Westward TV Football

Westward Football Highlights 1968-1981
Based in Plymouth, Westward was the original ITV franchise holder for the South West of England from April 1961 until December 1981*. With two of their three local league clubs spending most of the Westward era in the 4th Division, a regular South West football highlights programme was out of the question, but Westward did cover a handful of matches over the years. Sunday afternoon football highlights had first been broadcast to the region on 3rd December 1966 when Westward began showing ATV London's Star Soccer programme, they then switched to ABC's World of Soccer (and back again) before taking on LWT's The Big Match for the 1968/69 season.

*Technically speaking, Westward came to an end in August 1981, their replacement TSW carried on with the Westward name until their official launch on 1st January 1982.

The Westward region's league teams 1968-1981
Plymouth Argyle's relegation from the 2nd tier in May 1968 was badly timed - Had they stayed up, Westward might have made more of an effort in terms of local football productions, although Exeter City's recent form was hardly encouraging either - they had just narrowly avoided the re-election process after finishing 20th in the 4th tier. At least Torquay United were doing well, finishing 4th in the 3rd tier in 1968, but a demotion to the basement division came in 1972. The most successful spell for Westward football was in the mid-1970's with Plymouth achieving promotion in 1975 for a two season stint in the 2nd tier, and then - in the same year that Plymouth were relegated back down again - Exeter won promotion as 4th tier runners-up in 1977 and went on to reach the Quarter-finals of the FA Cup in 1981.

Westward commentators and presenters
Having presented Westward's twice weekly Sports Desk, Gary Newbon may have been involved in early South West football programmes before he joined ATV Midlands to front Star Soccer in 1972. Chris Fear is known to have commentated on two Westward games in 1977 having presented the Sports Desk for at least three years, Fear had previously worked in the White House press office for JF Kennedy and later joined the Screensport channel before commentating on Macclesfield Town matches for local radio and the club website, he died in 2002 aged 59.

What matches were shown
The following lists detail all the known matches recorded by Westward Television cameras for local highlights, plus the other region's programmes that were shown locally and featured a Westward club. Given dates are for when the match was played (not the broadcast). Known mid-week Westward based matches are included in grey.

Season 1968/69
All Westward highlights shown in black & white on VHF this season. The Times only bills the region as showing LWT's "The Big Match" except 15/Sep.
14/Sep/1968    Showed Yorkshire's "Soccer" - Rotherham United 1 (Leggat) Torquay United 0
05/Oct/1968    Plymouth Argyle 1 (Molyneux) Torquay United 2 (Dunne,Welsh)
30/Nov/1968   Exeter City 0 Swansea City 1 (Biggs)
21/Dec/1968    Showed LWT's "The Big Match" - Luton Town 2 (Lewis, Allen) Plymouth Argyle 0
15/Feb/1969    Torquay United 2 (Young, Dunne) Watford 1 (Endean)
22/Feb/1969    Plymouth Argyle 1 (Hore) Tranmere Rovers 0
08/Mar/1969   Plymouth Argyle 1 (Burnside(pen)) Bournemouth & Boscombe A. 1 (East)

Season 1969/70
Westward now showed ATV's "Star Soccer" most Sunday's, but remained in black & white after most other regions switched to colour.
23/Aug/1969   Torquay United 1 (Rudge) Plymouth Argyle 2 (Bickle, Tedesco)
25/Oct/1969    Showed LWT's The Big Match - Luton Town 1 (Tees) Torquay United 1 (Ryan(og))
17/Jan/1970    Torquay United 0 Orient 1 (Jones) *edit included on LWT's "The Big Match", Westward billed to show ATV
21/Feb/1970    Torquay United 2 (Mitchison, Rudge) Luton Town 2 (Harrison, MacDonald) *Not 100%, not incl. on LWT's document of all ITV games covered for 69/70.

Season 1970/71
Westward returned to LWT's "The Big Match" this season, but were still only able to show it in black & white.
22/Aug/1970   Showed ATV's "Star Soccer" - Aston Villa 1 (McMahon) Plymouth Argyle 1 (Aitken)
12/Sep/1970   Plymouth Argyle 0 Bristol Rovers 0
03/Oct/1970    Showed LWT's "The Big Match" - Fulham 1 (Earle) Plymouth Argyle 1 (Allen)
21/Nov/1970   Torquay United 3 (Kitchener, Bradley(og), Edwards) Aston Villa 1 (Aitken) [FA Cup R1] *Not 100%
19/Dec/1970   Showed Granada's "Football" - Preston North End 2 (Ingram, Lyall) Torquay United 2 (Cave, Rudge)
26/Dec/1970   Torquay United 2 (Lucas, Rudge) Plymouth Argyle 1 (Rickard)
20/Mar/1971   Torquay United 1 (Kitchener) Aston Villa 1 (Vowden) *Not 100%
10/Apr/1971    Plymouth Argyle 1 (Allen) Torquay United 2 (Rudge, Barnard) *Not 100%

1971 to 1981
Westward began colour transmissions on 22nd May 1971.
10/Mar/1973    Showed ATV's "Star Soccer" - Hereford United 1 (Redrobe) Exeter City 0
14/Mar/1973    Plymouth Argyle v Santos [Friendly] *exists with commentary, not clear when shown, Pelé played in this game
13/Oct/1973    Showed Yorkshire's "Soccer" - Huddersfield Town 2 (S.Smith, Summerill) Plymouth Argyle 1 (Mariner)
23/Feb/1974    Showed LWT's "The Big Match" - Gillingham 2 (Yeo, Wilks) Exeter City 1 (Bowker)
06/Sep/1975    Possibly Plymouth Argyle 1 (Rafferty) Sunderland 0
08/Jan/1977     Exeter City 1 (Kellow) Barnsley 0 *Chris Fear commentating
14/May/1977   Exeter City 3 (Hodge, Beer, Jennings) Aldershot 0 *Chris Fear commentating, Exeter promoted to 3rd tier.
29/Apr/1978    Possibly Plymouth Argyle 3 (Johnson, Binney 2) Port Vale 2 (Beamish, Froggatt)
19/Apr/1980    Plymouth Argyle 4 (Trusson, Sims, Kemp 2) Sheffield United 1 (Casey) *An edit was included on "The Big Match"
28/Jan/1981     Exeter City 3 (Kellow 3(1pen)) Leicester City 1 (Melrose) [FA Cup R4 Replay] *Chris Fear commentating, "Sports Special"  (not networked)
07/Mar/1981   Showed LWT's "The Big Match" - Tottenham Hotspur 2 (Miller, Roberts) Exeter City 0 [FA Cup QF]

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TV ARK - Westward TV
Chris Fear Obituary

Page last updated February 2009