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Thanks to Andrew Berry, Andrew Boyd, Alan Buchanan, John Bourn, David Browne, Mark Bunn, Robin Carmody, Duncan Cavanagh, Julian Clark, Stuart Croucher, Kieran Cullen, Geoff Downs, Mark Eden, David Elson, Rodney George, Peter Gillatt, Daniel Gray, Glen Isherwood, Paul Johnson, Graham Keyte, Daniel Mann, Danny Morgan, Brian Mullowney, Robert Pedley, Steve Westby, Michael Whalley, David Williams, Steve Williams and Simon Winters.
 

Recent Site Updates

2nd May 2012:- The 22/Mar/1970 Sports Arena interview with Brian Clough has been uploaded here (Thanks Brian!!!)..... A 1989 BBC Wales Week In Week Out  documentary on Newport County is available to view here which includes footage from Newport County v Southampton from 30/Jan/1968, confirming that the game was shown on TV (Thanks to David Barron!!!)..... A 15 minute edit of ITV's coverage of the 1970 FA Cup final - match action only - is here...... Keith Macklin commentated on ITV's 1971 and 1973 FA Cup SF games for at least the Yorkshire region (Thanks Albert!!!).....  John Motson's book MOTD The Complete Record listed one match for 08/Feb/1969, Cardiff  City v Oxford United, and so we had presumed the cameras turning up at the last minute to cover Watford v Rotherham United must have been from LWT, this being one of only four matches that survived the weather that day, but in actual fact BBC1 had a "Grandstand" special on the Saturday night intending to show two FA Cup 5th Round ties plus some skating and they ended up showing both the Watford v Rotherham and Cardiff v Oxford games with David Coleman commentating at Watford and Maurice Edelston at Cardiff, so LWT must have either shown Southern's match between Portsmouth and Hull, or cancelled the programme altogether - LWT's own documentation would suggest the latter as there is no entry for that date whilst some other region's are listed as showing Southern's match. The BBC's Saturday night show still exists and you can watch part of it here (Thanks to Jeff Lewis!!!)

1st April 2012:- An article on ATV from a 07/Oct/1978 Birmingham City matchday programme is available here and a piece by Southern commentator David Bobin for the 25/Oct/1980 edition of the Brighton & Hove Albion matchday programme is here (Thanks to Kieran for scanning those!!!) A long list of missing commentator updates is here (Thanks to Andrew Boyd!!!) Gerald Sinstadt commentated on the 15/Apr/1972 FA Trophy Final between Stafford Rangers and Barnet, see here,  so he could not have done the FA Cup Semi-final between Stoke City and Arsenal for Granada viewers on the same day (Thanks to Andrew Berry!!!) Big Match Revisited repeats are available to view on-line on ITV player for up to 30 days after being screened on ITV4 on Saturday mornings here.

8th March 2012:- On Monday 19th May 1980 the Granada region showed "Mossley Goes to Wembley" which was a documentary on Mossley AFC's trip to the FA Trophy Final v Dagenham two days earlier - You can view the full programme on youtube here (Thanks to Stuart Vallantine!!!) 11/Dec/1971 Stoke City v Manchester United highlights, as broadcast as the 2nd match in the Granada region with Sinstadt's intro plus the closing titles is here, and the reverse fixture on 29/Apr/1972 - Manchester United v Stoke City - as re-broadcast on MUTV is here (Thanks to Philip Cooper!!!) The 27/Feb/1985 Spain v Scotland World Cup Qualifier was shown LIVE on BBC1 in Scotland (Thanks James!!!) Lots of missing commentators for Northern Ireland qualifiers and other details have been added to the 1986 World Cup page (Thanks to David Browne!!!) Missing commentators billed in the TVTimes for mid-1980's domestic matches also added (Thanks Robin!!!) The 25/May/1992 Play Off Final between Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City  was shown LIVE, but only in the Granada and Central regions (Thanks to Alex Tapp!!!) The 1982/83 Big Match Revisited repeats continue to be shown on ITV4 on Saturday mornings, but in ever earlier time slots.

16th February 2012:- A 53 minute documentary from RTE Frank O'Farrell: The Shadow of Busby is available to view here (Thanks Brian!!!). Some more Wales match commentators have been added for mid-80s internationals - note that 14/Nov/1984 Wales v Iceland was shown on HTV Wales as an opt out and the commentator on  01/Apr/1987 Wales v Finland was Gerry Harrison!, also 25/Oct/1978 Wales v Malta is confirmed as Bob Symonds and 17/Oct/1979 BBC West Germany v Wales was Idwal Robling (Thanks David!!!).... ATV's originally intended match for 22/Feb/1969 was the PP'd match between Coventry City and QPR (they went to Charlton v Villa instead), we know this because it's listed in an Australian newspaper - Star Soccer was shown on their Channel 9 stations from 1967/68 until 1972/73, then from 1973/74 it was on the Seven Network stations until 1978/79,  which coincides with the end of known ITC export reels. You can have a look through Australian newspapers online for free - The Sydney Morning Herald is here and "The Age" here  (Thanks Kieran!!!). 06/Mar/1985 Norwich v Ipswich [LC SF L2] with a bit of the MWSS opening titles is on youtube here (Thanks Steve!!!) The 22/May/1979 FIFA 75th friendly between Argentina v Netherlands mentioned here last month was definitely on ITV, Martin Tyler is commentating and it's just been uploaded to youtube here, it was probably shown on the Home International highlights programme that night, if not then the Thursday night UEFA Cup final show. And thanks to Dan for clearing up exactly what happened with ITV on the night of 23/Oct/1991. The Big Match Revisited 1982/83 series is being repeated on ITV4 from Saturday 18th February at 9am (or 10am on ITV4+1).

1st February 2012:- Quite a lot of missing commentators, corrections and other bits and pieces on the international pages this month -Firstly a bunch of stuff mostly relating to Northern Ireland but also other info regards coverage of World Cup and Euro finals going back to 1958 which are all detailed on this .doc file (Thanks to David Browne!!!)...... We've also updated details for many of the Wales internationals on the 1986 World Cup and Euro 88 pages and note that the 2nd half of Bulgaria v South Korea in Mexico '86 *WAS* shown LIVE, not just highlights, and this match also happened to be Tony Gubba's first live football commentary (Thanks to David Williams!!!).....  Added many missing commentators for the 1986 World Cup finals and a list of ITV's Wembley Schoolboy Internationals here (Thanks to Glen Isherwood!!!)...... Additional info also added for the Euro '88 page, mostly missing co-commentators and studio guests (Thanks to Andrew and Robin!!!) .....  Does anybody out there remember seeing highlights on ITV or BBC of a game between Argentina and the Netherlands played on 22/May/1979? It finished 0-0 and Argentina then won a penalty shoot out. The match was played in Switzerland to mark the 75th anniversary of FIFA........ On the domestic front - A Granada Kick Off retrospective presented by Elton Welsby as part of "Granada's Footy Weekend" in November 1997 has recently been uploaded to youtube here (Thanks Andrew!!!)......  As we suspected, the Manchester United "Passback Through History" 8 DVD box set is an expanded version of the "Classics" volume, a full list of matches included on the 'Passback' set has now been added to the foot of of our DVD page here (Thanks Gordon!!!)...... There's a "Big Match Revisited" Facebook page here (Thanks Alan!!!)..... A youtube channel which collects together existing video uploads and organises them all into individual season's in alphabetical order is here  (Thanks to Dan Macklin!!!)......  Lists of ITV's LIVE games broadcast as The Match from 1988/89 - 1991/92 can now be viewed on the site here (Thanks to Steve Williams for spotting a couple of live midweek games I overlooked - including the Granada/YTV/Ulster only 08/Jan/1992 League Cup QF) ........ "Backpass" magazine issue 20 included a feature on Anglia's Match of the Week, an article on ATV's Star Soccer is due to be covered in the next issue..... And finally, all of the regional pages now include 1968-1983 badges of all their local teams which I think rather nicely  breaks up the text introductions.

1st January 2012:-
Some Midweek Sports Special action has been uploaded to youtube from 1983 which includes the break-bumber and Brian Moore's intro together with highlights of 02/Feb/1982 Norwich City v Coventry City [FA Cup] here..... DVD alert! Two 8 disc box sets have been released for Liverpool and Manchester United by Sports Classics and apparently contain ITV footage up to 1990, these may be expanded versions of the releases mentioned on this page on 8th March 2011, the Liverpool set is called "A Shot Through History" see here whilst the United volume is titled "A Passback Through History" see here (Thanks Brian!!!). As this is a Euro's year, I thought I'd better get a page up on Euro 88 here, it only offers the basic details but all the known TV broadcast info is up, there's also a similarly stark page available for the 1986 World Cup here (Thanks to Rob Howell and Robin for their help with these pages!!!). Brian Moore was a guest on the LWT Saturday morning kids programme "Our Show" on 07/Jan/1978 alongside Kenny Everett and Pierre the Clown, it was only seen in the London and Southern regions but does apparently still exist (Thanks Robin!!!). Some more youtube video's... 05/Apr/1975 Fulham v Birmingham City [FA Cup SF] is here, 04/Feb/1978 Fulham v Spurs here, 06/Feb/1985 Chelsea v Sheff Wed [League Cup QF 2nd Replay] here, 16/Feb/1985 Everton v Telford Utd [FA Cup R5] with Peter Brackley commentating and NOT Martin Tyler here, 28/Oct/1987 Wimbledon v Newcastle Utd [League Cup] here and 09/Jan/1988 Yeovil v QPR [FA Cup] here (Thanks to Mark Bunn for those!!!) and there's ten minutes of highlights from the 1970 World Cup QF between Uruguay and Soviet Union with Roger Malone's commentary here (Thanks Al Sarpong!!!)

4th December 2011:- An edition of the ATV schools programme 'Watch Your Language' entitled "Watching Games" included Hugh Johns who was seen commentating on 03/Feb/1979 Wolves v Everton along with a teenager who had won a TV Times commentators' competition - Craig Shepherd - doing his own commentary in the gantry. Hugh was also shown talking to Shepherd about commentary and explaining his technique. The programme was first transmitted on 06/Mar/1979 (Thanks Robin!!!).  A BBC Sportsnight match which was missing from our midweek lists was 21/Nov/1973 Sunderland 0 Liverpool 2 [League Cup R3]. In the Yorkshire TV region, Derek Dougan doubled up a as a co-commentator alongside John Helm for at least some games during the 1981/82 season, you can see an example here from 29/Aug/1981 in a game between Rotherham United and Norwich City  (Thanks Brian!!!).  A couple of Cup final items - ITV's trailer for the 1979 FA Cup final with Brian Moore and Dickie Davies has been uploaded to youtube here and ITV's intro to the 1986 FA Cup final proceeded by TVS in-vision continuity here (Thanks to Chris Gilmore!!!). A 20 minute Anglia report looking at Norwich City's rise to the top flight in 1972 with interviews with the key personalities involved, narrated by Gerry Harrison is here.

1st November 2011: The full 1971 League Cup final highlights programme is currently on youtube here. We don't normally mention Scottish European ties shown exclusively north of the border, but 17/Mar/1976 Sachsenring Zwickau 1 Celtic 0 [ECWC QF L2] was shown LIVE on STV that afternoon (Thanks to Mark Jones!!!). The screen shot of Martin Tyler above comes from his spell with Yorkshire TV, seen here presenting a local news goals round up in October 1980, also Roger Malone pops up on the "Bristol City The Glory Years" documentary here (Thanks Brian!!!). The Yorkshire TV production "Return of the Champions" broadcast in the YTV region only on 29/Jul/1985 (10:30-11:00pm as a late change) includes interviews with the 1966 World Cup winning team and higlights of their charity match v West Germany at Elland Road (played the previous day for the Bradford fire disaster fund), you can watch the full programme on youtube here . Some Luton Town video's:- 13/Dec/1975 Luton v WBA here, 25/Oct/1980 Cambridge v Luton here and 11/Oct/1986 Luton v Norwich with full opening titles and intro here, also 04/Oct/1986 Wimbledon v Liverpool here (Thanks to Mark Bunn for those!!!)  The missing BBC midweek Sportsnight match for 11/Sep/1974 was Aston Villa 1 Everton 1 [League Cup R2] with Barry Davies (Thanks to Andrew Deane!!!). A Good quality upload of the 17/Nov/1976 Italy v England World Cup qualifier with an Italian commentary is here (Thanks to David Butler!!!). An extended Peter Brackley report on 04/Oct/1983 Wimbledon v Nottingham Forest [LC R2 L1] presumably from the following night's MWSS introduced by Steve Rider is here, and a list of commentator updates here (Thanks to Andrew Boyd for these!!!) and finally a question and answer article with Gerald Sinstadt from a Manchester City matchday programme dated 24/Mar/1973 is here and also an article on The Kick Off Match from another Manchester City programme on 21/02/1976 here (Thanks Kieran!!!).

3rd October 2011:- ITV's midweek featured games for 19/Sep/1984 are confirmed as Manchester United v Rába Gyor and Nottingham Forest v Club Brugge, see the trailer for Midweek Sports Special uploaded to youtube here (Thanks Robin!!!). Backpass magazine is now serialising articles on ITV regional football coverage, issue 17 had a general overview whilst issue 18 looks at LWT's "The Big Match", the Granada region is due to be covered in issue 19 (Thanks Kieran!!!). According to the World of Sport Annual published at the end of 1978: "During the Home International match between Scotland and England last May pictures were lost completely during a spell in the second half. The main line failed - so too did the back up. The only way out was to take BBC pictures whilst the faults were traced and corrected. Everybody in the 'gallery', where the programme is produced, had their fingers crossed that BBC would not put on a caption - 'Grandstand', or a score line. If they did the game would have been given away. They didn't. The fault was traced and temperatures lowered, slightly. The BBC would have been monitoring World of Sport's coverage and realised they'd lost their pictures. Etiquette demanded they leave off captions, after all, the same could happen to them five minutes later. But these are the hazards. No-one can predict them." (Thanks to Matt Poole for that!!!) And finally, the 16/Nov/1975 Sunday afternoon edition of Scotsport was extended to include live coverage of the Euro 76 qualifier between Romania and Spain as this had direct implications for Scotland who needed Romania to win, but the match ended in a 2-2 draw securing Spain top spot and a passage into the quarter-finals. The other matches featured on the programme were highlights of Hearts 1 Dundee 1 and Everton 1 Manchester City 1 (Thanks to Mark Jones!!!)
 

A new ILC media DVD is set for release, Leeds United Big Match Volume Two is scheduled for 10th September 2011 via Club Store and 19th September 2011 via all other retailers. The line-up is; 13/Dec/1969 Leeds 2 Sheff Wed  0 / 22/Aug/1970 Leeds 3 Everton  2, 03/Oct/1970 Leeds  2 Huddersfield  0, 28/Nov/1970 Leeds  1 Man City  0,  26/Dec/1970 Leeds  3 Newcastle  0,  30/Jan/1971 Man City 0 Leeds 2,  20/Mar/1971 Leeds 2 C Palace  1, 14/Aug/1971 Man City 0 Leeds 1,  06/Nov/1971 Leeds 2 Leicester  1, 27/Nov/1971  Nott'm F 0 Leeds 2, 19/Aug/1972  Leeds 2 West Brom  0, 09/Dec/1972  Leeds 1 West Ham  0,  15/Dec/1973  Chelsea 1 Leeds 2,  14/Dec/1974 Leeds 3 Stoke 1, 16/Aug/1975 Aston Villa 1Leeds 2, 08/Nov/1975 Leeds  3 Newcastle 0,  27/Dec/1975 Leeds  4 Leicester 0,  24/Feb/1979 West Brom 1 Leeds  2 & 07/Nov/1981 Leeds 1 Notts County 0.

1st September 2011:- A full length edition of The Big Match from 28/Apr/1974 is currently available on youtube here, it includes the goal of the season competition as well as Man Utd v Man City, Birmingham v Norwich and York v Oldham (Thanks Brian!!!). According to the "World of Sport Almanack 1972" book, 18/Sep/1971 Middlesbrough 1 Cardiff City 0 was one of ITV's televised matches that weekend, the game must have been covered by Yorkshire TV.  We previously had YTV down as showing Granada's fixture but that was probably their 2nd match. The same book also lists a previously missing Tyne Tees match for 26/Sep/1971 - Sunderland 4 Preston NE 3 - and also throws some doubt over Sunday Times listed games for Tyne Tees on 15/Jan/1972 and 15/Apr/1972 as well as YTV's entry for 01/Jan/1972.  (Thanks to Mark Jones who recently managed to get hold of a copy of this book on ebay!!!)

7th August 2011:- ITV's 20/Dec/1972 League Cup SF choice was Wolves 1 Spurs 2, Pratt's goal was later selected for the Goal of the Season competition on The Big Match (Thanks Brian for spotting that one!!!). You can watch the opening 22 minutes of the 26/Mar/1983 edition of Anglia's Match of the Week here, this includes the title sequence, studio introductions (with news of the League Cup final read by Steve Rider) and highlights of Norwich City v West Ham United. A late addition to the Midweek Sports Special bill on 01/Feb/1984 was Norwich v Spurs [FA Cup R4 Replay] and you can watch the full highlights with a post match interview with Mick Channon here. There's more Midweek Sports Special action of 16/Jan/1985 Grimsby Town v Norwich City [League Cup QF] here and Big Match highlights of 27/Apr/1985 Leeds United v Oxford United including a pre-match interview with Jim Smith plus a look at the table afterwards and a small piece about Oxford's ground problems with Brian Moore here (Thanks to Mark Bunn for sending in the links of all of these recent youtube uploads!!!) BBC1 NI's Wednesday night coverage of 12/Oct/1977 Northern Ireland v Netherlands (in a late programme change at 8:05-9:25pm) was not live as previously thought, the game had actually kicked off at 3pm, so this would have been highlights - probably at the end of live 2nd half coverage of Wales v Scotland.  (Thanks Danny!!!)

16th July 2011:- I've spent the last month or so re-living the 1978 World Cup - The Argentina' 78 page has now been updated to include screen grabs, match details, a section on the qualifiers, post-match manager comments from Don Revie and Ron Greenwood and details of the draw for the finals. Some Youtube links - The goals from 09/Feb/1977 England 0 Netherlands 2 can be viewed on an excellent channel of Holland footage here, an ITV ad break from May 1978 including the "World Cup Plus" branding and an ad for the World Cup TVTimes is here and full ITV coverage of the final is available in 14 parts starting here. There's also a terrific youtube upload of HTV's programme for the 05/Dec/1981 match between Swindon Town v Bristol City here, this includes an additional local news report on the crowd trouble (Thanks to Michael for spotting this!!!)

17th June 2011:- BBC commentator Idwal Robling had died at the age of 84 following a short illness, see the BBC Wales tribute here. David Williams has also written this short tribute.....

"As somebody who knew and worked alongside Idwal on a number of occasions in the 1980's I'd like to offer a few words.
It was sometimes said that the only reason Idwal Robling got the casting vote over Ian St John in the "Find a Commentator" competition was because Alf Ramsey would never vote for a Scotsman but anybody who thought that Idwal won by default was very much mistaken, as Idwal spent the next 15 years as the voice of football on BBC Wales. In those days of limited football coverage he was largely restricted to the occasional MOTD opt-out, Welsh Cup game or international friendly, but Cardiff and Wrexham's exploits in the ECWC in the 1970s gave him some memorable European nights against the likes of Real Madrid, Hadjuk Split and Anderlecht.  On the international scene, he commentated on the highs and lows of Welsh football. His biggest disappointment was the home defeat in the 1978 WCQ against Scotland (courtesy of Joe Jordan's handball), but in the 1976 ECQ he had seen Wales become the first team in 30 years to beat Hungary in the Nep stadium, declaring almost incredulously as John Mahoney scored the second goal"and it's 2-0 to Wales...IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT!" (probably his most remembered line of commentary for Welsh fans), and his final international gave him Mark Hughes' wondergoal in a 3-0 win in the 1986 WCQ against Spain.  It was fitting that he should live to see Swansea win promotion back to the top-flight, as their 5-1 demolition of Leeds Utd on the opening day of the 1981-82 season had given him a rare top-billing on the network MOTD.
An unassuming, but very shrewd man, he was one of that golden generation of regional commentators of the 1970s so fondly remembered by those of us who lived through those times."

The 28/Jan/1976 Mid-week Match on ITV is now 100% confirmed as Stoke City 1 Manchester City 0 with Hugh Johns commentating, Newcastle 5 Coventry City 0 was definitely NOT shown on the programme and it would seem highly unlikely that Tyne Tees had their own show - so I think we can now rule that game out  (Thanks Julian!!!). World Cup 82 page updates, Barry Davies did the Poland v Soviet Union match and he became rather outraged at the police and stadium officials trying to remove the Solidarity banners from the Polish fans after complaints from Soviet TV.  Davies also covered the three 1st round New Zealand games live for TVNZ - In his book he recalled having a blazing row with BBC Senior Producer Mike Murphy after he had overran his half-time wrap to talk to NZ  where the same commentary was being used for the BBC highlights,  Davies said he had received permission to do so but Murphy had "forgotten".  Whatever the case, Davies claimed "If I had any chance of doing the final, it disappeared that night in Malaga." The 1982 Welsh Cup final 1st & 2nd leg were covered by BBC Wales, there was also an English interest in this as it affected Southampton's chances of getting a UEFA Cup place, Swansea - finishing 6th in the top flight - would have qualified for that competition had they lost, so highlights were also screened on the network "Sportsnight". Some Scottish/Welsh European ties confirmed for Autumn 1985, plus 16/Sep/1987 Merthyr v Atalanta on S4C (Thanks to David Williams for that lot!!!) Border TV - as well as STV & Grampian - showed 15/Dec/1982 Belgium 3 Scotland 2 LIVE, Jock Brown & Ian St John were the commentators (Thanks Rob!!!).

1st June 2011:- Backpass magazine will be running a series of articles on regional ITV football in the 60s'/70's, Matt Eastley has already interviewed Martin Tyler, Gerald Sinstadt, John Helm, Gary Newbon, Paul Doherty, Robert Charles, Jeff Foulser and Bob Gardam and hopes to interview Gerry Harrison soon (Thanks Matt!!!). Lots of missing commentators, 70's Wrexham European games and youtube spots have been sent in by Andrew Boyd - there's too much to go through here but you can have a look through Andrew's list in notepad form, I will mention here that ITV's excellent "The People's Final" documentary on the history of the League Cup tx'd 21/Apr/1991 cen be viewed at this link (Thanks again Andrew!!!!). A 1985 article on TV coverage found in the programme for the postponed live TV match between Watford and Manchester United on 20/Jan/1985 can be read here and (page 2) here (Thanks to Mark Bunn!!!). Neither ITV or the BBC were able to cover any games at West Ham during the early part of the 1974/75 season because of a dispute with the local council over the parking of OB vans outside the ground! (Thanks to Duncan for spotting that snippet of info in a West Ham matchday programme). Two further Wrexham ECWC broadcasts - the BBC in Wales apparently showed highlights of 27/Sep/1978 Wrexham v Rijeka, notable for the Yugoslav side fielding deaf and dumb player Damir Desnica (Thanks David Williams!!!) also a rare 1980's 2nd half LIVE broadcast occurred on S4C on 01/Oct/1986 when they showed Wrexham v Zurrieq (Thanks Brian!!!). The Home Internationals page is now complete with details added for 1982, 1983 and 1984. One thing I forgot to mention after reading Brian Moore's autobiography was that he re-did his commentary on the 1970 FA Cup final replay some 25-30 years later as the original was lost (Thanks to Al for the reminder!!!).

16th May 2011:- Bob McNab appeared in an episode of "On the buses" first broadcast by LWT on 02/Mar/1973, titled "The Football Match" and recently repeated on ITV3 (Thanks to David Williams!!!). Martin Tyler says that he commentated for Yorkshire TV on 21/Aug/1976 Arsenal v Bristol City - which oddly enough was YTV's main game on that opening Saturday - Presumably this was Tyler's first job for Yorkshire before landing the commentator role with YTV on a permanent basis a few months later.  A youtube upload of Hugh Johns commentating on 19/Sep/1984 Wrexham v Porto is here, this must have been shown on Midweek Sports Special, the game was shown live on S4C with a welsh commentary (Thanks Dan!!!). Midweek TV coverage details for season's 1986/87 and 1987/88 are now complete.