The News of the World Individual Darts Championship was the first major organised darts competitions. The tournament was first organised in the 1927/28 season thanks to the support of the News of the World newspaper. There were around 1,000 entries in the first event, which was held in the Metropolitan area of London. There was however no national champion of the event until after World War II. It was revived as a national competition in 1947/48, and continued to be described as ‘the championship every darts player wants to win’ until it’s demise in the 1990s.The News of the World was the first nationally televised darts event as ITV broadcasted the championship from 1972 onwards. No reason was ever given for its cancellation, but it came as no surprise that the News of the World Championship ended in 1990. The News of the World Championship made a one-year reappearance in the 1996/97 season.
The tournament was noted for using an 8ft oche rather than the regulation 7ft 9 ¼ inches. To win the tournament you first had to play and beat your local opponents, before moving on to a regional final. If you’d win that one you’d go up against other regional champions to qualify for the National Championships. The entire tournament was played over only best of three legs. On it’s high over 300.000 players entered the tournament, making it probably the toughest tournament in the world 
