News Of The World Winners

In the 1950s Unicorn Darts established a relationship with The News of the World Tournament, which was in reality the championship of England and Wales. Before the war it was only run on a regional basis, becoming national in the 1947-48 season. Scotland were admitted to the championship for the first time in the 1971-2 season and over the next two decades, champions from Europe, Australia, the United States, Canada...and even Russia!...competed for the magnificent trophy.

Such was the importance of the event that the finals were regularly broadcast by the BBC on radio, well before the advent of television. In the mid 1970s, ITV filmed the finals for transmission on World of Sport.

The Tournament ended after the 1989-90 season although it was run again for one year in 1996-97 this time in conjunction with Sky Sports.

The record books show that the tournament produced more Unicorn winners than any other brand, establishing a pattern that we continue to the present day. The Unicorn Roll of Honour of News of the World Winners, which includes current Team Unicorn players John Lowe and Phil Taylor, is as follows:

Tommy Gibbons 1951-52, 1957-58	Tom Reddington 1954-55, 1959-60	Trevor Peachey 1955-56
Alwyn Mullins 1956-57	Albert Welsh 1958-59	Alec Adamson 1960-61
Eddie Brown 1961-62	Robbie Rumney 1962-63	Tom Barrett 1963-64, 1964-65
Wilf Ellis 1965-66	Wally Seaton 1966-67	Bill Duddy 1967-68
Barry Twomlow 1968-69	Dennis Filkins 1970-71	Brian Netherton 1971-72
Ivor Hodgkinson 1972-73	Bill Lennard 1975-76	John Lowe 1980-81
Mike Gregory 1986-87, 1987-88	Dave Whitcombe 1988-89	Phil Taylor 1996-97

We are proud of all these players, who have all contributed to Unicorn's reputation as 'The Big Name in Darts'.

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