Book description
The cult SkySports Soccer Saturday anchorman delivers a volley of
entertaining and informative anecdotes about life in front of the videprinter.
Jeff Stelling is a legend amongst football fans. To the millions unable
to get to their teams' games on Saturday afternoons, the next best thing
is undoubtedly the pleasurable company of Jeff and the Sky Sports
videprinter for a cosy marathon on the sofa.
If someone's got to reveal that your beloved team have just gone 3-0
down away from home and had a man sent off, it's best if it's consummate
professional Jeff who breaks the news to you. Avid Hartlepool fan Jeff
knows our pain and shares our joy…but mostly he knows our pain.
The long-time host of SkySports' iconic Soccer Saturday show has become
a cult figure, universally admired for his encyclopaedic knowledge of
the game, his genuine and unlimited enthusiasm for ALL levels of
football, and his wicked sense of humour which makes the six-hour long
show simply whiz by.
Jellyman's Thrown a Wobbly is a deliciously chaotic, hugely
entertaining, anecdote-ridden, humorous taste of life in the Soccer
Saturday studio. Hear what Jeff has to say about some of the show's
legendary pundits over the years - ex-players such as George Best,
Rodney Marsh, Chris Kamara, Charlie Nicholas and Matt Le Tissier. Be a
fly on the wall of the hotel bar on Friday nights as Jeff and his guests
gather for a natter and few drinks.
Get the inside track on all those great one-liners:
• "Mansfield Town's Gareth Jellyman has been shown the red card for
dissent. Looks like Jellyman's thrown a wobbly."
• "Darlington's equaliser has been scored by Guyain Ndumbu-Nsungu.
Very much a case of local boy makes good." (He's from Congo.)
• "They'll be dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions tonight."
• "James Brown's grabbed a second for Hartlepool. I feel good!"
Jellyman's Thrown a Wobbly goes a long way to demonstrate how a
six-hour long, studio-based show with no live action pictures and
featuring men gazing into TV monitors which the viewer can't see, can
hold a huge audience enthralled every Saturday afternoon between August
and May. "exceptional professionalism and élan" Guardian
"the best sports presenter on British TV" When Saturday Comes
Jeff Stelling is a lifelong supporter of his hometown side, Hartlepool
United. After an apprenticeship on the local newspaper Jeff became a
sports presenter on London's LBC Radio Sportswatch programme in the
early 1980s before moving to BBC Radio 2's Sport On 2. 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
what is now called Soccer Saturday. In November 2007 he was awarded an
honorary degree by the University of Teesside, and in 2009 he was voted
the Sports Journalists' Association's Broadcast Journalist of the Year
for the fourth year running, and also became host of Channel 4's
Countdown.
