Dave Lanning (24 March 1938 – 29 October 2016) was an English sports commentator and journalist, best known for his coverage of 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 ...

. He was brought up in

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

and educated at

Poole Grammar School Poole Grammar School (commonly abbreviated to PGS) is an 11–18 selective boys grammar school and academy in the coastal town of Poole in Dorset, in the south of England. The school is twinned with Parkstone Grammar School. It is a member of t ...

Broadcasting career

He was one of the commentators for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

' coverage of the

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

tournaments. He covered the first

PDC World Darts Championship The PDC World Darts Championship, known for sponsorship purposes as the Paddy Power World Darts Championship is a world championship competition held annually in the sport of darts. The championship begins in December and ends in January and has ...

with John Gwynne in 1994 and was ever present with the company for a long period, commentating on all their televised tournaments on Sky. Prior to the 2011 World Championship, Lanning announced that he had retired from commentating. As part of ITV's World of Sport's original roster of commentators, he commentated on the first ever televised nine dart finish hit by John Lowe against

Keith Deller Keith Deller (born 24 December 1959) is an English former professional darts player best known for winning the 1983 BDO World Darts Championship. He also won the Unipart British Professional Championship in 1987. He was the first qualifier t ...

on 13 October 1984. He commentated on all darts tournaments and World of Sport darts action broadcast on ITV from 1972 to 1988. He also commentated on

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida. *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta. *Indianapolis Motor Spe ...

, a sport he knew well having been installed as the promoter of the

West Ham West Ham is a district in East London, England and is in the London Borough of Newham. It is an inner-city suburb located east of Charing Cross. The area was originally an ancient parish formed to serve parts of the older Manor of Ham, a ...

team in 1966. He provided the commentary for '' The Indoor League'' and occasionally covered football for his home region of

Southern Television Southern Television was the ITV broadcasting licence holder for the South and South-East of England from 30 August 1958 to 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited. However, in 1966, during the application pr ...

in the mid-to-late 1970s. Lanning came out of retirement on New Year's Day 2013 when he commentated on Sky's 3D coverage of the PDC World Championship final between Phil Taylor & Michael Van Gerwen.

Writing

Lanning had a stint as the television critic for ''

The Sunday People The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881. At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ' ...

'' newspaper. He had a 28-year association with '' TV Times'', and was speedway correspondent for ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' for 20 years.

In popular culture

In ''

An American Werewolf in London ''An American Werewolf in London'' is a 1981 comedy horror film written and directed by John Landis. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, the film stars David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne and ...

'', Lanning is the commentator of the match on the TV between Rab Smith and

Cliff Lazarenko Cliff Lazarenko (born 16 March 1952) is an English former professional darts player. Nicknamed "Big Cliff" due to his height (193 cm / 6'4") and weight (over 127 kg at his peak), he is known for being a colourful character on and off ...

Death

Lanning died aged 78 on 29 October 2016 after a short illness.

References

1938 births 2016 deaths English sports broadcasters English male journalists English sportswriters Darts people People from Poole Place of birth missing People educated at Poole Grammar School Professional Darts Corporation Hall of Fame {{UK-tv-bio-stub