Friday, 15 September 2017

791 Sporting Triangles


First  viewed : 7  January  1987

This  was  ITV's  belated  attempt  to  match  BBC  One's  long-running  A  Question  of  Sport.  The  teams  of   sporting  celebrities  had  to  navigate  their  way  around  a  Trivial  Pursuits-style  board  answering  questions  relating  to  their  own  sport  or  others,  depending  where  they  landed.  Like  its  rival  Sporting  Triangles  started  with  two  teams  of  three  under  resident  captains  Jimmy  Greaves  and  Tessa  Sanderson. It  switched  to  three  teams  of  two  when  Emlyn  Hughes  was  poached  from  AQOS . Andy  Gray  began  his  TV  career  here  as  an  alternative  captain, the  shows  featuring  three  out  of  the  four  in  random  combinations. Nick  Owen  was  quizmaster  for  the  first  two  seasons  then  was  replaced  by  Andy  Craig  until  the  show  was  axed  in  1990.

I  checked  out  the  first  episode  with  its  strong  line  up  of  guests  ( Bryan  Robson, Dennis  Taylor, Seb  Coe  and  Lloyd  Honeyghan )  but  didn't  watch  much  of  it  after  that. That's  not  because  I  thought  it  was  atrocious  but   I'm  not  a  general  sports  fan  and  didn't   have  the  appetite  for  two  sports  quiz  programmes  a  week.

1 comment:

  1. I do remember this, mainly for the many barbed comments in my family towards Hughes (knowledge of the rivalry between Barrow and those of us further up the Cumbrian coast may help!)... in my faded memory, there's an episode with Ian St John featuring as a guest, presumably in a move to replicate the chemistry between him and Greaves.

    Somehow, to a nine year old, it didn't seem as fun as Question of Sport.

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