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).
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 (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.
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 | 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.
Conrad Daniels beat Cliff Inglis (Championship of Champions)
Greta Hallgren beat Millie Bergeson 2–1
Kevin White & Lynn Stewart (Indoor League World Championship)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.
(Ben Boothman went on to have a successful wrestling career as King Ben with ITV's World of Sport Wrestling)[4]
(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]
(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)
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.
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 current News of the World Darts Championship winner Ivor Hodgkinson entered the tournament but was beaten in the first round by Frank Crolla.
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.
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.
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.
In the 1976 Indoor League men's darts World Championship players were redrawn after each round. And the draw above reflects this.
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.
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.