By Elliott West
“A wonderful friend and colleague”.
Jim Rosenthal
Introduction
It was sad to hear the news this week that Dickie Davies had passed away, aged 94. Speak to anyone of a certain age and they will have fond memories of this debonair sports presenter who literally enlightened you about a multitude of sports from football and wrestling to the unknown of log rolling on ITV’s flagship Saturday show World of Sport from 1968 to 1985. Davies rose to stardom after the then-host, Eammon Andrews quit the show after a three-year stint in 1968. An exit that allowed Dickie, a former RAF National Service conscript and purser on ocean liners, the keys to a wealth of sports that would act as a rival for the BBC’s Grandstand for many years, especially the traditional football scores.
Background
Born Richard John Davies in 1928, Davies was a grammar school boy who attended Oldershaw Grammar School in Wallasey. After National Service in the Royal Air Force and spells as a purser on RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth cruise liners, Davies moved into television, getting his first break as a presenter on Southern Television but was persuaded to change his television name to Dickie by Jimmy Hill. Davies went on to join a new ITV sports programme in 1965 called initially called Wide World of Sports as an understudy to the then presenter, Eammon Andrews. Andrews was paid £40,000 a year to present the show, the equivalent of £825,000 in today’s money.
World of Sport
After the departure of Eammon Andrews in 1968 and a name change to World of Sport, Dickie Davies quickly fitted into his new promotional presenter role. In a studio that looked more like a typing pool, Dickie at his desk was flanked by a sports team who pumped out information on typewriters and teleprompters. Despite this hive of activity, Davies always seemed to have his fingers on the pulse of sport. With his signature moustache and streak of grey hair running through his always immaculate coiffure, Dickie was the ultimate perfectionist. Whether presenting a piece to the camera or interviewing a sports personality, he was always calm and collected, highly read on the necessary research and always at pains to put his interviewee at ease.
Snooker
Dickie Davis was a pioneer in making snooker a mainstream sport on television. A snooker presenter on Thames Television, LWT and various ITV networks, Davies had to quickly pick up this complicated game. Snooker had been on World of Sport since the start in a sepia black and white from the National Level Club. Davies presented five tournaments per season for ITV including such legendary events as the Ladbroke International Tournament, Yamaha International, Mercantile Classic, International Open and the British Open. He was the man that pacify Alex Higgins and squeeze a conversation out of the ultra-shy Steve Davis.
Dickie Davies was part of this tidal wave of snooker that washed through the late 1970s and 1980s. He witnessed the characters and saw Alex Higgins completing the Times crossword or listened to Cliff Thorburn about his hustling days in Canada. Davies was in his element and just took it in his stride. He entered the snooker world cold and left educated and inspired.
Later Years
When his run at World of Sport ended in 1985, Dickie went on to present darts, boxing, and snooker and was part of the ITV team at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, his fourth Olympic Games. He also presented Jigsaw and the ITV quiz Sportsmasters and Grand Sportsmasters. He parted ways with ITV in 1989 and went on to work for the newly formed Eurosport, then owned by Sky and the European Broadcasting Union. One such programme was snooker’s short-lived 1991 Mita World Masters. He also presented sports bulletins on Classic FM in the early days.
However, a stroke in 1995 left him incapacitated for a while and he was forced to give up media work. He did make a good recovery but it would be two years before his speech returned to normal. He went on to present a programme called Dickie Davies’ Sports Heroes and Sky’s Bobby Charlton’s Football Scrapbook and fronted a tribute show to World of Sport in 2005. He was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Royal Television Society in 2005.
