Shoot

Tyne Tees Television (North East) Football Highlights 1962-83
The North East was the very first ITV region in England to begin showing regular football highlights when the original series of Shoot was broadcast in a 25 minute slot from Sunday 26th September 1962, moving to Saturdaynights two weeks later. Later, the programme was expanded to 55 minutes and moved back to Sunday afternoon's, but it wasn't until 1977 that Shoot included the added attraction of a 2nd and 3rd match covered by the other regions. Presentation was moved from the ground to the studio that same year.

Tyne Tees commentators and presenters
1962 - Mid 1960's
George Taylor was the original face of Shoot, and he was still presenting the programme when its' 21 year run came to and end in 1983, he had also served as the regular commentator in the 1960's and continued to voice the odd match until 1973/74. Died in December 2020 aged 94. Read an interview with George here.
Mid 1960's - ?May 1969?*
George Bayley was originally a golf correspondent, he became better known nationally as the North East football correspondent for BBC Radio's Sports Report. He also hosted Radio Newcastle's sports programmes.
August 1969 - May 1973
Jeff Thomas - An Australian commentator who left Tyne Tees to return to his homeland.
August 1973 - May 1974
David Taylor - Like Gerry Harrison at Anglia, Taylor had entered the BBC's "Find a commentator" competition in 1969. He initially worked on Shoot as a post-match summariser following a trial commentary for the station in May 1969, losing out to Jeff Thomas. Read an interview with David here.
August 1974 - May 1979
Kenneth Wolstenholme was 54 when he joined Tyne Tees having been the voice of the BBC's televised football in the 1950's and '60's. A former RAF Bomber pilot during the 2nd World War, the Lancashire born Bolton Wanderers fan joined BBC Television in 1948 and went on to describe 23 successive FA Cup finals and 5 World Cup tournaments, including England's triumphant 1966 success in which he delivered the most famous commentary soundbite of all time. His final commentary for the BBC was the 1971 European Cup Final and following his 5 year stint at Tyne Tees he went into semi-retirement before making a comeback with Channel 4 - reporting on their Italian League coverage. He died in 2002 at the age of 81.
March 1979 - May 1983
Roger Tames first joined Tyne Tees in 1976 as a reporter from the Dagenham Post, the Arsenal fan commentated on a couple of matches for Shoot towards the end of the 1978/79 season before taking over full-time from the start of 1979/80, he continued to work for the station long after the end of Shoot in 1983, voicing reports for "The Goal Rush" (2001-2004) and presenting the last ever local ITV sports production (Soccer Night) in May 2008, he then occasionally commentated on FA Cup highlights for ITV until 2014.

The Tyne Tees region's league teams 1962-1983
Newcastle United, Sunderland, Middlesbrough*, Darlington and Hartlepools United.
*Yorkshire Television cameras would also turn up at Ayresome Park, although by 1978 they appeared to have conceded that Middlesbrough were a Tyne Tees club.

What matches were shown
The following season links detail all the known Saturday matches recorded by Tyne Tees cameras for local highlights, the re-edits of other region's matches are not included here (see the other region's pages for those). For midweek games (which were networked) go here, for full details of networked Wembley Cup finals go here and for European finals see here. Given dates are for when the fixture was played (not the broadcast). In the 1970's, Tyne Tees were often forced to show LWT's The Big Match if their sole ob unit had been required for horse racing. Non-North East based matches are in italics.