Darts History – 1900’s Ⅱ

The game of darts was firmly established by the end of World War 1 and many pubs throughout the country had dart teams at that stage. Competitions with substantial prizes were being held on a regular basis and News of the World, a popular British Sunday newspaper, sponsored the first big competition in 1927/28, called the "News of the World Individual Darts Championship". This championship was an overnight hit, with around a 1,000 participants in the first event. News of the World sponsored all the prizes, while the organization was left to the National Darts Association (NDA).

The first competition was held in the metropolitan area of London, but within 3 years, in 1930, the championship expanded to cover most of England.

The game gained huge popularity with the females too, when, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, played a game of darts in a social center in Buckinghamshire, England in 1937.

Such was the popularity of the sport in England and Wales that the number of entrants (participants) for the 1938/39 News of the World competition was in excess of 280,000!. The final event between Jim Pike and Marmaduke Brecon which was held in the Royal Agricultural Hall in London, was attended by a record crowd of 14,534!

The first "People National Team Championships" event was held 1939, which was sponsored by "The People" another U.K. Sunday Newspaper.

Interesting Fact

There was no "News of the World Individual Darts Championship" event until after World War 2. The News of the World Individual Darts Championship title was the dream of every darts player and it wasn’t surprising when the competition was revived in 1947/48, but this time on a national level.

The People National Team Championships also returned after the war.

The NDA (National Darts Association) however, did not revive after World War 2. Although various attempts were made to setup another national controlling agency but nothing materialized until 1954, when through the support of "The People", The National Darts Association of Great Britain (NDAGB) was established.

The game of darts maintained a fairly low profile on a national level during the 1950 and 60’s, but through the excellent organization of the NDAGB, close to 4 million competitors in England alone entered the NODOR Fours competition, sponsored by the Nodor Dartboard Company.

The first darts television broadcast was by Westward Television in 1962 when the Westward TV Invitational was broadcasted to the people in the south-west of England.

During the 1970’s and early 1980’s darts coverage via television skyrocket with many major tournaments being broadcasted on ITV and BBC

The British Broadcaster, Independent Television (ITV), in 1970 broadcasted the News of the World Darts Championship and from 1972, Yorkshire TV (the ITV contractor for the Yorkshire franchise) broadcast the Indoor League darts tournaments.

1973 saw the establishment of the British Darts Organization (BDO) and also the introduction of split-screen technology in television broadcasts, which really boosted darts in Britain. From hereon the popularity of darts grew enormously worldwide.

With a multitude of sponsors and television companies on board, the late 1970s and 1980s saw the first darts household "celebrity" names like Leighton Rees, John Lowe, Alan Evans, Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson, Tony Brown, Bobby George and Keith Deller.

The Embassy World Darts Championship was promoted the first time on television in 1975. The BDO grew rapidly during this time and in the mid 1980’s had some 30,000 members already and organized over 800 tournaments in a single year.

  Tungsten Dart Manufacturer & Supplier: Chinatungsten Online - http://www.chinadart.com/
  Tel.: 86 592 5129696; Fax: 86 592 5129797
  Email:  sales@chinatungsten.com
  Tungsten & Molybdenum Information Bank: http://i.chinatungsten.com
  Tungsten News & Tungsten Prices, 3G Version: http://3g.chinatungsten.com
  Molybdenum News & Molybdenum Price: http://news.molybdenum.com.cn

• < Prev
• Next >