It's A Knockout 1981
British Domestic Series

Presenters:
Stuart Hall
Ruth Madoc (Heat 4)
Su Pollard (Heat 4)
Paul Shane (Heat 4)
Eddie Waring (Heats 1-3, 5-7 and Championship Knockout)

Referees:
Arthur Ellis
Gennaro Olivieri (Championship Knockout)
Mike Swann

Scoregirls:
Jan Rasmussen
Angie Green (Heat 3)
Roz Tranfield (Heats 1, 4-6)
Debra Windass (Heat 2)

Production Credits:

Stage Managers: Christopher Miles, Mike Milone, Tudor Nash-Jones, Owen Thomas; Senior Cameramen: Maurice Abel, Dave Taylor; Vision Supervisors: Don Crowland, Vic Hall; Videotape Editors: Peter Dunkley, Ian Low; Sound: John Drake; Engineering Managers: Geoff Lomas, George Norton; Production Team: Barbara Berry, George R. Clarke, George Green, Maggie Youdan; Designer and Games Deviser: Stuart Furber; Producer: Geoff Wilson; Director: Bill Taylor

A BBC Manchester Production

Key: Domestic Heats ● = Qualified for International Series / ● = Heat Winner Championship Knockout Final ● = Radio Times Trophy Winner  ▲ = Promoted to Position / ▼ = Demoted to Position

GB

It's A Knockout 1981

Heat 1

Event Staged: Sunday 12th April 1981
Venue: Sherborne Castle Park, Sherborne, Dorset, England

Transmission:
BBC1 (GB exc. Wales): Friday 29th May 1981, 7.10-8.00pm
BBC1 Wales (CYM): Sunday 31st May 1981, 2.25-3.15pm

Teams: Dorchester v. Lyme Regis v. Sherborne

Team Members included:
Sherborne - Tim Barclay, Sally Bunwell, David Butt, Philip Coulson, Penny Fowler, Colin Hayward, David Mason, Peter Mason, Jeff Palmer, Ian Rowe, Sue Rowe, Chris Thomas-Peters, Rosemary Wanther;
Dorchester - Dave Corbett, Hugh Myers, Simon Myers, Kathlyn Old, Jane Pitfield, Dave Russell and Roz Tatum;
Lyme Regis - John Carl, Gary Larkham, Gaye Lucia, Joanna Semicci, Peter Sergeant and Jim Thomas.

Games: Wasbee Flowers, Water Climb, Posting the Box, Cranked Drum Roll, Ball Stretch, Budgies and Worms, Elasticated Carpet and Evacuating the Castle;
Marathon: Raising the Sails;
Jokers: Joker Playing Cards.

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

Final Scoreboard

1st
2nd
3rd

 S • Sherborne ● ●
 LR • Lyme Regis
 D • Dorchester

27
22
19

Sherborne qualified for Jeux Sans Frontières at Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy:
staged on Tuesday 26th May 1981

Presenters, Officials and Production Team

Stuart Hall made a ‘blooper’ in this programme. After Game 2, whilst scoregirl Roz Tranfield was having difficulty moving the scoreboard, he failed to wait for her to add the points scored by Dorchester, and announced that the team only had 2 points instead of 5, and the camera panned to the next game!

Additional Information

For the first time in It's A Knockout history, the team names on the master scoreboard were shown against their team colours, red for Dorchester, yellow for Sherborne and green for Lyme Regis.

Made in Colour • This programme exists in the BBC Archives

GB

It's A Knockout 1981

Heat 2

Event Staged: Monday 20th April 1981 (Easter Monday)
Venue: Whitby Marina Car Park, Whitby, North Yorkshire, England

Transmission:
BBC1 (GB exc. Wales): Friday 5th June 1981, 7.10-8.00pm
BBC1 Wales (CYM): Sunday 7th June 1981, 2.30-3.20pm

Teams: Filey v. Kingston-upon-Hull v. Whitby

Team Members included:

Filey - Susan Ackrill, Ann Carridge, Martin Hacksby, John Pashby and John Relton;

Kingston-upon-Hull - Tony Taylor (Team Manager), Stan Heywood (Team Captain), Karen Almond, Tom Bowering, Karen Briggs, Paul Butler, William Butler, Martin Holmes, Stephen Hunt, Ian Hird, Angela Lutkin, Sue Pattison, Kevin Wardale, John Wheatley; Reserves: David Bottomley, Pam Hall, Gary Kitchen and Julie Wilkinson;
Whitby - Jenny Anderson, David Beaveth, Pamela Clarke, Mike Sedgwick and Mark Treese.

Games: Rabbits and Carrots, Shovelling Sand, Trolley Net Catch, Kangaroo Ski Race (abandoned), Pool Pole Balance, Wasbees and Daffodils, Untying the Ropes, Evacuating the Castle and The Human Pyramid (reserve game);
Marathon: Lobster Pots Over Net;
Jokers: Joker Playing Cards.

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

Final Scoreboard

1st
2nd
3rd

 H • Kingston-upon-Hull ● ●
 F • Filey
 W • Whitby

24
21
19

Kingston-Upon-Hull qualified for Jeux Sans Frontières at Pula, Yugoslavia:
staged on Wednesday 10th June 1981

Presenters, Officials and Production Team

Scoregirl for this heat was Debra Windass, who had been a member of the 1977 Beverley It’s A Knockout team as well as series scoregirl in 1978 and 1979. She also made an appearance as a mermaid mascot of the Bridlington and North Wolds team last year! An impressive It’s A Knockout career.

Memories of It's A Knockout

Kingston-upon-Hull’s team included Great Britain’s Women’s Judo champion, Karen Briggs. In her autobiography -  Judo Champion (The Crowood Press, 1988) - Karen said that she "enjoyed the diversion" that was It’s a Knockout. She attended the trials in the February, even though she was only 17 at the time, knowing that she would be 18 (the minimum age required) in the April, when the competition was due to take place. After passing the fitness trials, Karen admitted to Tony Taylor, the team manager, about her age, but was accepted into the team. Karen also indicated they were later disappointed when they finished only fifth in the International Heat at Pula, Yugoslavia.

Additional Information

Game 4 had to be abandoned because the wooden kangaroos on skis used on it failed. Whilst Whitby were making good progress up the course, the Kingston-upon-Hull team’s kangaroo equipment snapped, and within 5 seconds the same fate had happened to the Filey team. Whitby carried on regardless, only to be disappointed some 20 seconds or so later by the sound of Arthur Ellis’ whistle, denoting the abandonment of the game. A reserve game - ‘The Human Pyramid’ - was played instead, after the scheduled final game.

Although the team clearly wore shirts with Kingston-upon-Hull printed on them, references on-site by Stuart Hall and Arthur Ellis, their given initial letter of 'H', and even on the scoreboard itself, were to the name being Hull. However, on the final game, Stuart Hall finally called the team by its rightful name of Kingston-upon-Hull.

Made in Colour • This programme exists in the BBC Archives

GB

It's A Knockout 1981

Heat 3

Event Staged: Sunday 26th April 1981
Venue: Coronation Park, Dartmouth, Devon, England

Transmission:
BBC1 (GB exc. Wales): Friday 12th June 1981, 7.10-8.00pm
BBC1 Wales (CYM): Sunday 14th June 1981, 2.35-3.25pm

Teams: Dartmouth v. Exmouth v. Plymouth

Team Members:
Dartmouth (Full Squad) - Timothy Price (Team Manager), Adrian Lloyd (Team Coach), Peter Collins (Team Captain), Malcolm Shillabeer (Vice Team Captain), Lindsay Brown, Michelle Brown, David Collins, Sidney Davies, Jacqueline Davies, Katie Distin, Sheree Dove, Cameron Dunn, Heather Fisher, Richard Hilliard, Gary Lobb, Eddie Lennon, Sheena Marrs, Patrick Mills, Martin Payne, Ian Pollard, Alan Pook, Derek Rogers, Mary Wallace, Stephen Wallace, Christine Webb, Barry Williams, Barry Wilson;
Exmouth (Full Squad) - Dave Dawling (Team Manager), Frank Capper (Team Coach), Janet Wiggins (Assistant Team Coach), Grace Adamson, William Ashcroft, Peter Bellingham, Jane Berry, Richard Bryant, Anne Buttery, Hazel Cooper, Beryl Craddock, Peter Crews, Jonathan Dawkins, Peter Denford, Paul Frost, Paul Gibson, Alistair Harding, David Jackson, K. Mackie, Rachel Mogridge, Juliet Newport, Anthony Osland, Jacky Precious, Martin Sharp, Peter Stewart, John Wakefield, Keith Wakefield, Dawn Wiggins;
Plymouth (Full Squad) - Roger Coltman (Team Coach and Manager), Les Ware (Team Captain), Clive Bartless, P. Bets, C Bunney, Ray Card, Robin Caress, Philip Dart, Nicholas Down, Anthea Evens, Lucy George, Penny George, Paul Goodall, C. Greatrex, Cheryl Heaney, Julie Higginbotham, Janet McArthur, Margaret McArthur, J. Maunder, Ann Moore, Michael Murphy, Jamie Outterside, Graham Pearson, Roger Saynor, David Seabourne, Jane Stimpson, Robert Toor, Gaye Tweedie, Gary Wainwright, Karl Weston, Mark Willcocks, Kathy White.

Games: Wasbee Swat, Greased Boxing, Trolley Pull, Budgies and Eggs, Walking the Plank, Rocking the Boat, Jockey Hoops and Evacuating the Castle;
Marathon: Barrels and Nets;
Jokers: Joker Playing Cards.

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

Final Scoreboard

1st
2nd
3rd

 D • Dartmouth ● ●
 P • Plymouth
 E • Exmouth

25
23
18

Dartmouth qualified for Jeux Sans Frontières at Lisboa, Portugal:
staged on Wednesday 24th June 1981

The Host Town

Dartmouth, Devon

Image © Alys Hayes, 2019

Additional Information

This programme was very near to being the first (and only) It’s A Knockout recording to be cancelled due to weather conditions. An unexpected cold front had moved quickly down from the North-West of the country, bringing with it very deep snowdrifts, and unprecedented sub-zero temperatures. The actual temperature at time of recording was -5° Centigrade (23° Fahrenheit).

Viewers of watching BBC1 on the evening of Friday 12th June 1981 might have been a little wrong footed by the continuity announcement ahead of the programme, which stated that they would be watching "the Portuguese heat of It's A Knockout". The continuity announcer had clearly overlooked that this edition was recorded on a very chilly day in Dartmouth and not the sun of Portugal, where the winners of the heat would progress to later in the summer!

At the end of Game 1, the female Plymouth team member who was chasing the Dartmouth wasbee collapsed, due to the excessive cold temperature and sheer exhaustion. An emergency first-aid crew had to rush on to the arena and give her medical assistance to help her recover. Fortunately, no serious injury prevailed, but she did not participate in any further games.

Made in Colour • This programme exists in the BBC Archives

GB

It's A Knockout 1981

Heat 4

Event Staged: Monday 4th May 1981 (Bank Holiday Monday)
Venue: Lower Sports Ground, Wardown Park, Biscot,
Luton, Bedfordshire, England

Transmission:
BBC1 (GB exc. Wales): Friday 19th June 1981, 7.10-8.00pm
BBC1 Wales (CYM): Sunday 21st June 1981, 2.40-3.30pm

Guest Presenters: Paul Shane, Ruth Madoc and Su Pollard
of the BBC comedy series, Hi-De-Hi! (Eddie Waring absent)

Teams: Luton v. Epping Forest v. Welwyn Garden City

Team Members included:
Luton - John Howells (Team Manager), Chris Dunington (Co-Assistant Team Manager), Bob Whan (Co-Assistant Team Manager), Tony Russell (Team Captain), Jackie Cross, Sharon Dillette, Mark Fairhurst, Lee Holten, John Ing, Della Isaacs, Andrew Mears, Terry Nicholls, Lorna Roberts, Joe Toomey and James Warren;
Epping Forest - Tim Brooking, Kevin Chapman, Philip Cottle, Debbie Evans, Glen Fayon, Phillip Harrison, Meg Martin, Kathy Rolfe, Chris Smith and Nigel Wayve;
Welwyn Garden City - Elaine Bell, Diane Harvey, Jean Holdcroft, Kim Tischere and Stuart West.

Games: Wasbee Nets, Threading the Ball, Flour Trolleys, The Flat Tyres, Pool Basketball, Ski-Boots, Canvas Roll and Evacuating the Castle;
Marathon: Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run! Run! Run!;
Jokers: Joker Playing Cards.

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

Final Scoreboard

1st
2nd
3rd

 L • Luton ● ●
 E • Epping Forest
 W • Welwyn Garden City

23
22
21

Luton qualified for Jeux Sans Frontières at Charleroi, Belgium:
staged on Wednesday 8th July 1981

Presenters, Officials and Production Team

With his health and strength deteriorating, Eddie Waring was unable to present this programme. As Waring was booked to commentary on the Rugby Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium the previous day, the BBC felt that a consecutive day’s filming would be too much for the 71-year old commentator. It was for this reason that they drafted in stars from their hit series Hi-De-Hi! to present the Marathon.

Returning Teams and Competitors

Luton team member Sharon Dillette had previously been a member of the winning Luton It’s A Knockout team in 1972. She appeared in this edition sporting a large bruise on her forehead and two black eyes, both of which she claimed she had acquired during a game of rounders! Team manager John Howells had previously coached the Luton team during their 1972 participation and Welwyn Garden City competitor Stuart West had previously represented St Albans in 1977.

Additional Information

Luton seemed destined to win this heat from the start. Earlier in the day, the team had been successful in the rehearsal, which had finished with a score of Luton 19 pts, Welwyn Garden City 16 pts and Epping Forest 14 pts. Interestingly from the points tally, it seems that all teams failed to play their Jokers on the ‘appropriate’ games. In theory though, the rehearsals were designed so that the teams then decided on which of the games they would be best to play the Joker on. However in the actual recording both Epping Forest and Welwyn Garden City won their Joker games, whilst Luton could only manage second place on theirs!

This was the first time in It’s A Knockout history that a team name had to be shortened to fit onto the scoreboard - Welwyn Garden City had to be shortened to Welwyn Garden because the typeface used on the 1981 board was much larger than ever before.

Epping Forest was created under the Local Government Act 1972, and includes the towns of Epping, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell, Chipping Ongar and Waltham Abbey.

Made in Colour • This programme exists in the BBC Archives

GB

It's A Knockout 1981

Heat 5

Event Staged: Sunday 10th May 1981
Venue: Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Transmission:
BBC1 (GB exc. Wales): Friday 26th June 1981, 8.00-8.50pm
BBC1 Wales (CYM): Sunday 28th June 1981, 2.35-3.25pm

Teams: Dunfermline v. Cumbernauld v. Glenrothes

Team Members included:
Dunfermline - Mike Joiner (Team Captain), Dougie Arnill, Marie Blair, Bill Bunyan, Malcolm Cameron, Steve Coates, Pauline Lucas, Marilyn McLeod, Terry O’Connor, Jim Patterson, George Ross, Joyce Suitor, Ian Watson, Pauline Young;
Cumbernauld - Fraser Gracie (Team Manager) Michael Cavanagh, David Chandler, Greg Connell, Michael Connolly, Shirley Copeland, Willie Cox, Robert Duncan, Avril Fleming, Sheila Given, Bill Griffin, Mary Laird, Michael McGrath, Kenny McLean, Margo McLean, Joyce Robertson, Stewart Ross, Jackie Skelton, Clare Thomson, Tom Wallace, Hugh Walters;
Glenrothes - Drew Clooney, Kenny Lamb, Gordon Ross, Dave Sellars, Ann Stevenson, Hugh Turner and Sam Wilson.

Games: Wasbee Stings, Hook Swing, Caterpillar Traction, Tossing the Caber, Raft Rally, Paired Stepping Stones, Hammer Swing and Evacuating the Castle;
Marathon: Budgie Beam;
Jokers: Joker Playing Cards.

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

Final Scoreboard

1st
2nd
3rd

 D • Dunfermline ● ●
 C • Cumbernauld
 G • Glenrothes

29
22
18

Dunfermline qualified for Jeux Sans Frontières at Meiringen-Hasliberg, Switzerland:
staged on Wednesday 29th July 1981

The Venue

Pittencrieff Park

The games were played in Pittencrieff Park. The name 'Pittencrieff' means the land or estate of trees. 'Pit' in Gaelic and 'pitt' in English means a hollow, whilst in Pictish it translates as land or an estate. 'Craib' from the Gaelic 'craoibh' (pronounced creiv) means trees - so Pittencrieff (or Pit-an-craib).

In 1902 Andrew Carnegie, the noted philanthropist, purchased the Pittencrieff House and estate from its owner Colonel James Maitland Hunt and then donated it to the town of Dunfermline the following year.

Additional Information

Winning every game apart from the first, on which the team came 2nd, Dunfermline’s games results rivalled that of Ely’s whitewash of Hertford in 1973.

Dunfermline were 6pts clear of Cumbernauld before the last game, but still went on to win the game to give themselves a 7pts clear victory - the second highest in this post-1975 format after Douglas in 1979, who finished 9pts clear of Ramsey (however, remember that there was an extra game played in all the domestic heats that year).

The Dunfermline team’s Joker was played by 16-year old athlete Linsey MacDonald, who was a member of Britain’s 4x400m Olympic Bronze Medal winning relay team at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. The Cumbernauld team’s Joker was played by actor Kirsty Miller, who starred in the 1981/82 BBC TV series Maggie.

Made in Colour • This programme exists in the BBC Archives

GB

It's A Knockout 1981

Heat 6

Event Staged: Sunday 17th May 1981
Venue: Derby Indoor Baths, North Promenade, Blackpool, Lancashire, England

Transmission:
BBC1 (GB exc. Wales): Friday 3rd July 1981, 7.40-8.30pm
BBC1 Wales (CYM): Sunday 5th July 1981, 2.35-3.25pm

Teams: Blackpool v. Chorley v. Warrington

Team Members included:
Blackpool - Brian Bottomley, Lesley Dase, Derek Lomas, Mike Loomis, Ian Plant, Alan Roswell, Chris Sharrett, Cheryl Witton and Alan Wooding;
Chorley - Chris Ellis, Sue Fisher, Gwyn Furlon, Steve Jellus, Mike Mason, David Pennington and Scott Reed;
Warrington - Jim Cannon (Team Captain), Keith Barnett, Jan Blackwell, June Brimlow, Peter Dawson, Steven Gooch, Celia Johnson, Clive Jones, Alexic Jovitza, David Lyons, Colin Meechin, Glenroy Skeet, David Walker, Bernadette Woodhouse.

Games: Kayak Course, Raft Balance Relay, Revolving Balance, Water Skis, Pool Target Rings, Canoe Race, Diving Board Basketball and Evacuating the Moated Castle;
Marathon: Balloon Climb;
Jokers: Joker Playing Cards.

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

Final Scoreboard

1st
2nd
3rd

 W • Warrington ● ●
 B • Blackpool
 C • Chorley

25
21
19

Warrington qualified for Jeux Sans Frontières at Annecy, France:
staged on Wednesday 12th August 1981

Sunderland qualified as hosts of Jeux Sans Frontières at Sunderland, Great Britain:
staged Tuesday 25th August 1981.

The Host Town

Blackpool, Lancashire

Blackpool is a seaside town with 7 miles (11km) of sandy beach and a population of around 144,000 inhabitants in the county of Lancashire. It is located on the Irish Sea coast between the Ribble and Wyre river estuaries, 12 miles (19km) north of Southport, 14 miles (22km) north-west of Preston, 20 miles (32km) south-west of Morecambe and 61 miles (98km) west of Leeds.

In medieval times Blackpool emerged as a few farmsteads on the coast, the name coming from "le pull", a stream that drained Marton Mere and Marton Moss into the sea close to what is now Manchester Square. The stream ran through peat bogs that discoloured the water, so the name for the area became "Black Poole". The first house of any substance, Foxhall, was built toward the end of the 17th century by Edward Tyldesley (1635-1685), the Squire of Myerscough and son of royalist Sir Thomas Tyldesley (1612-1651).

Until the middle of the 18th century, Blackpool was simply a coastal hamlet, but the practice of sea bathing to cure diseases was becoming fashionable among the wealthier classes, and visitors began making the arduous trek to Blackpool for that purpose. In 1781, Thomas Clifton (1727-1783) and Sir Henry Hoghton (1728-1795) built a private road to Blackpool and a regular stagecoach service from Manchester and Halifax was established. A few amenities, including four hotels, an archery stall and bowling greens, were developed, and the town grew slowly. The 1801 census records the town's population at 473 inhabitants.

The most significant event in the early growth of the town occurred in 1846, with the completion of a branch line to Blackpool from Poulton on the main Preston and Wyre Joint Railway line from Preston to Fleetwood. Around this time, Fleetwood declined as a resort, as its founder and principal financial backer, Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood (1801-1866), went bankrupt. In contrast, Blackpool boomed. A sudden influx of visitors, arriving by rail, provided the motivation for entrepreneurs to build accommodation and create new attractions, leading to more visitors and a rapid cycle of growth throughout the 1850s and 1860s. By 1851, the town's population had risen to over 2,500.

The growth was intensified by the practice among the Lancashire cotton mill owners of closing the factories for a week every year to service and repair machinery. These became known as ‘wakes weeks’. Each town's mills would close for a different week, allowing Blackpool to manage a steady and reliable stream of visitors over a prolonged period in the summer.

In 1863, the North Pier was completed, rapidly becoming a centre of attraction for elite visitors. Central Pier was completed in 1868, with a theatre and a large open-air dance floor. The town expanded southward beyond what is today known as the Golden Mile, towards South Shore, and South Pier was completed in 1893, making Blackpool the only town in the United Kingdom with three piers. In 1878, the Winter Gardens complex opened, incorporating ten years later the Opera House, said to be the largest in Britain outside London.

Much of Blackpool's growth and character from the 1870s was due to the town's pioneering use of electrical power. In 1879, it became the first municipality in the world to have electric street lighting, as large parts of the promenade were wired. The lighting and its accompanying pageants reinforced Blackpool's status as the North of England's most prominent holiday resort, and its specifically working class character. It was the forerunner of the present-day Blackpool Illuminations. In 1885, one of the world's first electric tramways was laid down as a conduit line running from Cocker Street to Dean Street on the Promenade. The line was operated by the Blackpool Electric Tramway Company until 1892 when their lease expired and Blackpool Corporation took over running the line. A further line was added in 1895, from Manchester Square along Lytham Road to South Shore, and the line was extended north to Fleetwood. In 1899, the conduit system was replaced by overhead wires. The tramway has remained in continuous service to this day and is the United Kingdom’s only surviving first generation tramway stretching 11 miles (18km) from the airport at Squires Gate all the way to Fleetwood.

By the 1890s, the town had a permanent population of 35,000 but could accommodate 250,000 holidaymakers. The number of annual visitors, many staying for a week, was estimated at three million. The decade also saw the opening of two of the town's most prominent buildings, the Grand Theatre on Church Street, and Blackpool Tower on the Promenade.

Documents have been found to suggest that the reason Blackpool escaped heavy damage in World War II (1939-1945) was that Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) had earmarked the town to remain a place of leisure after his planned invasion. Despite this, on 11th September 1940, German bombs fell near Blackpool North railway station and eight people were killed in nearby houses in Seed Street. This site today is occupied by the new Town Hall offices and a Sainsbury's supermarket. No plaque has ever been erected to remember the injured or dead.

The rise of package holidays in the late 1960s and 1970s took many of Blackpool's traditional visitors abroad, where the weather was more reliably warm and dry, and improved road communications, epitomised by the construction of the M55 motorway in 1975, made Blackpool more feasible as a day trip rather than an overnight stay. Despite this, the town’s economy, however, flourishes relatively undiversified and firmly rooted in the tourism sector and remains the most popular seaside resort in the country. However, the town has suffered a serious drop in numbers of visitors which have fallen from 17 million in 1992 to 10 million today.

The three main tourist hotspots in Blackpool originally appeared as part of the flourishing tourist industry. The first is Blackpool Tower which opened in 1894 and has been a dominant landmark of the Blackpool skyline since that time. Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, it is 518ft 4in (158m) in height (roughly half the size of its more famous original) and houses a complex of leisure facilities, entertainment venues and restaurants, including the world-famous Tower Ballroom and Tower Circus, at its base.

The second, Pleasure Beach Blackpool, originates back to around 1910 and boasts rides including the Pepsi Max Big One which, between 1994 and 1996, was the world's fastest and tallest complete circuit rollercoaster. It was the country's most popular free attraction with 6 million visitors a year but has lost over a million visitors since 1998 and has recently introduced a £5 entrance fee.

The third is the North Pier, the northern-most of Blackpool's three piers, which includes a small shopping arcade, a small tramway and the North Pier Theatre. The pier end also used to have a helicopter pad, but this was damaged in a Christmas storm in 1997 and collapsed into the sea.

The Venue

Derby Baths, North Promenade

The games were played in Blackpool’s Derby Baths, an indoor swimming pool complex built in 1938 on the corner of Warley Road and the Promenade. It was located half a mile to the north of Blackpool's South Promenade Bathing Pool which had previously hosted It's A Knockout and Jeux Sans Frontières on five occasions in 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971 and 1976. However, the Bathing Pool had closed in 1981 due to rising costs and the loss of holidaymakers to overseas rivals, and therefore the nearby Derby Baths was selected for this water-based Domestic Heat. 

Opened in 1939, the Derby Baths building was named after local landowner the Earl of Derby. In common with the town's outdoor baths, its design - by J.C. Robinson, who had earlier designed the Bathing Pool - was inspired by classical forms, but the building was more austere, functional and crisply modern. It utilised sea water, sourced from the nearby Blackpool Sea Water Works pumping station, which ceased operations in 1983.

Among the many unique features of the Derby Baths was its roof, made from green Westmorland roofing slate, quarried in the Lake District at the time of the construction. The main pool was an eight-lane Olympic-sized construction and was set in a yellow-tiled art deco space with seating for an audience of 1800 people. Underneath it was a maze of corridors leading to slipper baths, saunas and steam rooms. Also hidden away in the depths of the building was a BBC broadcasting station, which regularly brought the sport of swimming into people's living rooms. There was also a cafeteria, built below pool-level, from which diners could idly watch people swimming past its reinforced windows.

The pool was a hugely popular Blackpool destination, and among its claims to fame are that Beatles legend John Lennon (1940-1980) swam there, and Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984), Olympic gold medallist and silver screen Tarzan, starred in several Derby Baths summer shows in the 1930s and 1940s, including The Water Follies (1949). In sports, it was home to the major International, Olympic, European and Commonwealth level swimming and diving event, as well as annual Amateur Swimming Association Centralised Championships, Water Polo, and Synchronised Swimming Championships for many years.

After a major extension they were officially reopened in 1965. The Derby Baths were closed in 1990 and attempts were made to secure listed status in order to have the building preserved, but these proved unsuccessful. Demolition went ahead in the same year, amidst great controversy, and today the site is fenced-off green space. The hotel building that was built next to the Baths in 1982 - as The Pembroke - still stands and, after many years as a Hilton Hotel, is now a Grand Hotel.

A small, positive coda to the story of Derby Baths is that at the time of demolition a holiday cottage company, Coppermines, purchased the building's roofing tiles and these have now returned to the Lake District, where they had been sourced from originally. They have been used for the roofing of holiday homes in the Coniston area.

Returning Teams and Competitors

The Blackpool team's Joker was played by Rex Strong, a professional wrestler. Strong had previously competed in It's A Knockout and Jeux Sans Frontières under his real name Barry Shearman. He had been a member of the Blackpool team during the 1971 series and, before that, had also participated for the Shrewsbury team in the 1969 International Final.

Additional Information

This was the first occasion that a standard domestic It’s A Knockout had been held wholly indoors. Previously, however, the 1978 special It's A Miners Knockout had also been staged in an enclosed arena, the ring at The Tower Circus, also in Blackpool.

This heat featured one of the toughest games in the history of the series. The marathon saw two team members swim from the pool’s edge to a rope that was hanging from the roof of the pool. They then had to climb up the rope and burst the first three balloons which were attached to a board 30-40ft above. Once completed and safety back in the pool, the next team member repeated the task (to burst the fourth, fifth and sixth balloons) and so on. In total, there were ten balloons on each board. All three teams were level on 6 balloons each after their first attempts, but Blackpool could not improve its score on its second attempt. In the last heat Chorley were against Warrington, and whilst Chorley managed to burst nine balloons, Warrington burst their ninth balloon just outside limit time and scored 8 balloons. Chorley were awarded six well-deserved points.

Warrington were six points clear before the last game and the team could not be beaten. As it happened, the Warrington team finished third on the game!

Made in Colour • This programme exists in the BBC Archives

GB

The Knockout Championship 1981

Domestic Final

Event Staged: Sunday 14th June 1981
Venue: Arena North, Park Hall, Charnock Richard, Lancashire, England

Transmission:
BBC1 (GB exc. Wales): Friday 11th September 1981, 7.00-8.15pm
BBC1 Wales (CYM): Sunday 27th September 1981, 1.55-3.10pm

Theme: Domestic Re-run

Teams: Dartmouth v. Dunfermline v. Kingston-Upon-Hull v. Luton v.
Sherborne v. Sunderland v. Warrington

Team Members included:
Dartmouth (Full Squad) - Timothy Price (Team Manager), Adrian Lloyd (Team Coach), Peter Collins (Team Captain), Malcolm Shillabeer (Vice Team Captain), Lindsay Brown, Michelle Brown, David Collins, Sidney Davies, Jacqueline Davies, Katie Distin, Sheree Dove, Cameron Dunn, Heather Fisher, Richard Hilliard, Gary Lobb, Eddie Lennon, Sheena Marrs, Patrick Mills, Martin Payne, Ian Pollard, Alan Pook, Derek Rogers, Mary Wallace, Stephen Wallace, Christine Webb, Barry Williams, Barry Wilson;

Dunfermline - Mike Joiner (Team Captain), Dougie Arnill, Marie Blair, Bill Bunyan, Malcolm Cameron, Steve Coates, Pauline Lucas, Marilyn McLeod, Terry O’Connor, Jim Patterson, George Ross, Joyce Suitor, Ian Watson, Pauline Young;

Kingston-upon-Hull - Tony Taylor (Team Manager), Stan Heywood (Team Captain), Karen Almond, Tom Bowering, Karen Briggs, Paul Butler, William Butler, Martin Holmes, Stephen Hunt, Ian Hird, Angela Lutkin, Sue Pattison, Kevin Wardale, John Wheatley; Reserves: David Bottomley, Pam Hall, Gary Kitchen and Julie Wilkinson;
Luton - John Howells (Team Manager), Chris Dunington (Co-Assistant Team Manager), Bob Whan (Co-Assistant Team Manager), Tony Russell (Team Captain), Jackie Cross, Sharon Dillette, Mark Fairhurst, Lee Holten, John Ing, Della Isaacs, Andrew Mears, Terry Nicholls, Lorna Roberts, Joe Toomey and James Warren;
Sherborne - Tim Barclay, Sally Bunwell, David Butt, Philip Coulson, Penny Fowler, Colin Hayward, David Mason, Peter Mason, Jeff Palmer, Ian Rowe, Sue Rowe,Chris Thomas-Peters,
Rosemary Wanther;
Sunderland - Gary Hutchinson (Team Captain), Jean Applegar, Charlie Bentley, Tony Carlisle, Brian Davidson, Roy Davison, John Debraskey, Ross Edwards, Vivian Holmes, Norman Judson, Adrian Kelth, Elaine Mennison, Richard Wood, Kevin Youdan;
Warrington - Jim Cannon (Team Captain), Keith Barnett, Jan Blackwell, June Brimlow, Peter Dawson, Steven Gooch, Celia Johnson, Clive Jones, Alexic Jovitza, David Lyons, Colin Meechin, Glenroy Skeet, David Walker, Bernadette Woodhouse.

Games: Wasbees and Pollen, Tossing the Caber, Riding the Whale, Ski Boots, Budgies and Eggs, Evacuating the Castle, Raising the Sails and Kangaroo Ski Race;
Marathon: Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run! Run! Run!;
Jokers: Joker Playing Cards

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

Final Scoreboard

1st
1st
3rd
3rd
5th
6th
7th

 DU • Dunfermline ● ●
 DA • Dartmouth ● ●
 SH • Sherborne
 H • Kingston-Upon-Hull
 L • Luton
 SU • Sunderland
 W • Warrington

44
44
33
33
30
26
23

Additional Information

No tie-break was played and winners Dunfermline and Dartmouth each held the trophy for a six-month period.

Made in Colour • This programme exists in the BBC Archives

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