Race across Europe with no brakes: The 2023 FIM Speedway Grand Prix.

With the opening round of this year’s ten round world championship hitting the shale in Croatia in a few days’ time (29th April), I was fortunate to catch up with the British contingent of GP stars – three times world champion, Tai Woffinden (32), plus Robert Lambert (25) and Dan Bewley (23), now truly international … Read more

Engrossed in Erotica: a female perspective on porn.

My personal pathway to pornography was – I guess – progressive, in as much as my first contact or event involved a relatively tranquil take-off ─ flicking through the pages of a well-thumbed and discarded magazine in a local lorry park, aged around twelve, with my mate Alan. This experience was somewhat delicate when compared … Read more

Paris RG12 1BD.

In the not too distant past, inside the quintessentially boutique Parisian bars, people enjoyed conviviality, camaraderie, and congenial conversation. Relationships flourished, romance was alive, deals were done and the world’s woes were put to right. Solitude and reflection were equally effortlessly executed if sought ─ whilst reading a paper, or simply people watching. Those halcyon … Read more

The Book of Mormon: one in the eye for indoctrination.

The Book of Mormon engages with the terrains of disinformation, religious ideology, and hope; influences that affect everyone, but most just doff their hats in the general direction and conveniently shuffle away. Intertwined with female genital mutilation, dysentery and fucking frogs, the show manages to be both hilarious and powerfully thought-provoking. Sticking a finger up … Read more

Put your money where your mouth is: sponsors of speedway.

Allegedly, when asked “How do you become a millionaire?” Sir John Madejski – the former chair of Reading Football club – replied, “Start off with five million and buy a football club.” Speedway may be in a different financial league to most upper tier football clubs, but nonetheless certain parallels can be drawn in terms … Read more

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the first corner: what makes the stars laugh out loud?

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator says, “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s … Read more

Winning: it’s a funny old game!

The late, great, footballer, Jimmy Greaves, is credited with coining the phrase – “It’s a funny old game!” The same can be said about speedway as club fortunes can often experience glory one season, then gloom the next. Peterborough fans will testify to that in recent years. With the often unpredictable nature of rider averages, … Read more

Lost in literature: The Peter May effect.

I’m often impatient, infuriating, and – apparently – annoyingly inquisitive. In my academic life I have had to become engrossed within huge tomes of social, legal, and scientific data, regularly scanning the tedious text for the golden nugget; the bottom line; the epicentre of the empirical data. This is always a systemic slog with my … Read more