern was another station that covered local football on an irregular basis, less frequently than Tyne Tees but more frequently than HTV. When
not screening a local match, they would broadcast LWT's "The Big Match".

Coverage majored on the South Coast's "Big Three", Southampton, Brighton and Portsmouth, peaking in the early 80s when the region briefly had two teams in the top flight, Southampton and Brighton. (By this time, Southern had lost their franchise to TVS). Other teams featured were Bournemouth and Reading.
 

In the early 70s, Southern gave a commentary debut to a young Martin Tyler. As well as his commentary duties during this time, Tyler helped pen a Marshall Cavendish part-work, "The Book of Football", later collected into a large-format book, "The Encyclopaedia of British Football", published in 1974. In it, he opined that there was too much football on television, obviously not anticipating that, 25 years later, he would be lead commentator for Sky's prodigious output of live matches!

David Bobin
 

When Tyler moved to Yorkshire, he was succeeded by tennis doyen Gerald Williams and then by David Bobin, an experienced continuity man with the station and now a presenter with Sky Sports.  In 1981, he was succeeded by the experienced Gerald Sinstadt, who moved to the South Coast from Granada (where his place was taken by Tyler!)  Southern's football coverage also made use of the ubiquitous Fred Dinenage, although of course he is best remembered for the much-loved "How"!

Links

This site details all of Reading's live/recorded football on TV

Westward / TSW

With only 3 League sides in the area (Plymouth, Exeter and Torquay), none of which have ever played in the First Division, local football coverage on Westward (1961 - 1981) and their successors TSW (1982 - 1992) was largely restricted to goal clips on local news bulletins.  Like the other small ITV regions, Westward / TSW broadcast LWT's "The Big Match" on Sunday afternoons.

(Image courtesy of Russ J Graham and the Ident Television Branding webpage)

Channel and Ulster

Neither station had any League sides in their area so both broadcast LWT's "The Big Match" on Sunday afternoons.  With a mere 80 staff in the mid-Seventies, Channel (by far the smallest of the ITV companies) would probably have been hard-pushed to cover a football match!

(Both Channel and Ulster images courtesy of Russ J Graham, as above)