Jeff Stelling

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Jeff Stelling is a British sport television presenter, currently hosting Soccer Saturday and Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Stelling was brought up in the North-East town of Hartlepool, and is a lifelong supporter of his hometown side, although he admitted to Sky Sports News viewers, he always looked out for his second team Burnley F.C.. After an apprenticeship on the local newspaper his first broadcasting position was as a reporter on Middlesbrough F.C. on Radio Tees. He was a sports presenter on London's LBC Radio "Sportswatch" programme in the early 1980s before moving to BBC Radio 2's weekend sports programme Sport On 2, covering the Los Angeles and Seoul Olympic games. He later spent time as a sports newsreader at TV-am, Channel 4, Eurosport and British Satellite Broadcasting before moving to Sky in 1992 to present coverage of horse racing, snooker and darts). In 1995 Stelling became presenter of Sports Saturday, which became Soccer Saturday in 1998, hosting a programme lasting up to six hours of football discussion and live reports on the afternoon's games with a panel of pundits including George Best, Frank McLintock, Chris Kamara and Rodney Marsh. Much of the programme's popularity is put down to Stelling, The Guardian praising him for "exceptional professionalism and élan"[1] and When Saturday Comes describing him as "perhaps the best sports presenter on British TV".

Stelling rarely appears on terrestrial television, despite known offers to become the face of ITV Sport, although in 2003 he won a sports presenter special edition of The Weakest Link. In 2005, Stelling was offered by the BBC to front Score — their new Saturday results service. Stelling rejected the offer and the job was given to Ray Stubbs

At the start of the 2005-06 Premiership football season, Stelling replaced Ian Payne as the host of Sky Sports' Ford Monday Night Football programme. However, Stelling's appointment coincided with a new, shorter format of the programme, with Stelling presenting the show live from the ground of that evening's game. Previously, the show had been presented from a studio, and had featured some coverage of the prior weekend's games. Moreover, in previous years on Monday nights without a live game, a "Monday Night Football Special" would be broadcast, which included only the analysis from the weekend's games. This appears to have been dropped from the 2005-06 season, indicating that Stelling's appointment is to a smaller role than that held by his predecessors.

Stelling's popularity has risen remarkably over the past two years with a solid fanbase forming. The aptly named "Jeff Stelling Appreciation Society" on Facebook has more than 10,000 members to date and is continuing to grow.

In November 2007 he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Teesside.[2]

[edit] One-liners used on Soccer Saturday

Stelling often delivers one-liners if a player with a certain name appears on the vidiprinter. Examples include the following:[citation needed]

  • "He's a PLASTERER by trade..."
  • Similarly, he says 'Sally will be pleased' whenever former Montrose player Kevin Webster scores.
  • Stelling almost always refers to former Gretna striker Kenny Deuchar as 'The Good Doctor', whenever he scores. This is due to Deuchar actually being a qualified doctor, and a possible reference to Doctor Who.
  • Whenever a player called Stephenson scores, Jeff says "I bet that was a rocket".
  • When James Brown scored for Hartlepool, Jeff sang "I feel good".
  • When a passage of play in a Wigan Athletic match involved the player Fitz Hall Jeff comically referred to him as "good old one-size". This was in reference to the commonly used phrase one size fits-all.
  • One of Stelling's famous catchphrases on his Sky Sports show occurred whenever the Welsh team "Total Network Solutions" (now The New Saints FC) won a game, upon which he invariably commented, "They'll be dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions tonight". Stelling has now updated the catchphrase to "dancing in the streets of The New Saints" as the team has changed its name.
  • When Brian Wilson of Bristol City scored in 2007, Stelling commented that Wilson had just moved from Cheltenham and that "He Gets Around". While commenting on the score later in the game Stelling asked "Wouldn't It Be Nice" if Wilson got another, before going on to say that if the opposition equalised then Wilson would have to "Do It Again".
  • When referee Andre Marriner made a bad decision, Stelling stated that "the referee is all at sea in that game".
  • Whenever Darren Mansaram scores, Jeff says "Wham-Bam-Mansaram"
  • When Dean Drough scored for Cowdenbeath, he made the comment 'He must be the cousin of dandruff.'

Additionally:

  • He has a habit, particularly towards the very end of the season, to over-use the phrase 'To all intents and purposes', to describe a club who is very nearly promoted, relegated, or in a play-off position, but not quite there.
  • Jeff famously swore live on the show when he heard Hartlepool were losing.

Middlesbrough rant On Soccer Saturday, Jeff Stelling famously had a 2 minute rant after during the week Middlesbrough had been voted the worst place to live in England. He named some of Middlesbrough's famous places and people and was cheered on by Le Tiss, Thommo, Big Mac and Nicholas. He got a reward afterwards.

Collection of ties Jeff has a lot of ties, claiming when asked how many "around 100" He has a lot of the same, including a lot of spotted or multi-coloured circled ones. He will sometimes where the same tie, and usually wears a tie with red on for FA Cup day.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Weaver, Paul (2001-01-17). Grandstand for the information age. The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-03-03.
  2. ^ The Northern Echo, Ranting Jeff Gets a Degree From Town University

[edit] External links