Goodbye World of Sport - 30 years on

Firstly to admin, please merge this with the Sport thread if required.

Later this year, 28th September, it'll be thirty years since the ITV sports programme, World of Sport, ended. Introduced in 1965 as a rival to the BBC's Grandstand, World of Sport lasted just twenty years. I was six when it finally ended, with a special edition, which I never saw!

Some questions. Firstly, did anyone watch the final edition, and what was it like?

Also, did ITV do the right thing at the time, 1985, in axing it?

And Grandstand, on the BBC, was able to have regional opt outs, such as during the five nations rugby, when both games were played at the same time, or when BBC Wales showed the final of the Welsh Rugby Union cup live. Did any ITV regions have opt out versions of World of Sport, or was it always done by LWT?

And lastly, what did folk think of World of Sport?

Thames did the Bank Holiday version of World of Sport.

I think there were regional variations but I'm not sure exactly how that worked.

Yes, though it was never called World of Sport , Bank Holiday Sports Special I think,
and I do recall one Bank Holiday Monday, in 1982 while the Pope was visiting the UK, it was renamed
'Bank Holiday Special ', and had the Pope's visit mixed up with the sports. Dickie Davies still presented
it though.



I think they just opted in and out at suitable junctions, normally in and out at the ad breaks.
It was mainly STV and Grampian I think ?

I'm pretty sure the very limited regional opts were restricted to two slots, the shorter first, 15-20mins, after the football preview section before the Horse Racing took over, and the second, up to 50mins, in the post Horse Racing and pre Wrestling segment. These Network slots were nominally identified as Sports Specials, and the first usually carried canned international material from the EBU, and the second a British event.

The programme format was as a result of the fixed junctions somewhat formulaic, and as a result Grandstand usually won the ratings battle as it could be more varied.

STV did opt out from world of sport, sometimes for the whole day.

There's a Thames start up from August Bank Holiday Monday 1985 which shows the WoS slot as Sports Desk, but with each sport being part of the main schedule rather than a block.

Before my time so I can't really comment on it, in hindsight maybe axing could have been the wrong thing but it opened up the budget for other Sports, which at the time ITV spent a lot on Athletics, Snooker and football.

Plus after WoS was axed the ITV Sport brand was being used for the first time.

I still think axing Grandstand was a big mistake, it annoys me on some Saturdays when there is no sport and they still choose to show repeats until 4.00pm, that's a joke rather than extending Final Score or something.

Notably on FA Cup Final day, when of course the Scottish final was on the same day as the Wembley event.

I remember for a while ITV, or at least some regions showed comedy classics at 2.15pm such as Please Sir! It was welcome relief when you think that BBC Two had probably just finished the OU broadcasts and as with C4 were probably showing black and white films. Although it beats Bargain Hunt or endless US sitcoms / Come Dine repeats.

Before World Of Sport, ITV had a variety of Saturday afternoon compilations, notably one branded "Let's Go!" As a youngster I was always intrigued by something which very probably annoyed normal viewers. Tim Brinton generally hosted the programe which would begin with a menu. Or rather, menus. These would show the different network patterns - one was scheduled by ABC and therefore taken by the ABC affiliates; the other was scheduled by ATV. This resulted in odd things like Motorcycle Scrambling appearing at different times depending on the pattern. (There was a great deal of Motorcycle Scrambling in those days.) ow any viewers remembered which pattern they were watching is beyond me. Anyway, come WoS and there were fewer opt-outs, But they did happen from time to time. The FA Cup Final was a special case, though. It couldn't be shown in Scotland if any games were being played here on that day - it was part of the TV companies' contracts. So STV and BBC Scotland would do their best to cobble together an afternoon of opt-outs, with varying degrees of success. BBC Scotland sometimes mounted "Grandstand from Scotland" which would incorporate any non-football sports that the southern version had, and sometimes live coverage from England of events which couldn't be shown in their entirety because of the Cup Final. STV always mounted a "Scotsport" hosted by Arthur Montford, and would timeshift the Wrestling from its pre-lunchtime slot on Cup Final days back to the expected 4pm slot in Scotland.

And still is. At least, it is this year.

Ah.......Dickie Davies. Legend. Smooth.

And just to say he doesn't mean the current Dickie Davies on Sky Sports!