Ian Stafford

Last updated

Ian Stafford is a multiple award-winning English sports journalist, author and broadcaster, whose work appears both in the UK and internationally, especially in the United States and Australia. He is also a sought after after dinner speaker, interviewer of stars and compere, acts as a consultant for a number of media outlets and owed and edited the UK's first general sports magazine on the internet, sportsvibe before selling it.[ citation needed ] In 2017 he launched the Sporting Club – a private networking club for sport, the business of sport and those who like sport, with permanent homes, many high-level functions and proactive networking – which now has five venues in London plus Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Durham.

Contents

Career

Journalism

As a journalist Ian has worked for The Times , Daily and Sunday Express , The Independent and The Scotsman and The Mail on Sunday , where he was Chief Sports Reporter, covering every major sporting event over the past 25 years. He has been voted Sports Reporter of the Year, twice Magazine Sports Writer of the Year, twice highly commended as Sports Interviewer of the Year and twice highly commended as Magazine Sports Writer of the Year and, in 2009, was highly commended as Sports Writer of the Year in the BPA Awards.[ citation needed ]

Author

He is also an author of participatory books, including Playgrounds of the Gods (Mainstream, 1999), in which he played squash against Jansher Khan, boxed against Roy Jones Jr., was a substitute for the Springboks rugby team against Ireland, was 12th man for Australia in a one-day cricket international against New Zealand, ran in the Kenyan 3000 metres steeplechase national trials, and partnered rower Steve Redgrave at the Henley Royal Regatta. Playgrounds of the Gods was short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. [1] [2] His second participatory book, In Your Dreams (Headline, 2001), saw him play football for Everton against Manchester City, sprint in the Norwich Union indoor athletics championships, be "Bomber" Pat Roach's tag wrestling partner, play rugby union for the Leicester Tigers against ULster, rugby league for Wigan against St Helens, cricket for Yorkshire and race for the Jaguar F1 team. [3] In In Search of the Tiger (Ebury Press, 2003) he plays golf with Ernie Els, Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo, Justin Rose and Jack Nicklaus before meeting Tiger Woods and in Who Do You Think You Are ... Michael Schumacher? (Ebury Press, 2006) he races with or against the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya, Jenson Button, David Coulthard and many others before a final, head to head with Michael Schumacher at the Race of Champions. [4]

In total he has written 23 published books. Others are The Winning Mind (Aurum Press, 1996), a sports psychology book with Steve Backley; Born To be King (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996), biography of Prince Naseem Hamed; Toughing it Out (Orion, 1997), autobiography of explorer David Hempleman-Adams; Grand Slam Champions (Orion, 2003), story of England rugby's Grand Slam; World Cup 2003 (Orion, 2003), official account of England's world cup triumph; Ashes Fever (Mainstream 2005), account of England's Ashes victory; Easy Ryder (Mainstream, 2007), account of Europe's Ryder Cup triumph; New Kid on the Grid (Mainstream, 2008), account of Lewis Hamilton's first season; World Cup 2007 (Orion, 2007), official account of England's world cup campaign; Formula One Opus (Opus Publishing, 2010), official F1 Opus; Mad Dog and Englishman (Hodder & Stoughton, 2011), autobiography of Lewis Moody and the Maradona and Usain Bolt Opuses.

Magazine content writer

Ian's participatory adventures also saw him write The Player series of stories in Esquire magazine where, among other features, he performed stand up comedy mentored by Ed Byrne at the Best of the Fest show at the Edinburgh Festival, appeared as a Shaolin Monk at the Liverpool Empire, a disc jockey on Virgin Radio, a sous chef alongside Gordon Ramsey at Ramsey's flagship Chelsea restaurant, a clown and fire eater at Gerry Cottle's Circus, trekked at the North Pole with explorer/adventurer David Hempleman-Adams, ran with the 2004 Athens Olympics torch in Greece, took on Jonah Lomu in a one-on-one tackle session; ran five times with the bulls at the San Fermin Festival in Pamplona; completed the Cresta Run 10 times; winning the Isle of Wight Yacht Race with Ellen Macarthur.

Broadcaster

As a broadcaster Ian has appeared regularly on British and occasionally international TV and radio networks. His credits include Grandstand, Sportsnight, Sport on Friday, Newsround and Going Live, all on the BBC as a sports reporter; "GMTV" (sports reporter; Quizbowl (Channel 4), captained Mail on Sunday to series win; wrote and narrated two BBC Radio 4 documentaries: Dr Feelgood (on German sports doctor Hans Muller-Wohlfart) and The Khans of Peshawar (on the Khan squash dynasty); plus numerous appearances on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio 5 Live, Channel 4 News, Channel 4's Big Breakfast, Channel 5 News, CNN World Sports, Sky News, Sky Sports, BT Sport. International appearances include WGBH Boston, Channels 7 & 9 in Australia, Supersport in South Africa.

In 2016, he conducted a series of one-hour interviews for Talksport's Talking 2 series with the likes of Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Dave Brailsford, Eddie Jones, Michael Johnson, Tim Henman and David Coulthard. From January 2018 to December 2020 Ian presented a weekly show on Talksport 2 called Press Pass on Sunday mornings.

Business activities

Stafford was also the co-founder, co-owner and Managing Editor of Sportsvibe.co.uk, a sports online magazine with news, features, competitions and videos based in London. This was sold in 2017.

In the summer of 2014, as joint CEO, he launched "MC & Hammer" together with music industry veteran Nick Stewart which has become Britain's only all-female sports speaking agency. See www.mcandhammer.co.uk. He is also a regular speaker, compere, auctioneer and Q&A chair on the sport circuit.

In December, 2014 Ian, as Editor in Chief, also helped launch www.kicca.com, a new sports social media and content platform with (to date) 400 top sports stars on board.

In April 2017 Ian launched the Sporting Club in London's Mayfair. To date the club has 5 venues in London (Mayfair, Soho, Oxford Circus, Canary Wharf and the City) and 5 more in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham and Durham, has staged numerous lunches and dinners (Eddie Jones, David Coulthard, Michael Johnson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Sir Clive Woodward, Lord Seb Coe, Thomas Bjorn, Sugar Ray Leonard, Frankie Dettori, Freddie Flintoff to name but a few), breakfasts, book signings and evening panel events, and has many hundreds of members, all enjoying the private networking club with permanent homes for those who have played sport at a high level, those who love their sport and those in the business of sport.

Related Research Articles

Talksport, owned by Wireless Group, is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The station was originally launched as Talk Radio UK in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Coulthard</span> Australian sportsman

George Coulthard was an Australian cricketer and Australian rules footballer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Murray</span> Northern Irish broadcaster

Colin Murray is a Northern Irish radio and television presenter. In 2010, he became host of BBC Television's Match of the Day 2 on BBC Two, while still anchoring shows on BBC Radio 5 Live, including 5 Live Sport and Fighting Talk and was still presenting on BBC Radio Ulster. He has previously hosted regular Channel 5 television and BBC Radio 1 shows. In 2007, he was named 'Music Broadcaster of the Year' at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.

Ian Payne is a British broadcaster. He is currently a sports correspondent at ITV News and the host of early breakfast 4am-7am current affairs phone-in show on LBC. He previously worked as a presenter for Radio 5 Live and Sky Sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rugby league in Australia</span> One of Australia’s most popular sports

Rugby league in Australia has been one of Australia's most popular sports since it started being played there in 1908. It is the dominant winter football code in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. In 2022, it was the most watched sport on Australian television with an aggregate audience of 137.3 million viewers. The premier club competition is the National Rugby League (NRL), which features ten teams from New South Wales, four teams from Queensland, and one team each from Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The premier representative competition is the annual Rugby league State of Origin featuring two sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons is often referred to as “Australian sport's greatest rivalry”, it is one of Australia's premier sporting events, attracting huge interest and television audiences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clare Balding</span> English broadcaster, journalist, TV presenter and author

Clare Victoria Balding is an English broadcast journalist and author. She currently presents for BBC Sport, Channel 4 and BT Sport and formerly presented the religious programme Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2. Balding was appointed as the 30th president of the Rugby Football League, serving a two-year term until December 2022.

<i>Sportsround</i> Television series

Sportsround was a weekly spin-off from CBBC children's news programme Newsround. The sports magazine show was broadcast between 2005 and 2010, on Friday evenings at 6:30pm on CBBC Channel and on Saturday mornings on BBC Two at 7.25am.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sport in Australia</span> Overview of sports traditions and activities in Australia

Sport is an important part of Australia that dates back to the early colonial period. Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, association football, cricket and tennis are among the earliest organised sports in Australia. Sport has shaped the Australian national identity through events such as the Melbourne Cup and the America's Cup. Australia also holds the record for the largest attendance at a Rugby Union match with almost 110 000 watching the Wallabies play the All Blacks in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nine's Wide World of Sports</span> Australian sports anthology series

Nine's Wide World of Sports is a long running sports anthology brand on Australian television that airs on the Nine Network and streaming service Stan. All major sports, events and series covered by the network are broadcast under this brand, the flagship sports being rugby league, rugby union and Grand Slam tennis. Previous sporting rights include the Australian rules football, Australian Cricket Team home season, spring and autumn horse racing, swimming until 2008, and golf since 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rugby union in Russia</span>

Rugby union in Russia is a moderately popular sport. Russia was in 2011 ranked 20th worldwide by the World Rugby, having over three hundred clubs and close to 22,000 players nationally. Russian Rugby Championship is the top-level professional competition held in Russia. Krasnoyarsk, in the middle of Siberia, is traditionally the heartland of Russian rugby.

John Rawling is a British boxing, track and field, darts and yachting commentator, currently working for BT Sport, ITV and Talksport. He has become known as one of the best known voices of boxing commentary. With BT, John commentates alongside former World Super-Middleweight champion Richie Woodhall, while former World Cruiserweight champion Glenn McCrory is his co-commentator with Talksport. On ITV darts broadcasts, John commentates with Chris Mason, Stuart Pyke, Dan Dawson and Alan Warriner-Little, while Mason and Paul Nicholson are alongside him for Talksport darts coverage. John also commentates on Paralympic sports for Channel 4. He was the lead commentator for Channel 4 in their award-winning coverage of the 2012 Paralympics in London and the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Korea.

ABC Sport, formerly ABC Radio Grandstand, is a live radio sports focused commentary and talk-back program which runs on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) local radio network across Australia and on one digital-only station.

Jim Proudfoot is an English football commentator who has worked on national radio and television since the late 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RTÉ Sport</span> Department of Irish public broadcaster RTÉ

RTÉ Sport is a department of Irish public broadcaster RTÉ. The department provides sporting coverage through a number of platforms including RTÉ Radio, RTÉ Television, RTÉ.ie, RTÉ Player Sport and RTÉ Mobile. RTÉ holds the television and radio broadcasting rights in the Republic of Ireland to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flagship analysis programmes such as The Sunday Game, Thank GAA It's Friday, Soccer Republic and RTÉ Racing on RTÉ Television, and Game On, Saturday Sport, and Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Coulthard</span> British racing driver

David Marshall Coulthard is a British former racing driver from Scotland, later turned presenter, commentator and journalist. Nicknamed 'DC', he competed in 15 seasons of Formula One between 1994 and 2008, taking 13 Grand Prix victories and 62 podium finishes. He was runner-up in the 2001 championship, driving for McLaren.

Martin Gillingham is an English sports commentator and journalist. He commentates on rugby union for various broadcasters including Sky Sports, BT Sport, ITV, SuperSport, and Setanta Ireland, and on athletics for Eurosport.

Ian Lucas is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 1990s. He played at representative level for Great Britain, and at club level for Wigan, as a prop, and coached at club level for Leigh. Ian Lucas won caps for Great Britain while at Wigan in 1991 against France, and in 1992 against Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Montgomery (broadcaster)</span> New Zealand sports broadcaster

Peter John "PJ" Montgomery is a New Zealand sports broadcaster. His work has covered many sports, but he is best known as "The Voice of the America's Cup" on New Zealand and International radio and television. He is often remembered for "The America's Cup is now New Zealand's Cup", his summary when New Zealand won their first America's Cup in San Diego in 1995. The line was voted the most memorable sporting commentary moment in history by the Sunday Star Times.

The Sports Book Awards is a British literary award for sports writing. It was first awarded in 2003 as part of the National Sporting Club. Awards are presented in multiple categories. Each category is judged by one of: sports writers and broadcasters, retailers and enthusiasts. The winners from each category are then opened to public vote through a website to choose an overall winner. The other major sports writing award in Britain is the William Hill Sports Book of the Year.

This is a timeline of the history of rugby union on television in the UK.

References

  1. Book of the Week: Playground Of The Gods – The Fulfillment of a Sporting Fantasy
  2. "Playgournd of the Gods (book review)". Sunday Times. London). 19 September 1999. ProQuest   320643092.
  3. "A sporting chance at making dreams come true In Your Dreams (Book Review)". The News Letter. 3 August 2001. ProQuest   324682881.
  4. "Chase to overtake Schumacher serves up a hilarious formula ; Who do you think you are. . .Michael Schumacher? (book review)". Birmingham Post. 1 October 2005. ProQuest   324031676.