Jeff happily recalled his journalism and television career when he was a guest speaker at a meeting of our Sports Memories group on March 20.
The popular newsreader, born and bred a stone’s throw from Roker Park, just round the corner from the New Derby pub, had a passion for sport, whatever colour shirt the team was wearing or the shape of the ball – plus an ability to reflect the depth of feeling fans have for their teams.
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His first published work was a table tennis report in the Sunderland Echo when only 15 years of age. He went on to add speedway stories from Newcastle’s Brough Park and listened to his dad who pushed him to ask for some money. The result was £1.25 from the Sunderland Echo for every table tennis and speedway report.
His mother also played a part, particularly on FA Cup Third Round draw day, which was aired live on Radio 2 at 12.05pm on a Monday. Jeff would leg it back from school where his mam would greet him with a carefully prepared sheet of paper containing a vertical row of vs ready for the teams to go opposite each other.
After writing the draw down Jeff would wolf down his lunch, leg it back to school and read out the full draw to his classmates.
On leaving school, Jeff studied economics and social history in York, writing thousands of words on topics like the history of football or the history of football crowds.
At the end of his course, he wrote to 50 newspapers, but only six replied. Two gave him an interview and the Birmingham Post and Mail signed him up.
He had moved to the Journal in Newcastle when he got his big break. Jeff said: “It was the day Alan Shearer signed for Newcastle and I happened to bump into Roger Tames, who edited the ITV Tyne Tees local news and sports programme. He invited me for a coffee and chat after the Shearer signing ceremony, but it turned out to be more of an interview than a chat.
“It led to me starting work for Tyne Tees Television.
“I remember being stuck in a room with Dawn Thewlis, thinking isn’t she on the telly? I didn’t know what to say, but I must have said something right because I stayed with Tyne Tees for nearly seven years before moving to the BBC and Look North in 2003.”
He talked about how he followed Durham County Cricket Club’s rise from playing minor county cricket to becoming a first class county, their tour to South Africa in 1995 and their first trophy, the Friends Provident won at Lords in 2007, which they followed with the County Championship in 2008.
Then he told about meeting big name sports stars, like cricketers David Graveney and Ian Botham, and in the world of football Brian Clough, who told him an hour-and-a-half of his best stories, and Lawrie McMenemy, who he said he struggled with.
He described Tony Mowbray as a lovely bloke, and said Bobby Robson often got Eric Gates mixed up with Eric Sykes.
We heard about the world of boxing and Glenn McCrory’s title fights and Savannah Marshall, who he described as a lovely girl.
In July 1987, in Las Vegas he watched Mike Tyson sparring at Johnny Rocco’s gym ahead of his unification world title fight with Tony Tucker in Las Vegas. Jeff said: “I watched Iron Mike spar three rounds each with James Broad, Jessie Ferguson, Warren Thompson and Anthony Witherspoon, one after the other without a break, and he was awesome.
“Afterwards, I interviewed his manager Steve Lott. When I’d finished I realised Tyson was standing right behind me waiting to speak to Steve Lott – but, to my eternal regret, I lost my nerve and instead of interviewing Iron Mike I mumbled something like ‘good luck’.”
“As Hillary moved around the tables she put her hand on my shoulder to ease her way past – probably the only other time I’ve been left speechless.”
He said his most difficult assignment was probably Bobby Robson’s memorial service which was live from the Palace Green in Durham the day before his own father’s funeral.
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He described how there was a shower of rain and then two rainbows suddenly appeared, perhaps one for Bobby one for his father. He said he managed to hold everything together until the coverage ended, then he really became emotional and had to put his head on a cameraman’s shoulder.
Since his departure from Look North last year Jeff has been busy spearheading a new BBC Sounds series called Sporting Greats where he has sat down and talked to people like Alan Shearer, Gary Bennett and female boxer Savannah Marshall about their journey into professional sport.
He has also written two plays with a football theme. Cornered is about David Corner, the young Sunderland player, who slipped and was responsible for Norwich scoring in the 1985 League Cup final. Corner suffered some terrible treatment from Sunderland fans.
He will also be in conversation with Ian Payne, the long-standing regional ITV presenter, at various venues in the North East this spring, including Bishop Auckland Town Hall on May 8, the Gala Theatre Durham on April 24, the Exchange North Shields April 29, and Gosforth Civic Theatre May 16. All events start at 7.45pm and tickets are £12. More information from the venues.
