Dickie Davies
British television presenter (1928–2023)
Richard John Davies (30 April 1928 – 19 February 2023) was a British television sports presenter who anchored World of Sport from 1968 until 1985.
Early life
Davies attended Oldershaw Grammar School in Wallasey after passing his eleven-plus; he then did National Service in the Royal Air Force, and worked as a purser on the RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth ocean liners.
Career
His first job in broadcasting was as an announcer for Southern Television. In the early stages of his career, Davies was known by his full name, Richard Davies, but changed to Dickie Davies at the suggestion of his ITV Sport colleague Jimmy Hill. Davies began work on World of Sport (initially called Wide World of Sports) in 1965 as an understudy to Eamonn Andrews, who was paid £40,000 by ITV to present it (about £825,250 at 2022 prices)—taking over the role of presenter in 1968 when Andrews left the show.
After World of Sport ended in 1985, Davies stayed with ITV, presenting boxing, darts, and snooker, as well as playing a part in their coverage of the 1988 Seoul Olympics. He left ITV Sport in August 1989.
After leaving ITV, Davies joined the original incarnation of Eurosport, which was then owned by Sky, and the European Broadcasting Union. He fronted their snooker coverage, including the one-off 1991 Mita World Masters. He presented sports bulletins from his home for Classic FM in its early days as its inaugural sports editor.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Dickie Davies” is british television presenter (1928–2023). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Dickie, Davies and British, not as a finished interpretation.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5273683. The first chronological checks are 1928, 2023, 1968 and 1985.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dickie Davies” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.