World Of Sport
 World of Sport was created in January 1965 as a Saturday
afternoon rival to Grandstand. The show tried valiantly to
compete with its BBC rival for 20 years before finally throwing in
the towel.
Although as an overall package it was never on terms with Grandstand
(largely because the BBC controlled all the major events), World
Of Sport did enjoy a sizable following for its minority
sports, particularly horse racing, and for convincing the public
that wrestling was a sport and not merely a woman's alternative to
Bingo.
Commentator Kent Walton, a former disc jockey who first covered
wrestling back in 1955, certainly convinced himself that it was
genuine even though we all knew that the Terrible Turk and the
Masked Madagascan both came from Rochdale.
World Of Sport was a team effort involving most ITV
companies, with studio facilities and program production provided
by LWT in later years.
Its first frontman was Eamonn Andrews
(assisted by a team of John Rickman (the gee-gee's), Peter Lorenzo
(football results), Ian Wooldridge (cricket) and Freddie Trueman,
Martin Locke and Jimmy Hill.
Probably the presenter most readily associated with the program
was Dickie Davies (pictured above) who took over in 1968 and remained in charge
until the show was cancelled in 1985. Fred Dineage was Davies'
relief presenter.
For many years the running order featured football to start,
followed by horse racing and the likes of snooker, darts and motor
sports, with wrestling taking over the second half of the program
and leading into the results service at around 4:45 pm.
Some events were screened under the umbrella subtitle of International
Sports Special, which embraced anything from show jumping and
water skiing to Australian Rules football and arm wrestling.
In the early days, Fred Trueman and Ian Wooldridge were
specialist contributors to the program, and Peter Lorenzo
previewed the days soccer. When the football spot was re-titled On
The Ball, Brian Moore and Jimmy Hill were drafted in as hosts.
Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves were the last football pundits, and
when World Of Sports was cancelled their slot survived as a
separate program entitled Saint and Greavsie.
On The Ball was revived as a show in its own right in
1998 with presenters Gabby Yorath and Barry Venison.
World Of Sport was the pioneer of multi-course racing
coverage, as an all-action alternative to one-card racing. It's
ITV Seven (an accumulator based on the winners of all seven
featured races) became a popular bet. Trilby-hatted John Rickman
took charge of racing affairs for many years, and also seen were
John Oaksey, Ken Butler, Brough Scott and Derek Thompson, with
commentaries by Tony Cooke, John Penney, Raleigh Gilbert and
Graham Goode and results from John Tyrrel.
Other commentators included Tony Green (darts), John Pulman
(snooker), Adrian Metcalfe (athletics) and Reg Gutteridge (boxing)
|
