IT was the year of a nation in turmoil – our streets were ablaze, rocks and petrol bombs filled the air, cars became burnt-out shells, shops were torched and looted, housing estates resembled war zones, mobs were on the rampage and police in riot gear became a familiar sight.

Millions were glued to their television sets for the latest bulletins as grim-faced newscasters such as Alastair Burnet, Richard Whitmore and Gordon Honeycombe relayed the shocking news over brash, flame filled, action-packed footage.

Those of us older than 40 will invariably recall the names of the communities in uproar during 1985 – Broadwater Farm in Tottenham, Handsworth, Peckham, Toxteth, Brixton, Cricklade….

I beg your pardon!

That’s right, its motto, ‘In Loco Delicioso’, may mean “in a pleasant place” – but one Saturday night in Cricklade 30 years ago this quaint Wiltshire town was far from pleasant.

Indeed, it was later likened by a Crown Court judge to a Wild West town where lynch law ruled.

And some British soldiers, ensnared in these deplorable scenes, said Cricklade, on that infamous April night in 1985, was scarier than anything they had witnessed while on active duty in Northern Ireland during the height of The Troubles.

Racial tension, urban decay, allegations of heavy handedness by the law along with the deaths of two women during police operations were among the key factors that triggered the riotous inner city events in London, Liverpool and Birmingham - with Brixton and Toxteth experiencing their second spells of mass violence within a few years.

But what on earth inflamed the passions of so many people in that sleepy, historic town on the Thames, with its picturesque High Street, Victorian Jubilee Clock, 11th Century church and population at the time of around 4,000?

What could have prompted such outrageous proceedings which saw this newspaper use words in its headlines such as “frenzied crowd,” “mob terror” and “riot thugs?”

It was – brace yourself - a darts match!

They’re pretty passionate about their arrows, out in North Wiltshire. But no-one, surely, could have predicted the outcome of an event organised at the town hall by the Cricklade Darts League.

It was the occasion of the league’s annual darts final which was won, fairly and squarely, by a team from the Army Catering Corps of the Royal Gloucester’s Regiment based at nearby South Cerney.

But in doing so they somehow managed - no-one quite knows exactly how - to incur the wrath and fury of fellow darts throwers and spectators.

While proudly collecting their trophy, the military boys - accompanied by wives and famiy - were roundly booed in a less than gentlemanly manner.

Back at their table, now adorned with a gleaming trophy, the 17 Army lads were at first taunted and then came serious under fire as they were rushed by a gang of 60 or so unsportsmanlike characters keen to exact revenge.

It was brutal stuff as their assailants struck out with fists and boots at anyone vaguely connected with the winning team, wives included. Feathers, you could say, flew…..along with tables, chairs and the sherry. Glasses – as one Army wife later put it – were “smashed to smithereens.”

Some of the protagonists, it later emerged, had been liberally swigging a whisky and sherry punch from a silver bowl.

“There were fights everywhere and everyone was shouting and screaming,” Swindon Crown court subsequently heard.

Police were shoved aside as they tried to usher the Catering Corps from the premises. The brawl spilled unceremoniously into the car park and onto the High Street.

As police reinforcements arrived from Swindon and Cirencester, the battered military group somehow scrambled onto their minibus which, despite attempts to both overturn it and wrench off its doors, eventually screeched away.

Around 150 drunken hoolies then battled it out with 30 police in Cricklade High Street as residents peered open-mouthed from behind their net curtains, blinking in horror and disbelief.

One elderly local, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, told the Adver: “We were all very frightened. At one stage police could not contain the situation.

“I saw truncheons drawn when one gang wouldn’t move. Police charged them.”

Some of the street fighting men grabbed milk bottles (remember them?) from doorsteps, smashed them and tried to use them as weapons, he said.

Cricklade, he added, without really needing to, had never seen anything like it – not in his lifetime.

PANEL ONE:

BAFFLED and bewildered, function organiser Charles Haines, chairman of the Cricklade Darts League, had no idea how it all happened.

It seemed to be going well, he told us, still in a state of shock, when “all of a sudden the place just erupted.

”I can’t pinpoint how it happened, or what the cause was.”

Shaking his head, he added: “I’ve been connected with the league for more than 30 years and it’s the first time we have had any bother like this. It’s a disgrace…”

A dozen people were injured, including one policeman who was treated at hospital

PANEL TWO:

ELEVEN men – eight from Cricklade, two from Fairford and one from Lechlade – appeared at Swindon Crown Court charged with causing an affray and some with assault.

And Judge Desmond Vowden QC was less than impressed with their antics.

Anyone who saw Judge Vowden in action during the Eighties would agree that he was a stern fellow, to put it mildly – an old fashioned beak who didn’t suffer fools or thugs.

The actions of those responsible for what was acknowledged as a “mini riot” were disgraceful, shocking and inexcusable, he ruled.

“If you think you can turn Cricklade into a Wild West town…you are wrong.” He most certainly would not allow “lynch law” to break out in Wiltshire.

If you don’t like soldiers, don’t have them in your darts league,” he advised them, before adding: “It was a miracle no-one was seriously hurt.”

The jury heard that during the almighty fracas people were kicked, punched and bitten.

Aged between 19 and 31, four defendants were acquitted while the others received sentences ranging from a year’s imprisonment to six months