Kirklees It’s a Knockout team reminisce about their victories back in 1976

Oct 30 2010 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

FOUR members of the triumphant Kirklees It’s a Knockout team have come forward to share their memories.

Earlier this week the Examiner ran a story about the BBC planning a documentary on the legendary show.

Researchers are keen to speak to the Kirklees team which won two famous victories in 1976.

And now four members of the team have contacted the Examiner to recall the days when they took on the best in Europe.

Dave Millman, 60, was one of 12 people to win a place on the team after trials at Huddersfield Sports Centre, where he worked as a PE instructor.

The Skelmanthorpe man said: “I think there were 200 people who applied and the trials went on for a week.

“After I won a place on the team I was in training at the sports centre three nights a week for the three weeks leading up to the programme.”

The BBC sent the team diagrams and explanations of the games they were to play at the Yorkshire heat at St Mary’s Playing Fields in Cleckheaton.

The Kirklees team took on Leeds and Doncaster in front of 4,000 fans and the BBC cameras in May 1976.

Dave took part in Give Me a Ring, a game involving a rotating see-saw.

He said: “It was very close but we played our joker which gave us double points, meaning we beat Leeds by one point.

“They were devastated and they were asking for re-runs because Leeds was hosting the next event. Kirklees hadn’t been going very long at that stage so it was sweet to beat Leeds.”

Almondbury magistrate Eileen Marchant, 65, was also a member of the team.

“I remember it absolutely poured down from start to finish in Cleckheaton,” she said.