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You are in: Wear > People > Your Stories > Sunderland revisited... again and again!

Jeff Scott

Black Cats fan in Brighton

Sunderland revisited... again and again!

Author Jeff Scott lives in Brighton but a 700-mile round trip does not stop him from seeing the Black Cats in action at the Stadium of Light.

Jeff Scott has nothing to prove when it comes to his dedication to our much-loved Black Cats. Not only is he a season ticket holder but he also lives in Brighton.

Jeff has also compiled a book covering the 2006/7 Championship season but from a very different perspective. Banter and Bustle features over 200 photographs of the club's fans and snatches of conversation from fans, players and managers overheard by Jeff.

BBC Wear asked the Black Cats fan how the idea came about.

Jeff said: "I've written about Speedway ... [but] Sunderland football club is my first love really ... so I think it's just the fanaticism of following Sunderland.

Banter & Bustle front cover

Banter & Bustle front cover

"Traditional sports books have already been done in depth anyway ... so I thought I would do something that reflected what the real lived experience is of people who go to football games.

"What we see and hear about the game is carefully controlled ... It's important we capture what is our social and oral tradition."

Fixture frenzy

Fans of any football team can be frustrated when fixtures get changed but none more so than Jeff who has to travel from Brighton to see the Black Cats play on home ground.

Jeff said: "I have to wait to book tickets until Sky have announced the fixtures. But with the Newcastle game, I booked a ticket for the original 3pm kick-off, but the club changed the time so I had to buy another ticket, and then Sky changed it to the Sunday. So I've got three return tickets for the same match!

"When I lived in Amsterdam I used to fly back for games then."

So when the Black Cats don't put on the performance we deserve as fans it can be quite hard to swallow.

Bride and child

Jeff as a child in Sunderland

"It's a long day out!" says Jeff. "I get up at half-four and on a bad day I get back between half-midnight and 1:30am, but I enjoy my day.

"It gives you time for contemplation and to question your own sanity ... But Sunderland [AFC] are always a bit of a roller coaster anyway!"

Vibrant and distinctive

Jeff sees himself "as a Sunderland person" despite being a southerner by birth. His publishing company Cork Street Press is named after the East End road where he spent many of his childhood holidays with his grandmother, Isabel.

While in Sunderland he remembers feeding the ducks at Mowbray Park and sometimes getting the Jolly bus down to Pennywell.

Jeff continues: "Sunderland was like my New York as a kid ... It had this incredibly vibrant river where ships were being built all the time, there was the big crane and the skyline was very distinctive.

"But where I went to stay at my Nana's all the time, that's changed dramatically, the high street has changed and has become a faded glory compared to what it was."

Banter and Bustle is also dedicated to Walter and Nancy Scott, his other grandparents, who lived in Pennywell. Jeff is making a donation for every copy of the book sold to the SAFC Foundation.

For more information on Cork Street Press and Banter & Bustle, check out the website in the top right corner of the page.

last updated: 16/05/2008 at 10:43
created: 08/04/2008

You are in: Wear > People > Your Stories > Sunderland revisited... again and again!



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