Colin Minton (2 October 1945 – 12 December 1998) was an English professional
darts
Darts is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small projectile point, sharp-pointed projectile, projectiles known as dart (missile), darts at a round shooting target, target known as a #Dartboard, dartboard.
Point ...
player who competed in the
British Darts Organisation
The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, and dissolved in 2020 under the stewardship of Des Jacklin. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and ...
on 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Minton was best known for winning the first series of
The Indoor League
''The Indoor League'' was a pub games competition series that was produced by Yorkshire Television and aired from 1973 until 1977. The programme was hosted by former England cricketer Fred Trueman (1931–2006).
Background
The first series o ...
,
the TV show that kickstarted the live showing of darts on TV. Minton was invited to the show as a largely unknown darts player as the first series only had players from the Yorkshire region and matches were played on the no trebles Yorkshire dart board.
He beat Gerry Haywood, a well known darts player who went on to play in world championships, 2–1 in the semi-final before beating Charles Ellis of Bradford 2–0 in the final winning the £100 grand prize.
Minton was invited back for the second season of the Indoor league but with the field extended to the whole of the UK he lost in the quarter-final to Welsh international
Tony Ridler.
Despite winning the first Indoor league tournament Minton never went on to play high level darts during the first peak of the late 1970s and 80s but continued to play locally in the Yorkshire area and won many local league trophies.
Minton died on 12 December 1998.
References
External links
Profile and stats on Darts Database
British Darts Organisation players
English darts players
1945 births
1998 deaths
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