World of Sport is a British television sport programme which ran on ITV between 2 January 1965 and 28 September 1985 in competition with the BBC's Grandstand. Like Grandstand, the programme ran for several hours every Saturday afternoon. Early years Eamonn Andrews was the first host and the programme itself was "compiled for Independent Television" by ABC Weekend TV from its Teddington Studios, with the other ITV stations contributing footage of events in their regions. Before World of Sport, sports events had been shown across the ITV network on Saturdays as separate programmes. From the summer of 1968, after ABC lost its franchise, it was produced by London Weekend Television (LWT) under the ITV Sport banner and hosted by Dickie Davies, who would remain the face of the show until it ended in 1985. Because LWT held a weekend-only broadcast franchise, Thames Television produced bank holiday (i.e. Monday) editions, which went out as Bank Holiday Sport and later Bank Holiday Sports Special, but still presented by Davies. Other World of Sport presenters were Fred Dinenage, Steve Rider and Jim Rosenthal. STV and Grampian sometimes opted out and showed their own version, billed as Scotsport Special. Presented by Arthur Montford, Scotsport Special did include some live coverage from England of events which were often not shown in their entirety due to the regional sporting events taking place in Scotland. Scotsport Special was also aired on Cup Final day, when the Scottish Cup Final was taking place on the same day as the Wembley event, with the Wrestling also being moved from its pre-lunchtime slot on Cup Final days back to the expected 16:00 slot in Scotland. The 500th edition was transmitted on 7 September 1974, while the 1000th edition was transmitted on 16 June 1984. Features The show included popular segments such as On the Ball (a preview of the day's football action), the ITV Seven (horse racing), and wrestling with commentator Kent Walton. It also showed sports not seen elsewhere, such as women's hockey, netball, lacrosse, water skiing and stock car racing or sports that were not popular with the British mainstream, such as NASCAR and ice speedway. It featured bizarre sports like the World Barrel Jumping Championships, and even death-defying stunts. It often featured show jumping and other equestrian events, especially in its earlier years, and towards the end of its life it showed snooker extensively. "Minority" sports were