JEUX SANS FRONTIERES 1972 DELFT HOLLAND PART 1/3

NO COPTRIGHTS INTENDED
Event Staged: Wednesday 16th August 1972
Venue: Oude Markt, Delft, Netherlands
Theme: The Netherlands
Teams: Leuven (B) v. Giubiasco (CH) v. Ahrensburg (D) v.
Saintes (F) v. Luton (GB) v. Sermoneta (I) v. Bladel (NL)
Games: Tour of the Netherlands, The Commentators' Race, Drawing the Cows, The Visiting Tourists, Herrings, The Cheese Walk, Dutch Wedding and The Barrel-Organ;
Fil Rouge: The Cortege of Flowers.
Did You Know?
This heat was held in front of the Protestant Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in the beautiful Market Square of Delft which is also the home of the Renaissance-style Stadhuis (City Hall). In 1584, William the Silent was entombed here in a purpose-built mausoleum for members of the Dutch monarchy. Both buildings were designed by Hendrick de Keyser and his son, Pieter. Since then, members of the House of Orange-Nassau (the Royal Dutch dynasty) have been entombed in the royal crypt. The latest incumbents were Queen Juliana and her husband Prince Bernhard in 2004. The church itself has the second highest tower in the Netherlands.

The JSF International Heat cost an estimated 100,000 Dutch guilders (c.£12,750) to stage, an increase of 20,000 guilders (c.£3,500) on the cost of the 1971 International Heat from Rotterdam. The programme was seen by an audience of 3 million viewers in the Netherlands and 80 million viewers across Europe. Organisers claimed that the programme would even reach television owners in Northern Africa, who took the Eurovision link live. If this was the case, then it would have most likely been a regular service to the region.

Props and equipment constructed, purchased or hired for this International Heat included: 300 square metres of reinforced steel, 860 square metres of foam plastic, 500kg of paint, 70kg of glue, 30 cubed metres of styrofoam and 100 litres of liquid designed to look like milk.

Pam Lewis, Luton's female team coach revealed that following rehearsals on Tuesday 15th August 1972, several of the games were found to be impractical, dangerous or too easy. Following consultations with the Dutch games designers, some of the games had to be revamped. "We made sure the team were in bed by midnight whilst John Howells, John Riches and I had an emergency meeting on how the games should be tackled. We feared disqualification if we did not play them to the rules". She added, "Luton were the red-hot favourites to win after the two rehearsals, but it looked like we were not going to live up to those expectations after the first two games".

With less than 24 hours to the actual recording, the British team were rocked by news of an alleged scandal. The Italian team from Sermoneta claimed that the BBC had passed details of the games to the Luton team, weeks before they were officially revealed on Monday 14th August 1972. Sermoneta team member Paolo Santamaria claimed that one of his team-mates had earlier engaged in conversation with a Luton team member who had accidentally let slip that the team had been informed about the games after their Domestic Heat win. BBC commentator Eddie Waring replied to the allegations by stating that they were just an attempt by the opposition to unnerve the team. He added, "I am sure no one at the BBC would have revealed the games. These allegations go on every year."

Even though Luton's win did not qualify them for the International Final, it did not dampen the team's post-event celebrations, which ended with the whole Luton team invading Stuart Hall's hotel in Delft, and dragging him down to the fountain outside, into which they threw him!


Stuart Hall joined the It's A Knockout team this year and quickly made his mark on mainstream television. Jeux Sans Frontières 1972 saw a British win to kick off the series, three wins from the Germans, but the Swiss won when it really mattered, on home soil in the International Final.