Latest update November 2009 (see foot of page for details)
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Other Bits & Bobs

Thanks to John Bourn, Julian Clark, Alan Buchanan, Daniel Mann, Paul Johnson, Robert Pedley, Rodney George, Michael Whalley, Mark Bunn, Robin Carmody, Duncan Cavanagh, Brian Mullowney, Stuart Croucher, Peter Gillatt, Mark Eden, Geoff Downs, David Elson, Steve Westby, Graham Keyte, Daniel Gray and Hugh Newbon.

Recent Site Updates . . . . .

18th November 2009:- Details of the 1976 "United States Bicentennial Tournament", in which England took part, have now been added to the foot of the Euro 1976 page, the tournament is probably best remembered for the appalling behaviour of Italy, most notably Facchetti who started attacking England players after he had a last minute equaliser disallowed. I've also added full details of the 1976 Home Internationals here. Other updates - The commentator for HTV at 19/Nov/1975 Wales v Austria was, surprisingly, Gerald Sinstadt (Thanks to Mike Whalley who also mentioned that the replays on this broadcast included a giant HTV graphic, rather than an 'R' or the ITV Sport 'S' logo). There is currently an exhibition on the history of Granada Television called "The Ghosts Of Winter Hill" at Urbis in Manchester City Centre, it includes some rare mid 70's "Kick Off" footage (Thanks Duncan!!!). Finally, the latest ILC media Big Match DVD (as mentioned earlier) will actually be called "The Big Match - The Best From The Studio", Amazon have a revised release date of 30th November, the product description "This DVD contains all of the very best footage from the Big Match Collection." suggests that all of the material included has already been made available on the club discs, but the front cover does mention "Goals of the season".

10th November 2009:- As seen above, I've added some screen grabs from the 17/Apr/1977 edition of Star Soccer (Many thanks to Hugh Newbon for these!!!). Just checked the 'Men & Motors' channel to see what edition of Revisited they are showing and it's 27/Jan/1979 Ipswich v Orient, so they are presumably now repeating the 78/79 series for a 2nd time - Perhaps this bodes well for a new series on ITV4 in January. There's not been many updates to the 1968-83 pages in recent months because I've been busy with the 1955-68 section, see here, but the Euro 1976 page is just about finished. You may notice that I've also changed the Euro 72 logo to the original programme cover, which doesn't look anything like as good, but I've done this for the sake of authenticity as I'm fairly certain that the standard Euro's design (associated with most Euro tournaments before 1996) was not actually designed until France 1984 and UEFA then applied the design to previous tournaments retrospectively.

25th October 2009:- 07/Nov/1978 QPR v Leeds [League Cup] was NOT shown on ITV, at least not in highlights form (Thanks Robin!!!). Play.com are now listing a "Best of the The Big Match" DVD, but we don't have any details as yet. Men & Motors channel are showing The Big Match Revisited again (on Tuesdays), presumably to complete the 1978/79 series which they cut short earlier this year.

1st October 2009:- From Friday 2nd October, ESPN Classics will be showing vintage Granada footage as "Manchester United Classics", there are no details of which matches will be shown, but they are going out in a 60 minute-ish slot and will no doubt be regularly repeated (Thanks Rik!!!). ATV covered 04/Nov/1981 Aston Villa v Dynamo Berlin for networked mid-week highlights with Hugh Johns commentating (Thanks Alan!!!). Barry Davies commentated on 01/Dec/1971 Greece v England, Ron Atkinson was co-commentator at 14/Jun/1980 Czechoslovakia v Greece (Thanks Robin!!!). Check out this youtube upload of the 28/Dec/1969 edition of The Big Match with Jimmy Hill replacing Brian Moore in the presenters chair and John Camkin commentating (Thanks Geoff!!!).

23rd September 2009:- A couple of updates for the 1975 Home Internationals - According to the TVTimes, Brian Moore covered the Wales v Scotland match and Hugh Johns voiced N.Ireland v England. The Radio Times had Coleman down to cover N.Ireland v England whilst Barry Davies takes Wales v Scotland. YTV's first commentator Danny Blanchflower had voiced a match for Rediffusion when still a player, he described the Southern Junior Floodlit Cup Final between West Ham and Chelsea on 3rd January 1956 (Thanks to Robin for spotting those!!!). Amateur Cup footage on the 28/Mar/1971 edition of The Big Match is not of the final as previously listed, it is in fact the semi-final between Dagenham and Slough (Thanks Kev!!!). Commentator at 07/Sep/1985 Tottenham v Newcastle confirmed as Peter Brackley (Thanks to Andy Ferguson!!!). The Men & Motors channel dropped repeats of 1978/79 editions of "Revisited" before the series concluded.

30th August 2009:- Highlights of Arsenal's Fairs Cup Final 2nd leg triumph v Anderlecht are now confirmed as being shown on ITV on the night of the match, The Times lists Thames as showing "World of Crime" at 11:20pm, but The Mirror lists "Football", the Mirror also states that the BBC wanted to show Manchester City's Cup-Winners Cup Final match LIVE the following night but were blocked from doing so by the FA because the FA Cup Final Replay was being played at the same time - This begs the question, were the BBC prepared not to show the FA Cup final replay live or would they have shown both matches on BBC1 & BBC2? (Thanks to Richard Rees!!!) . Highlights of 30/Sep/1970 Chelsea 5 Aris Thessaloniki 1 [ECWC R1 L2] were shown on ITV with Brian Moore commentating, see youtube links here and here (Thanks to Mark Bunn!!!). Oldham Athletic are currently running a series of articles in their Matchday Programme called "TV Times - Latics On TV" with each article looking back at a televised Oldham match, the Oldham v Swindon programme recalled the TV game v Blackpool in 1976/77 (Thanks Julian!!!). Details of the 1975 Home Internationals are now available here and I'm currently about half way through putting together a page on Euro 76. No word yet on a return of The Big Match Revisited on ITV4, but if it does happen then it's likely to be in January.

2nd August 2009:- It was reported on Saturday 1st August that Keith Macklin, the Yorkshire Television football commentator from 1969-1976, has died at the age of 78.

27th July 2009:- The 1974 World Cup page is now finished. I've also added a few more regional MOTD games for 1969/70 (in green for now - Thanks Brian!!!), some of the South East MOTD regionals were mis-labelled 'South & West', these have now been corrected. There are now screen grabs from the 1977/78 series of The Kick Off Match on the Granada page (Thanks Geoff!!!). Confusion over the 01/Feb/1975 Anglia match appears to have been solved, Harrison apparently commentated on Southend v Preston which was also included on The Big Match - this game was previously thought to be Southern coverage as Anglia were said to be at Colchester v Huddersfield, but this seems not to be the case (Thanks Robin!!!). Some youtube links - There's a Bristol City 1974-79 montage here and a compilation of early 1980's Barnsley action here (Thanks Brian!!!), also Granada Football titles from 07/Feb/1970 and the opening minutes of Northampton v Man Utd here, and The Mid-Week Match titles from 01/Dec/1976 here (Thanks Geoff!!!).

8th July 2009:- Check out this youtube upload of the 15/Feb/1976 edition of "The Kick Off Match", this was the first season in which Granada's highlights went out under that title and it had a different theme tune to the one we've become familiar with on 1978/79 "Revisited" repeats (but it's an equally bizarre piece of music for a footy show!) That weekend of 14/Feb/1976 is possibly the most confusing of all in terms of ITV coverage as three of the games covered were based in the Midlands, LWT's own documentation says that the ATV ob team were at Leicester v Man Utd and Granada's were at Stoke v Sunderland, this programme reveals that Ken Wolstenholme commentated at Stoke but Tyne Tees didn't have a "Shoot" programme that weekend - they showed Granada's programme, for which Sinstadt voiced ATV coverage of Leicester v Man Utd as the main match (Thanks Geoff!!!). There's another fabulous new youtube upload of Granada titles from 1968/69 season, go here. (Thanks again Geoff!!!). Added further 1986/87 matches covered by ITV crews for broadcast abroad, also see this youtube link for some rare HTV action from 10/Jan/1987 Bristol City v Plymouth with Roger Malone commentating (Thanks to Mark Bunn!!!). 11/Dec/1968 Cyprus v Scotland highlights are confirmed as being shown the following night on STV, highlights of 01/Dec/1971 Netherlands v Scotland are also confirmed as being on STV, highlights of 26/Apr/1972 Scotland v Peru were scheduled for both BBC1 Scotland *AND* STV - Derby v Airdrie [Texaco Cup final] is also mentioned and it looks as though highlights of this match were shown in England, 26/Sep/1973 Scotland v Czechoslovakia was shown LIVE by Scottish & Grampian in a late change to the schedules, BBC in Scotland (possibly BBC2) apparently showed 17/Nov/1976 Italy v England LIVE, but it was not shown live in England (Thanks to Ronnie for those Scottish TV details!!!).

29th June 2009:- Details of the forthcoming Aston Villa, Everton and QPR Big Match DVD releases are listed above, Leeds and Man City discs are now currently in production, there are also tentative plans for a Big Match Extras only disc which would include golden goals competitions etc. but this may depend on feedback (Thanks Graham!!!). We have a terrific article from the 20/Nov/1976 Sheffield United matchday programme which heralds the arrival of Martin Tyler as commentator at Yorkshire TV, see here (Thanks to Mark Bunn for the scan!!!). Looks like 22/Oct/1980 West Ham 4 Poli Timisoara 0 must have been an off-tube voiced by Tyler as BBC were scheduled to show football that night and not ITV (Thanks to Mark Eden!!!). The Home Internationals page is now up to 1974, Kevin Keegan was kicked by a spectator as he left the field after the game v Wales - this was just a few weeks before he was beaten up at Belgrade airport - and Stan Bowles did another one of his disappearing acts after being subbed v Northern Ireland, but the biggest story of the tournament was Jimmy Johnstone who had to be rescued by the coast guard at 6am after celebrations following Scotland's win v Wales went a little too far (Thanks to Robin and Dan for commentator/panel details!!!). I've also added a few more games from 85-87 (in green for now) that were covered by ITV crews for broadcast to foreign countries, clips of the games were apparently included on a video given away with 'Striker' biscuits (Thanks Duncan!!!). Still working on the World Cup '74 page - there are stories of terrorist threats, mass pre-organised leftwing protests in the crowd, a kidnap plot, one player banned for taking drugs, another accused of rape - and that was all in the opening three days of the tournament! But don't bother yourself with all that rubbish, head straight for this link for a fabulous jaw-dropping 1974 World Cup upload ;-D

20th June 2009:- Some missing commentators added; Coleman's voice in on BBC footage of Apr/1970 N.Ireland v Scotland, Bob Wilson was co-commentator for Nov/1970 England v East Germany (saying that he was jealous of Shilton and - ignoring his own parentage - stating that he would like to play in goal for England! There is also some 'untransmitted footage' on colour VT), Coleman voiced Nov/1971 England v Switzerland, Motson called May/1972 Scotland v N.Ireland, Barry Davies did Sep/1978 Denmark v England and Nov/1979 England v Bulgaria and Motson did Feb/1980 England v Rep of Ireland (Thanks to Robert Pedley for those!!! Robert also recalls that England's 1977 matches v Brazil and Uruguay were not shown because the respective federations were asking for too much money and that the Nov/1976 game in Italy was not shown live because of concerns about people's attendance at work!). Details of the 1974 World Cup qualifiers (and friendlies) are now almost complete (Thanks to Robin, Dan & Mark Eden for their info!!!), note that Spain were the only other country in the running to stage the 74 finals but dropped out before the venue was officially announced, note also that Chile staged a bizarre play-off 2nd leg 'match' against a non-existent Soviet Union team - they actually went through the motions of kicking-off and rolling the ball into the net for the "winning goal"! You can watch a recently uploaded video of the goals from 26/Sep/1973 England 7 Austria 0 with Hugh Johns commentating here. The Home Internationals page is now up to 1973. Looks as though 06/Dec/1978 Arsenal 1 Red Star 1 was covered by ITV, see the terrific Red Star goal here (Thanks to Mark Eden for spotting this one!!!)

10th June 2009:- There were no updates last week because I've been busy putting together a page on the 1974 World Cup, you can see how it's progressing here (Thanks as ever to Robin and Dan for filling in missing commentators/studio personal!!!). Latest news on the "Big Match" DVD's is that Aston Villa, Everton and QPR are now at the editing stage and these will be the next three to be issued, more details when we get them - I've just received all seven of the currently available titles, nicely timed to fill the void left by ITV4's "Revisited" (and the lack of a major summer tournament). I've had conflicting info regards early 70's Tyne Tees commentators over the past year, but clearly Jeff Thomas was the Australian voice so we now have an unidentified Irish commentator on at least some games during the 73/74 season, there's also a surviving Southern clip of Jimmy Greaves scoring for Spurs at Southampton in 1968/69 with commentary and we think this could be John Camkin (Thanks Alan!!!). Click here for a pic of Brian Moore from 21/Apr/1973 being presented with a trophy at the Den before commentating on Millwall v QPR, it was published in the following week's Millwall matchday programme (Thanks to Julian Clark!!!). Some youtube links; Norwich City - The Boys of '72 includes Anglia action from the old Carrow Road gantry behind the goal! (Thanks to Mark Eden for spotting this one!!!), Jimmy Greaves and Gary Newbon in 1983 having a heated exchange on Central News, the 1973 Tyne Tees documentary Meanwhile Back In Sunderland, two programmes from the excellent BBC Scotland produced series That Was The Team That Was - Leeds United 1973/74 and Scotland 1974 and finally some rare colour film of Chelsea's 1971 European Cup Winners Cup final v Real Madrid (the 1-1 draw), you also get to hear Alan Weeks' off-tube goal calls dubbed on top here (Thanks to Rod for that one!!!)

27th May 2009:- Brian Moore presented the 14/Jan/1973 edition of The Big Match even though he didn't commentate on the match at Brighton because of flu, Jimmy Hill (who did the emergency commentary) explained that he had to do all his homework on the players on the Friday night, the programme also included highlights of Anglia's Chelmsford v Ipswich clash which was one of those 1st half in colour/2nd half in black & white games due to poor floodlighting (Thanks Geoff!!!). The 1972 Home Internationals are now up and I've also added details of the 1972 "Mini World Cup" in Brazil to the foot of the Euro 72 page (Though despite British involvement, there was seemingly no TV coverage on BBC or ITV). I must give a plug to 'Backpass' magazine which is mostly concerned with football in the 60's, '70's and '80's, you can get it from WHSmith's or via the Backpass website.

20th May 2009:- ITV's Men & Motors channel began repeating the 1978/79 editions of Big Match Revisited tonight (Wednesday 9pm) starting with the 30/Dec/1978 Man Utd v WBA clash, there are several more re-runs throughout Thursday. ITV4 are to show "Up For Grabs" - an hour of highlights of the 26/May/1989 Liverpool v Arsenal title decider - on Tuesday 26th May at 6pm. Site updates - The regional Match of the Day game for the North on 11/Oct/1969 was Middlesbrough 4 Bolton 0 with commentary by Barry Davies, the opening goal was scored on 44 seconds by John Hickton, the footage is on the Middlesbrough BBC Match of the Day VHS Video released in 1991 (Thanks to Kelvin Walker!!!). I've now pretty much finished knocking the Euro 72 page into shape, curious to think that England would have hosted the finals had they beaten West Germany and Italy beaten Belgium in the QF's, England were undoubtedly outplayed in the 1st leg QF defeat but the decisive moment was a penalty decision and Bobby Moore's initial challenge was definitely outside the box (Thanks to Robin for the TVTimes details!!!). Brian Moore commentated on two successive Granada matches in March 1978, the second of these being the FA Cup QF between Wrexham & Arsenal which *was* a Granada ob and not HTV as previously stated (Thanks Dan!!!). Highlights of 04/Mar/1986 Villa 2 Oxford 2 [League Cup SF 1L] was an exclusive match on Central TV, Rothman's and some websites have incorrectly dated that match as being played on 12/Feb/1986 (Thanks again Robin!!!). More Big Match DVD's are due out next week - Arsenal. Chelsea, Newcastle, West Ham and, if it's not out already, Tottenham Hotspur. Expect to see Everton, Leeds, QPR, Villa and Wolves in the near future, the latter pair will apparently include some bits and pieces from Star Soccer programmes.

14th May 2009:-  The final edition of "Big Match Revisited" in the current series on ITV4 showed highlights of the FA Cup final between Arsenal and Manchester United, the footage was sourced from the live Saturday broadcast and re-packaged for the 2009 audience as The Big Match (There's no weekend repeat, but you can watch the show online here). Site updates - The Home Internationals page now includes details of the 1971 tournament (Thanks to Robin for the BBC commentators!!!) and I've added a scattering of minor 1969-75 FA Cup final coverage details to the 'Cup Finals' page, note that Brian Moore almost had to miss the 1975 final (presumably Hugh Johns would have replaced him) and that the first BBC "Cup Final It's A Knock Out" was in 1971.

7th May 2009:- "Revisited" looked back at the final Saturday of the 1978/79 league season today with a Granada Kick Off Match which focussed on Wrexham v Sunderland and Newcastle United v Brighton (Wolstenholme's last commentary for ITV). Site updates - Jeff Thomas was commentating for Tyne Tees earlier than we thought, he voiced the Sunderland v Watford game for Shoot on 22/Aug/1970, some footage of the game was included on that weekend's edition of The Big Match and it's in colour, so it looks as though The Times newspaper TV listings are wrong and Tyne Tees were broadcasting in colour from July 1970, not September (Thanks Geoff!!!). According to Jeff Dawson's book "Back Home", ITV and BBC tossed a coin for the 1970 World Cup SF's, ITV won and we now have it confirmed that it was they who broadcast live coverage of Brazil v Uruguay, Dawson also states that the Granada strike ended after the Semi-finals and so North West viewers would have had the option of watching the final on ITV (Thanks Phil!!!). The 12/Jan/1969 edition of LWT's "Sports Arena" featured the chief of the Football League Alan Hardaker and the Minister of Sport Denis Howell talking about football violence - which would make for interesting viewing - but unfortunately the programme does not appear to have been archived.

30th April 2009: - It was back to LWT highlights for the latest "Revisited" which featured Crystal Palace v Notts County, Brighton & HA v Blackburn Rovers (with smoke bombs thrown onto the pitch during the game and David Bobin commentating) and Sunderland v Cardiff City. Site updates - You may have already noticed that details of the next batch of "Big Match" DVD's have been added above, the first few volumes should now be in the shops and more club DVD's will follow the next batch in May, there are also 11 "Big Match" season reviews planned. The Euro 1972 page is up with the 70/71 season qualifiers, I'll now be adding to the Home Internationals page in parallel to the progress on the 70's Euro's & 1974 World Cup pages. 07/Dec/1983 Spurs 2 Bayern Munich 0 is confirmed by youtube to have been shown on ITV with Peter Brackley commentating (Thanks Robin!!!).

23rd April 2009: - A much welcome return to the Granada region for today's installment of "Revisited", The Kick Off Match featured Bolton v Ipswich and West Brom v Wolves. Site updates - Missing commentators have been added to the 83-88 Big Match page whilst 22/Dec/1984 Man Utd v Ipswich was apparently just a report (Thanks to Gerald Purves!!!). A few minor updates to the Mexico 70 page confirming BBC coverage of some qualifiers, also the Mexico friendly was *not* England's first game in front of colour cameras - West Germany away in 1968 was shown in colour on BBC2 (Thanks Robert!!!). "Remember Leeds United" was a Calendar Sport Special reunion programme shown in the Yorkshire region only on 19th May 1977. The Home Internationals page now includes details of the 1970 tournament in which George Best was sent off for spitting and throwing mud at the referee. Bolton Wanderers were the winners of the 1980 ATV talent show series Up For The Cup, there's a snap of Mark Aynsley performing for them on the show here and another small pic of the winning team posing with the trophy here. I've yet to mention Thames TV's Star Games which was a late 1970's celebrity version of It's A Knock Out, it's relevant because there was a five-a-side football round each week with Gerald Sinstadt commentating, I can still remember Sinstadt describing a slow motion replay of Bill Oddie scoring for 'The Comedians'. Finally, BBC2 are showing "Best: His Mother's Son" this Sunday (26th April) at 9-10:30pm, it's described as a "Factual drama about how the glamour-studded career of Britain's most famous footballer destroyed the life not only of George Best himself, but also of the close-knit family that he had left behind in Belfast."

16th April 2009:- Today's "Revisited" showed Spurs v QPR, Leeds v Aston Villa and Derby v Forest plus the 12 best goals of the season. Site updates - According to an article in the Times, Tyne Tees were apparently prevented from showing 25/Oct/1980 Sunderland v Ipswich because "Sunderland made their own independent decision by banning Tyne-Tees cameras from Roker Park. It was not because they feared they might be exposed by Ipswich, but because of an agreement limiting coverage to two successive home games." Clips from 27/Sep/1975 Southampton v Portsmouth has turned up on youtube with Tyler commentating (which confirms this was the Southern game for that date, one source stated another match), there's also a clip of 02/Oct/1976 Southampton v Fulham, again called by Martin Tyler which would make this his last commentary for Southern before joining Yorkshire (Thanks Robin!!!). You can view the opening titles to the 1978 series Focus On Soccer here (Thanks Geoff!!!) and there's now a Home Internationals page up with details of the 1969 tournament.

9th April 2009:-  The latest "Big Match Revisited" from 1979 stuck with LWT coverage and showed Orient v Brighton, Leicester v Stoke and Liverpool v Arsenal. Site updates - We have a fabulous article on Granada Kick Off Match from a 12/Feb/1977 Everton programme here (Thanks to Julian Clark!!!). 30/Aug/1978 Blackpool 2 Ipswich Town 0 was the League Cup 2nd Round tie covered by Granada (Thanks Duncan!!!). Granada had no Kick Off Match from 21/Oct-03/Dec due to a union's dispute and, as we suspected, The Big Match was shown instead (Thanks to David Fisher!!!!). Highlights of the 1974 Cup-winners cup final are confirmed as being shown on BBC1.

2nd April 2009:- It was FA Cup Semi-final day on the latest edition of "Revisited" with Liverpool v Manchester United plus the Scottish League Cup final, Aberdeen v Rangers (Note that ITV4's weekend repeat is on Saturday, not Sunday). Big Match DVD's latest - Apparently there has been a late change to the artwork design which has delayed the release of the first volume to 27th April. Site updates - Tyne Tees covered Newcastle 5 Manchester United 1 on 04/Apr/1970 (Thanks to Graham Lamb!!!), I've added more references to various football shows on the 'Bits & Bobs' page in the last few weeks including LWT's Up For The Cup which looked back at FA Cup finals involving London clubs (Thanks Geoff!!!), I should mention that there was also another ITV series called Up For The Cup broadcast in the Autumn of 1980 which was hosted by David Hamilton with football personalities judging variety acts supplied by various teams supporters clubs, it only ran for one season. Also added further 2nd/3rd match 'keys' to the LWT page, it would appear that The Big Match did show two games on a number of occasions during its' first season of 1968/69 (MOTD was then still restricted to showing one game unless it was the FA Cup).