The Indoor League


The Indoor League was a pub games competition series that was produced by Yorkshire Television and aired from 1972 until 1977. The programme was hosted by England cricketer Fred Trueman. The first series competition was first transmitted 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 darting legend Tom Barrett. Most of the competitions were filmed the previous year before transmission, due to various edits that were made to the programmes. From series 2 onwards, the Indoor League made their various competitions open to International competitors, and they played for the Indoor League World Championships.
Trueman often wore a cardigan and smoked a pipe throughout his links. He always ended the show with the phrase, "ah'll see thee".
The theme tune was Waiting For You by André Brasseur.
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, 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'
The Indoor League was created by Sid Waddell, 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 dart matches were played on a Yorkshire dartboard that does not have any treble scoring segments. The competition was restricted to players from within the Yorkshire TV region, but, due to the programme's success, from the second series onwards the men's and ladies' 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 of The Indoor League have been released on DVD, remastered by Network on Air, and all available episodes are currently shown on UK TV on the FrontRunner TV channel.

Series air dates

According to the ITV listing magazine at the time, TV Times, the Indoor League 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 the ITV listing magazine TV Times.

Tournament winners

The Indoor League Men's Darts Championships

After the second series, The Indoor League Bar Billards 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


All matches were played on a Yorkshire dartboard that does not have any treble scoring segments. The 1972 dart tournament was limited to players within the Yorkshire TV region.
The winner received £100 and the runner up £50.
There was no ladies dart tournament in 1972.
Only the final, two semi-finals and two of the quarter finals were transmitted during the 1972 series of six episodes.

1973 Indoor League Men's Darts Results

Alan Evans, in his semi-final match against Tony Riddler became the first ever male player to score a 180 on Television. In the same game, Riddler 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 and Alan Evans and Tony Riddler played for Wales.

1974 Indoor League Men's Darts Championship Results

Doug Priestner, hit a 180 with his first three darts in the competition.

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

In the 1976 Indoor League men's darts World Championship players were redrawn after each round. And the draw above reflects this.

1976 Indoor League Ladies Darts World Championship Results

1977 Indoor League Men's Darts World Championship Results

Reigning champion Leighton Rees was unbelievably 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.