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 (1972) competition was first transmitted by ITV on Thursday 5 April 1973 at 1 pm and ran for the following 6 weeks. The TV Times magazine dated 31 March 1973 contains a one-and-a-half page editorial on 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 whilst smoking a pipe throughout his links. He always ended the show with the phrase, "ah'll see thee".
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 (a.k.a. foosball), arm wrestling and shove ha'penny amongst others. Among the commentators was Dave Lanning and Keith Macklin.
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 form within the Yorkshire TV region, but due to the programme's success from the second series onwards the mens and ladies darts competition was 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 a International mixed darts tournament. The winner of the first competition received £100 with the runner-up getting £50.
The memorable, if rather incongruous, theme music to the programme was an instrumental version of "Waiting for You", a 1967 single by Belgian organist André Brasseur.
In 2006, a DVD of the first series of The Indoor League was released by Network DVD. The Indoor League is now available on two volumes of DVD (Volume 1 - Series 1) was released on 13 August 2012 (single disc) while (Volume 2 - Series 2) was released on 1 July 2013 (double disc). Both volumes contain the full episodes for the series for that particular year.
Bar Billiards tournament winners
Indoor League Bar Billiards Championships 1972
- 1972
'Taffy' John beat 
Malcolm Rider 2,820-1,450
Darts tournament winners
Indoor League Mens Darts Championships 1972-74
- 1972 Colin Minton beat Charles Ellis 2-0
- 1973
Tommy O'Regan beat Alan Evans - 1974 Leighton Rees beat Alan Evans
Indoor League Mens Darts Championship of Champions 1975-76
- 1975
Conrad Daniels beat Cliff Inglis - 1976 Leighton Rees beat Charlie Ellix 3-0
Indoor League Mens Darts World Championship 1977
- 1977 Tony Brown beat David 'Rocky' Jones
Indoor League Ladies Darts Championships 1973-74
- 1973 Loveday King beat Jessie Catterick 2-0
- 1974
Greta Hallgren beat Millie Bergeson
Indoor League Ladies Darts Championship of Champions 1975-76
- 1975 Jean Dickinson beat Brenda Simpson
- 1976 Jean Dickinson beat Margaret Lally 2-0
Indoor League Ladies Darts World Championship 1977
- 1977 Sandra Gibb Vs Margaret Lally
Indoor League Mixed Pairs Darts World Championship 1977
- 1977 Ken Brown & Sandra Gibb beat
Kevin White & Lynn Stewart
1972 Indoor League Mens Darts Results
| 1st Round Best of 3 Legs | Quarter Finals Best of 3 Legs | Semi Finals Best of 3 Legs | Final Best of 3 Legs | ||||||||||||||||
| Ballam Bolton on Dearne
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sykes Huddersfield
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Ballam Bolton on Dearne
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Colin Minton Easingwold
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| England Barnsley
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Colin Minton Easingwold
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Colin Minton Easingwold
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Gerry Haywood Drewsbury
| 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Twigg Sheffield
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Gerry Haywood Drewsbury
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Gerry Haywood Drewsbury
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Graham Elvidge Scarborough
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Dodds Conisbrough
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Graham Elvidge Scarborough
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Colin Minton Easingwold
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Charles Ellis Bradford
| 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| John Walker Hull
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hornby Upton, Lincs
| |||||||||||||||||||
| John Walker Hull
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Keith Naylor Scunthorpe
| 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Bob Crosland Knottingley
| 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Keith Naylor Scunthorpe
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| John Walker Hull
| 0 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Charles Ellis Bradford
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| McDonald Wombwell
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Les Mills Hull
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Les Mills Hull
| 1 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Charles Ellis Bradford
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Reid Hull
| |||||||||||||||||||
| Charles Ellis Bradford
| 2 | ||||||||||||||||||
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.
In the first semi final although Colin Minton got to the double first in the deciding leg against Gerry Haywood. But Gerry did have two darts at the double with his next throw to win the match.
In the final Charlie Ellis reached the double first in the second leg and had a comfortable lead only to miss his doubles and allow Colin Minton to seal victory on double 5, after he had previously missed double 20 and 10 with the same throw.
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.
1977 Indoor League Mixed Pairs Darts World Championship Results
| Semi Finals Best of 5 Legs | Final Best of 5 Legs | ||||||||
| 1 | Kevin White & Lynn Stewart
| 3 | |||||||
| 4 | Bob Crosland & Margaret Lally
| 2 | |||||||
| Kevin White & Lynn Stewart
| |||||||||
| Ken Brown & Sandra Gibb
| 3 | ||||||||
| 3 | Ken Brown & Sandra Gibb
| 3 | |||||||
| 2 | Peter Chapman & Brenda Simpson
| 2 | |||||||
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 5 legs of 701.