Dickie Davies obituary

As the unflappable presenter of World of Sport for almost two decades, Dickie Davies, who has died aged 94, was distinctive for the white quiff in his fringe and a name that stuck in people’s minds.

When he first filled in as the summer replacement for Eamonn Andrews on ITV’s Saturday afternoon answer in 1965 to the BBC’s Grandstand, he was billed as Richard Davies. Three years after taking over as the regular presenter in 1968, he was given some advice by Jimmy Hill, the football player and manager-turned-TV executive who was head of sport at LWT, which produced the programme.

“My wife called me Dickie but, in the television world, it was considered Richard sounded much more proper,” recalled Davies. “On our way to a game of golf one day, Jimmy said, ‘Why don’t you just tell them you want to be known as Dickie?’ The difference it made was phenomenal.”

Hill completed the transformation by encouraging Davies to wear the dapper suits for which he was known off screen and to grow a moustache and sideburns. Over the next 17 years, until World of Sport was axed in 1985, these attributes – combined with a beaming smile – made Davies one of TV’s most recognisable stars. Later, hosting programmes on single sports events, he donned his tuxedo to present the richest fight in boxing history, Marvin Hagler v Sugar Ray Leonard, from Las Vegas (1987).

At its height, World of Sport’s five-hour programme would begin with the football preview show, On the Ball, and end with the day’s results. Sandwiched in between would be live horse racing and professional wrestling, which gained a cult following for its showbiz approach to pre-recorded bouts featuring Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Jackie Pallo, Mick McManus and others who became