The Battle of Bradford 1976
British Domestic Event

Presenters:
Stuart Hall
Eddie Waring

Key: Domestic Event ● = Winner of Event   ▲ = Promoted to Position / ▼ = Demoted to Position

GB

The Battle of Bradford 1976

Summer Event

Event Staged: Sunday 11th July 1976, 2.30pm
Venue: Bradford Novotel, Euroway Trading Estate, Roydsdale Way,
Bierley, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England

Transmission:
Not televised

Teams: The Battling Babes v. The Bradford Bionics v. The Froggies v.
Norfolk Garden Gourmets v. The THF Smilers v. The Two-Thirty-Fives

Games: Jungle Capers (sponsored  by Associated Weavers), Random Harvest (sponsored by International Harvesters), Ups and Downs (sponsored by Hepolite Autoparts), Bal-looney Bursting (sponsored by A. E. Turbine Components Ltd.), Final Round (sponsored by the Bradford Conference Advisory Group);

Marathon: Empire Building (sponsored by Empire Stores Ltd.).

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th

 -
 -
 -
 -
 -
 -

-
-
-
-
-
-

Presenters, Officials and Production Team

This competition was not organised by the BBC, instead being staged by the City of Bradford Metropolitan Council. The organising committee secured the participation of Stuart Hall and Eddie Waring as presenters despite the fact that the event was purely for the entertainment of the audience present at the venue. It was never intended to be recorded for television. It is highly likely that Hall and Waring's involvement was a result of the event being devised as a charity fundraiser.

Team Personnel

The six teams that competed in this event each fielded ten participants, a mix of male and female competitors.

The Battling Babes were "a bevy of beautiful birds" dressed in bikinis, the terminology being very much of the time, though one of the bikini clad beauties was reputedly not female at all...

The Bradford Bionics were local a "six million dollar... flaxen-haired group of the city's finest specimens of manhood", the team name and description owing more than a little to the then massively popular American TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.

The Froggies, somewhat wincingly named considering that they represented the French-based Novotel Group, played in pale blue and white tops with red hot pants. Their team was comprised of six male and four female competitors.

The Norfolk Garden Gourmets, decked out in white kits, represented the Scotland-based Reo Stakis organisation.

The THF Smilers were a team formed by The Victoria Hotel, a Trust House Forte rooming house. The team's name was inspired by the hotel chain's motto: "The Biggest Smile in Europe". They fielded a team dressed in a variety of colours, each set off with a dash of Royal blue.

The Two-Thirty-Fives were representing Pennine Radio, an independent local radio station for West Yorkshire which broadcast on 235 metres medium wave. It was a very young radio station at the time, having launched on 16th September 1975. Today it broadcasts as Pulse 1.

Additional Information

Although the It's A Knockout competition took place from 2.30pm, gates opened three hours earlier at 11.30am. Entrance cost was 50p and all proceeds were donated to charity, split equally between the British Legion and Bradford's War on Cancer. In addition to the Knockout event, sideshows, displays, bars, catering and car parking was laid on for spectators.

The name given to this event, The Battle of Bradford, is - in retrospect - somewhat unfortunate as the term was later applied, retrospectively, to the events in the city on Saturday 24th April 1976 when Leftist anti-racists and ethnic minorities clashed with fascist National Front activists. This was a result of the decision by West Yorkshire Police's chief constable to allow one thousand National Front supporters to march through a largely Asian neighbourhood in Manningham, Bradford, to mark St. George's Day.

Not recorded

JSFnetGB Series Guide pages researched by
Alan Hayes, David Hamilton, Neil Storer, Christos Moustakas, Philippe Minet,
Sébastien Dias, Ischa Bijl, Paul Leaver and JSFnet Websites