The Indoor League was a pub games competition series that was produced by Yorkshire Television and aired from 1973 until 1977. The programme was hosted by former England cricketer Fred Trueman (1931–2006).
Background
The first series of The Indoor League began transmission, by ITV, on 5 April 1973 at 1 pm and ran for the following six weeks. The TV Times magazine dated 31 March 1973 contains a one-and-a-half-page editorial on it, featuring noted darts player Tom Barrett. Most of the competitions were filmed the year before transmission. From series 2 onwards, The Indoor League made its various competitions open to international competitors, and they played for the Indoor League World Championships.
Presenter Fred Trueman often wore a cardigan and smoked a pipe throughout his links. He always ended the show with the Yorkshire dialect phrase, "ah'll see thee". The programme's theme tune was Waiting For You by André Brasseur.[1]
The show featured many indoor games, the majority of which were pub games, each of which had a prize of £100 for the competition winners. The sports included darts, pool, bar billiards, bar skittles, table football (a.k.a. foosball), arm wrestling and shove ha'penny amongst others. Among the commentators were Dave Lanning and Keith Macklin. The programme was broadcast from The Leeds Irish Centre, which was later recognised as the 'birthplace of television darts'[2]
The Indoor League was created by Sid Waddell,[3] who also produced the series from 1972 to 1976. Darts coverage on television was in its infancy, with the News of the World Darts Championship having just begun to be broadcast on ITV in 1972. Waddell would later go on to become one of the voices of darts on television when the World Championship was created in 1978.
In the first series, all darts matches were played on a Northern England "doubles dartboard" that does not have any treble scoring segments. The competition was restricted to players from within the Yorkshire Television region but, due to the programme's success, from the second series onwards the men's and women's darts competitions were open to all players from around the globe, and they played for the Indoor League World Darts Championships. In the final series there was also an international mixed darts tournament. The winner of the first competition received £100, with the runner-up getting £50. From the 1974 Season onwards, the winner of the men's darts tournament qualified for the BDO World Masters the following year.[citation needed]
The first two series were released on DVD by Network Publishing but are now out of print. All available episodes were repeated by now defunct UK digital channel FrontRunner TV.
Series air dates
Series
Tournament year
From
To
Episodes
1
1972
5 April 1973
10 May 1973
6
2
1973
27 September 1973
11 April 1974
13
3
1974
8 January 1975
2 April 1975
12
4
1975
1 January 1976
25 March 1976
15
5
1976
7 Feb 1977 (regions) 10 Feb 1977 (Yorkshire TV)
2 May 1977 (regions) 5 May 1977 (Yorkshire TV)
13
6
1977
9 January 1978
7 April 1978
13
According to the ITV listing magazine TV Times, programmes were shown by the different ITV regions on different days of the week and at different times across their schedules. Some ITV regions showed an episode of the programme one or more weeks later than other ITV regions. The details above are taken from TV Times.
Tournament winners
The Indoor League Men's Darts Championships
1972 Colin Minton beat Charles Ellis 2–0 (Played on a Yorkshire dartboard)
The Indoor League Mixed Pairs' Darts World Championship
1977 Ken Brown & Sandra Gibb beat Kevin White & Lynn Stewart (Indoor League World Championship)
Indoor League Bar Billiards Championships
1972 "Taffy" John 2,820–1,450 Malcolm Rider
1973 John Baker 2,400–1,440 Peter Wells
1974 John Peters 4,200–3,050 John Baker
1975 Roy Buckle 900–? Alan Sales
1976 Stan Pratt beat Gerry Lambert
1977 Not held
After the second series, The Indoor League Bar Billiards added the unusual rule of a 45-second maximum break limit. This was to allow full games to be shown during the 18-minute TV as breaks in bar billiards can go on for long periods of time.
Indoor League Arm Wrestling Championships
1972 Not held
1973 Donald "Buster" Witney beat "King" Ben Boothman 1–0
(Ben Boothman went on to have a successful wrestling career as King Ben with ITV's World of Sport Wrestling)[4]
1974 Clive Myers beat Tony Lees 2–1
1975 Right-handed – Tony Fitton beat Tony Lees
(Tony Fitton left the UK shortly after this season to work in the USA. He was exposed in a Sports Illustrated exclusive in 2008 as being the so-called "Godfather of Steroids", contributing to the major steroid problem in American Sports during the 80s and 90s) [5]
1975 Left-handed – Bill Richardson beat Paul Jordan
(Bill only entered the left handed competition because all the spots in the right handed competition was taken. He later won Universe Championships Mr Universe in 1980)
1976 Under 200 lb – Clive Myers beat Joe Graham 2–0
1976 Left-handed – Mike Winch beat Alan Jackson
1976 Super heavyweight – Bill Richardson beat Donald "Buster" Witney 2–0
All matches were played on a Northern England dartboard that does not have any treble scoring segments. The 1972 darts tournament was limited to players within the Yorkshire TV region. The winner received £100 and the runner up £50. There was no women's darts tournament in 1972. Only the final, two semi-finals and two of the quarter-finals were transmitted during the 1972 series of six episodes.[citation needed]
Alan Evans, in his semi-final match against Tony Ridler became the first ever male player to score a 180 on Television. In the same game, Ridler also scored a 180 in the second leg.
The tournament featured several internationally capped darts players. Winner O'Regan played for both England and Ireland before becoming captain of Ireland. Willie Etherington, Ron Church and Des Stabb represented England, Bob Whyte represented Scotland,Alan Evans and Tony Ridler played for Wales and George Foster & John Kelly represented Australia.
1974 Indoor League Men's Darts Championship Results
Doug Priestner, hit a 180 with his first three darts in the competition. He played with John Craine represented of Isle of Man and Steve Rollings represented by South Africa.
1975 Indoor League Men's Darts Championship Results
For the second year running Doug Priestner, hit a 180 with his first three darts in the competition. Cliff Inglis, hit back-to-back 180s in one of his matches.
1976 Indoor League Men's Darts World Championship Results
Reigning champion Leighton Rees was unavailable at the time of filming the competition due to him touring Australasia doing dart exhibitions.
In the 1977 Indoor League men's darts World Championship players were redrawn after each round. And the draw above reflects this.
1977 Indoor League Mixed Pairs Darts World Championship Results
During the second semi-final, Peter Chapman become the first player to a televised 180 in a mixed pairs game, and Sandra Gibb scored the first ever televised 180 scored by a female player.
The semi-finals and final in this mixed pairs competition were the best of five legs of 701.
