An article on Star Soccer

As published in the Matchday programme for Aston Villa v Birmingham City, 1st October 1977

PRESS CALL
Local derby matches such as this afternoon’s battle for ‘Second City’ pride are generally regarded as ‘private’ occasions for the supports involved. But that’s not the case in this age of world-wide communications. Today’s happenings at Villa Park will be screened on ATV’s Star Soccer programme tomorrow afternoon… and then shown in FORTY countries around the globe.

The front men in an outside broadcast that will be watched by countless millions of home viewers are three well-known faces on commercial television in the Midlands. Billy Wright is overall boss in his role as ATV’s Head of Sport and Outside Broadcasts. The commentator is Hugh Johns, also a newspaper journalist for the Sunday People and a regular mid-week sports presenter for Harlech TV. The link-man and interviewer is Gary Newbon, Sports Editor of ATV.

As the overall controller of all sports on the ATV network, Billy Wright is now he man who makes the executive decisions. His most important job, of course, is the choice of matches, a complicated business which starts at the beginning of each season when negotiators from the BBC and ITV get together to sort out the pattern for a fair share of the big matches.

“A coin is tossed to see which company has the first choice in the opening month,” says Billy. “We then alternate each month during the season. When it’s our turn, we have the first choice, the BBC take the second choice, the third comes back to us and the fourth goes to the BBC. There is also a roster for mid-week coverage which amounts to about 14 matches each. Everything is worked out on a friendly basis and there is certainly no animosity.”

But that is only the first stage of a process that sometimes makes Billy and his colleagues the target for criticism that they show some clubs more than others. “It is impossible to please everyone because of the contractual requirements established with the Football League,” says Billy. “We have to cover 21 First Division games, seven in the Second Division and two from the Third or Fourth Divisions. This season, in fact, is giving me my biggest problem since Star Soccer started. With eight teams from our region now in the First Division, I am left with only three Second Division clubs, Stoke, Notts County and Mansfield, from which to find virtually one match per month. Then we must think about other clubs such as Port Vale, Walsall, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Oxford and Swindon. This explains why we might be showing a comparatively minor match on a weekend when people could point out two or three big games from the First Division.
The matches are usually selected about a month in advance. Sometimes the choice is easy, but this season we have an unusually large number of local derbies in the area. Personally, I don't think these games are what they were and I try to keep away from them unless there is a special attraction or story. Mind you I have always gone for Villa v Blues because there is a big crowd and quite often a fair number of goals"

Apart from soccer, Billy is involved with most sports in his capacity as Head of Outside Broadcasts. Racing, Wrestling, Boxing, Speedway and Golf are among the major subjects, but the Sunday Sport series in the summer has taken him to Canoeing, Rowing, Motor Cycle Racing, Athletics. Motor Racing, Show Jumping and Hydroplane Racing. "I have always been interested in sport outside football,” he says. “And I have really enjoyed the variations since I moved into the background. While I enjoyed my time in front of the camera, there is a great thrill in my present Job. Responsibility keeps you on your toes."

For commentator Hugh Johns, the main task is sharp identification of players and a keen anticipation of the game's flow. “I have to do my homework for every single game,” he says. “I study in detail all the matches played by each club prior to the game we are featuring. I check appearance records, goalscorers and look for reports in newspapers or attend matches myself in mid-week. In some ways I am rather like a manager looking for points on the future opposition. I try to remember whether players are left sided or right sided, who is likely to shoot from outside the box, who is likely to profit from knock-downs in the six-yard area. Then I study dead-ball situations, corners and free-kicks, and look for how various players works set movements. The object is to try and be a fraction of a second ahead of the action. It doesn’t always work, of course, but it does help. Obviously, I’m more familiar with First Division players and it is more difficult if we go to a Third Division ground. Then I sometimes go to watch one of the sides training or catch one of them in a mid-week fixture.”

Hugh, who lives in Cardiff, travels to the Midlands on Friday nights in order to avoid the dangers of being caught by bad weather or a breakdown on Saturday morning. He has one alarming memory of a day when did travel in Saturday. “The match was Arsenal v Sheffield Wednesday in London,” he recalls. “I was travelling by train, but heavy snow caused long delays. Eventually, I arrived at Paddington desperately late and on reaching Arsenal Station, I ran from there to the ground and got to my seat just as the referee was starting the game. After all that, would you believe the game was abandoned because of snow at half-time?”

Star Soccer is introduced by Gary Newbon. He is in charge of the editorial production, selecting who should be interviewed and choosing the second match which comes from the output of regional companies. Although Gary is the face you see on your screens, he says: “I’m just part of a big team. More than 30 people are involved in the programme. Apart from cameramen, technicians and riggers for the equipment, the main personalities are the Director in Charge of Production from the control van at the ground and former Evening Mail man John Killeen, who is in charge of the editing at the ATV Centre. The director has three cameras and all through the match he his talking to the cameramen and selecting which picture to take. Where his fingers flick a switch is where it is decided what picture you will see at home. The pictures are transmitted along G.P.O. lines to the studio. There, John Killeen is logging the match minute by-minute, marking points for editing with the help of a video editor and video operator.”

Gary, with fingers crossed, says ATV have never missed a goal yet, but did whisper that one company, in the late 1950's, edited a goal out of an international match film. He also tells an amusing story from a Star Soccer match shown in Japan earlier this season. "I heard about it from one of our film cameramen who stopped off in Tokyo on his way home from a job in Australia,” says Gary. "He saw Star Soccer was on television and decided to have a look, knowing that the Japanese take our entire programme as distinct from most countries which use the version you see at home. Well, one of the dangers here is that our private talk is on this unedited film. And it seems that the Japanese don't touch a thing. So our cameraman heard something like this as we were going through the teams - 'Birmingham show three changes today’ Then a voice came over:  'Do it again.' Followed by the reply: 'Oh, !!!!'"
 

PEESONAL FILE

BILLY WRIGHT was born in Ironbridge, Salop, and joined Wolves at 14, playing for them between 1938 and 1959, and winning 105 England caps, 90 of them as captain. He was awarded the C.B.E. for his services to football in 1959 and then joined the Football Association as a staff coach. In 1962, he became Arsenal's manager and, after three-and-a-hall years at Highbury, he joined ATV. He is married to Joy Beverley, of the famous Beverley Sisters, and lives in North London. He has two children, Vicky (18) and Babette (13), who are also progressing in show business. Together with Sacha, the daughter of Teddy Beverley, they are singing in a harmony group called Beverley Rainbow.

HUGH JOHNS comes from a Pembrokeshire family, but was educated at Watford Grammar School, where the Maths and Games Master was Sir Stanley Rous. He also went to school in Farnham, Surrey, and after service in the Fleet Air Arm, during the war, it seemed he was set for a career on the stage. He was a professional in the theatre, but later started working with local newspapers. He went on to journalistic jobs in Southend and London and is now the Welsh Sports correspondent for the Sunday People. Hugh and his wife, Joan, have a son, Mark (25), who is assistant manager at the Excelsior Hotel, Glasgow.

GARY NEWBON was born in Cambridge and at Culford School, near Bury St. Edmunds, he was in the same class as BBC Match of the Day commentator John Motson. Alter editing the school magazine, he broke into journalism with an agency in Cambridge. Later he reported Rugby internationals and Wimbledon for the
Sunday Mirror and then switched to soccer coverage with a London sports agency. At 23, he joined Westward TV, introducing a twice-weekly Sports Desk on which Trevor Francis made his first television appearance while a much-prized player in Plymouth schoolboy football. Gary and his wife, Katie, have three children, Claire (2) and twin boys Laurence and Neil.