Sporting Triangles

Host

Nick Owen (1987-88)

Andy Craig (1989-90)

Co-hosts

Team captains:
Jimmy Greaves
Tessa Sanderson (1987-88)
Andy Gray (1988-90)
Emlyn Hughes (1989-90)

Broadcast

Central for ITV, 7 January 1987 to 13 August 1990

Synopsis

A Question of Sport a la ITV. Team captains were Greavesie, Tessa Sanderson and Emlyn Hughes, and they would be partnered by "Random Sports Stars 5, 6 and 7".

This was basically a Trivial Pursuit-style sports game. The board was computerised, and in the original version there was also a physical electronic one around the outside of the studio. As this was rather clever, and this being an ITV show, it was immediately removed from subsequent incarnations.

The second incarnation of the Sporting Triangles set

Teams would roll an electronic dice to decide how many squares they moved. They would then get a question depending on what colour they landed on. There were four colours: three of them represented the teams, in which case they would get a question on one of that team's sports. If they landed on white they could get anything. In later series, they added other rounds into the game (Who am I? etc.). There was also a rule that let you change squares into your own colour if you answered a question while on an opponent's square, but we don't really care any more. In fairness, the show wasn't bad and had its moments, although frankly not many, and it might well have done better if it hadn't had such a hard act to follow, ie A Question of Sport. 'Sporting Triangles' is therefore probably best summed up as being like the proverbial curate's egg.

Inventor

Devised by Biffo Productions.

Theme music

Specially composed by Nigel Beaham-Powell for Central TV

Trivia

The executive producer was ITV sports reporter Gary Newbon.

Web links

Wikipedia entry

Merchandise

A Sporting Triangles board game was produced.

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