Notts on the box

Notts on the box

Introduction "Notts on the box" attempts to catalogue all extended highlights and live broadcasts of Notts County football club matches. I have decided, for the sake of sanity, not to include brief goals-only reports unless they are of special significance. BBC coverage is highlighted in Red, ITV matches are in Blue, Sky broadcasts in Green, and Cinema newsreels are in Brown. Entries in purple italics are the product of vague memories and educated guess work. Given dates are that of the matchday and not necessarily when the game was aired.

Select your era

1902-1969

The 1970's The 1980's

The 1990's The 2000's

The 2010's

For televised football in general...

(C)2001 - 2009 Up the Maggies
First Published on the Web, March 2001.

Updates
Last update:-

October 2009:- Details of various archive TV reports have been added including:- August 1957 interviews with Tommy Lawton, Frank Broome and captain Ron Wylie on the Meadow Lane pitch, 1963 reports on Eddie Lowe taking over as manager and the departure of Tony Hateley to Aston Villa, December 1965 report on Andy Beattie's first day at the club, March 1971 interview with Tony Hateley (now back at Notts) for a Friday "ATV Today" weekend sport preview, April 1971 report showing the Notts team at an airport about to fly to the Workington game, 1972 Tommy Lawton interview for ATV, April 1975 report on the violence at the end-of-season match v Manchester United, November 1975 interviews with Ron Fenton and Les Bradd after the Everton League Cup win, an October 1977 ATV report on the return of Jimmy Sirrel as manager, July 1977 report on Pedro Richards being 8 days late back for pre-season training, the July 1978 demolition of the old Meadow Lane end and March 1979 Jimmy Sirrel interview on the contrast in support and finances between Notts and Forest. I also have good reason to believe that footage of County's first ever home match to be covered by ITV v Walsall in September 1972 still exists, albeit as a black & white off-tube film recording.

July 2009:- Details of season 2008/09 now up, also added a new page for the 2010's (beginning with the forthcoming 2009/10 season).
November 2008:- Highlights of 30/Oct/1994 Norwich 1 Notts 0 [League Cup R4] was shown in the Anglia region on "Anglia Sport Special" with Peter Brackley commentating.
June 2008:- Added further details and screen grabs to 20/Sep/1980 Bristol City 0 Notts 1 and 18/Apr/1981 Notts 0 Preston 0.
March 2008:- Two missing ITV games added; 04/Dec/1976 Southampton 2 Notts 1 was covered by Southern and 19/Jan/1980 Notts 0 Leicester 1 was covered by ATV. Opponents scorers are now also being added. TV coverage of the League Cup clash at Derby on 22/Sep/1976 is now questionable as ITV documentation only mentions Aston Villa v Norwich being covered by ATV that night.
February 2008:- 15/Apr/1978 Sunderland 3 Notts 1 is confirmed as having highlights broadcast in the Tyne Tees region.
January 2008:- BBCtv began regular highlights (of 5 minutes) in 1954 when they launched "Saturday Sports Special". ITV experimented with a live league match in 1960. Jimmy Greaves joined ATV's "Star Soccer" for season 1980/81 and Sky began showing live games from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier from season 1996/97.
December 2007:- The programme featuring an interview with Claude Bishop (previously alluded to in the newsreels section) was in fact shown on Channel 4 on 15th March 1983 as part of the series "The Years Ahead". Some televised matches (1983-91) are now being linked to individual pages that offer team line-ups etc.
September 2007:- BBC news showed a report of Notts 2 Swansea City 3 on 12/09/1981.
July 2007:- Sad to hear the news that Hugh Johns (ITV Midlands "Star Soccer" commentator 1968-82) died in June, he was 83. All sections of "Notts on the box" have been subject to minor updates over the past month, two notable 1970's additions are reports/coverage of the December 1974 goalless draw at Cardiff City and the 3-1 defeat at Sunderland in April 1978. Also thanks to Mark Bunn for e-mailing in details of a Notts appearance on a live "Match of the Day - The Road to Wembley" programme in January 1995 - Whilst most of us were at the match, BBC1 showed highlights of the drawn Manchester City cup tie at half-time and full-time of the Blackburn v Newcastle match.
November 2006:- Two 1980's Notts appearances on Match of the Day have recently been repeated on the ESPN Classic Sport channel and revealed missing commentators from our '80s page:- Tony Gubba held the microphone at Bristol City in Sep/1980 (Thanks to Daniel Mann for e-mailing this info) and for the Preston home match of Apr/1981 - David Coleman was on duty (Thanks to Darren Ferris). Other repeats this year on ESPN have included Notts v Chelsea from 80/81 and Notts v Watford 83/84.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to Steve Westby, Richard Hucknall, Mark Golley, Nigel Nattrass, Steve Parker, Alan Coulthard, Stephen Parnham, Mark Chaplin, David Murden, Warren Davis, John Bourn, Mark Bunn, Wendy Lewis, Paul Wain, Tom Loakes, Andrew Collinson, Peter Taylor, Julian Clark, Steve Williams, Luke Redel, Rodney George, Geoff Downs & anyone else whose name I've mislaid for their invaluable help in compiling this list.