The world according to Kirkey
The fabled phoenix from the fire is a metaphor for resurrection, rebirth, and resurgence. Its reality is somewhat rarer, with museums providing an anthology of things past that were never destined to return. In my own lifetime, I’ve witnessed the death and permanent disappearance of all manner of technologies and ways of doing things. But … Read more
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
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
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
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
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
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
Grandmaster, Anatoly Karpov, once quipped, “Chess is everything: art, science, and sport.” Arguably this statement could be applied to many other pursuits, although its perfect fit with speedway is inescapable. The best vantage point to appreciate all three facets of this statement is trackside, but close on the heels of being part of the live … Read more
To paraphrase Lady Bracknell, to lose one WhatsApp message may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two – or, in the Prime Minister’s case, significantly more – looks to be beyond carelessness. Sunak’s WhatsApp mishap points to a bigger question: could this tendency to mishandle communication technology be contagious? Are those that orbit the … Read more
At its heart, speedway is a risky business. Injuries are, unfortunately, par for the course, although the steely resolve of the riders who entertain us often produces an almost unnatural pain threshold. Getting up and dusting themselves down after the most horrific of crashes is commonplace, as are the many occasions when riders knowingly drop … Read more