Arthur: jettisoning the stabilisers for Speedway of Nations glory!
© Ian Kirke 2024 & all images. @ianjkirke
Sport
Tying up talent: speedway contracts.
Drawing a parallel between speedway and professional football is perhaps a less than perfect comparison when it comes to renumeration. The latter contains multiple examples of lucrative, often eye-watering contracts, which dominate the sports pages. As an example, in January 2018 Mesut Özil signed a three year contract with Arsenal worth around £55.9 million, including … Read more
Commercially speaking: Adam, Arthur and me.
When the call is made how could I refuse? UK Football Fans urgently needed to represent their teams in Major TV Broadcaster commercial campaign! The pitch: I’ve been a Notts fan since I was 10 years old – so 51 years of pain! I am a season ticket holder facing a 5-hour round trip for … Read more
Sliding Through Life – Scott Nicholls Autobiography.
Join one of the most decorated national speedway champions as he reflects upon his roller-coaster life, often on two wheels, but more so as an ordinary human being trying to make sense of it all. The urge to share his life story, or more accurately a work in progress, stems from one simple question – … Read more
Bikes, Camera, Action: Speedway Grand Prix 2024.
The 2024 Speedway World Championship hits the shale later this month, with series one of an eleven round tournament being held at Donji Kraljevec in Croatia (27th April). 15 racers, led by current Polish world champion Bartosz Zmarzlik, will contest the Grand Prix series that will again be hosted at several major European cities, including … Read more
No brakes, no gears, no fear: The 2024 Premiership Speedway season roars into action.
The 2024 ROWE Motor Oil Premiership media campaign burst into life at the National Speedway Stadium, Belle Vue, Manchester, on 20th March, where CEO, Phil Morris, choreographed an ambitious fiesta of fascinating interviews for the press and TV, alongside team building events for the magnificent turn out of riders and management. As the press conference … Read more
Tai Woffinden: the word on the street.
The 2024 ROWE Motor Oil Premiership media campaign burst into life at the National Speedway Stadium, Belle Vue, Manchester, last Wednesday (20th March), where CEO, Phil Morris, choreographed an ambitious fiesta of fascinating interviews for the press and TV, alongside team building events for the magnificent turn out of riders and management. As the press … Read more
The secret speedway mum.
In an age of equality, it may seem odd that elite team sport tends to reflect the old stereotype of gender bias. According to a variety of reliable sources, the most watched team sport is association football, with a worldwide fanbase of around four billion and an estimated 270 million actively engaged players; yet, there … Read more
The beautiful game: generations.
I’ve been to some big games: Wembley playoffs, promotions and championship clinching matches ─ and, being a Notts County fan, more relegation nail biters than I care to remember, but this match eclipsed the lot. The debut of my best friend, partner in crime, and ─ by reason of osmosis ─ a committed Magpie: Arthur … Read more
Bradford bromance.
Leaving base camp at a little after 8am, the train journey north from Reading would traverse to Birmingham New Street, then up to Leeds, and finally across to the promised land: Bradford. As a southern-based Notts County season ticket holder, I guess I could class most fixtures – in terms of distance ─ as away … Read more