Middlesbrough (i/ˈmɪdəlzbrə/ MID-əlz-brə) is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire. The local authority, a unitary authority, is Middlesbrough Borough Council.
Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, in 1968 the town became the centre of the County Borough of Teesside, which was absorbed by the non-metropolitan county of Cleveland in 1974. In 1996 Cleveland was abolished, and Middlesbrough became a unitary authority, within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire.
It is locally regarded that the town exceeds the confines of the Middlesbrough Borough to include the areas of Eston, Grangetown, Normanby, Ormesby, and South Bank which are wards of the neighbouring unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland.[citation needed][by whom?]
To the northeast of Middlesbrough lies the Tees Estuary, approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) away. A few miles to the south lies the edge of the North York Moors National Park.
Robert Jeffrey "Jeff" Stelling (born 18 March 1955, Hartlepool, County Durham) is an English sports journalist and sport television presenter. He currently presents Gillette Soccer Saturday for Sky Sports and other programming for the satellite broadcaster. In January 2009 he took over as host of the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown, but in May 2011 it was announced that he would leave the show at the end of the year due to his commitments with Sky Sports.
Stelling was brought up in a council house in Hartlepool. He attended Rift House Primary School and West Hartlepool Grammar School. After leaving school his first job was as a journalist at the Hartlepool Mail where he remained for four years.
His first broadcasting position was as a reporter on Middlesbrough F.C. on Radio Tees in the late 1970s. 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.
Adam David Lallana (born 10 May 1988) is an English footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder for Championship club Southampton. Born in St Albans, Lallana began his career with Southampton as a youth player in 2000. He signed professional terms in 2006, and has remained with the club since.
Lallana was born in St Albans but moved to the Iford area of Bournemouth when he was five years old.
Lallana was a member of the Bournemouth Centre of Excellence, where his rich potential was eventually spotted by a talent scout from Southampton, with Lallana snapped up by the then-Premier League club, joining the Saints Academy as a 12-year old in 2000. Southampton paid £3,000 compensation to Bournemouth with further payments of £5,000 and £10,000 when he signed scholarship and professional contracts respectively. The contract with Southampton provides for Bournemouth to receive 25% of any transfer fee, in addition to the payments already made.
Lallana was involved in Southampton's FA Youth Cup squads of 2004–05 and 2005–06, when they reached the final and semi-final respectively.