"Why does it have to happen to the nice guys?" It was a
question the world wind-surfing champion, Nick Dempsey,
asked me over the weekend.
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Sports Insider
Ian Stafford is a multi award-winning sports writer, author and broadcaster, with 25 years' experience at the highest level of both national and international media. He has written for The Times, The Daily Express, Sunday Express, The Independent, The Scotsman and, for many years, The Mail on Sunday, where he is a senior sports writer, as well as for a host of magazines ranging from Esquire to High Life, Reader's Digest to Newsweek. In his time he has been voted Sports Reporter of the Year, twice Sports Magazine Writer of the Year, twice highly commended for his sports interviews, twice highly commended for his magazine writing, and finished 2nd in 2009 in the prestigious British Press Awards. He has covered every major sports event in the world since 1988, and interviewed just about every sports star.
Ian has also appeared regularly on a host of terrestial and satellite television programmes over the past 20 years, and remains a familiar face on TV and voice on Radio 5 Live and Radio 4, where he has written and narrated sports documentaries.
He has written 14 books, many of which have been best -sellers, including his well-known four participatory books, "Playgrounds of the Gods," "In Your Dreams," "In Search of the Tiger" and "Who Do You Think You Are ... Michael Schumacher?" For four years he also wrote "The Player," a participatory column in Esquire magazine.
In December 2009 he co-launched Sportsvibe.co.uk, which he co-owns and edits. In its 15-month lifespan to date Sportsvibe has become a major sports entertainment site that is enjoyed around the world and boasts significant figures.
From the Web
Having finally got to view the movie, "The Flying Scotsman,"
it brought back many memories of various trips I used to
make to the west coast of Scotland to visit Graeme Obree,
one of the most complex and maverick sports stars this
country will ever produce.
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Amid the bigger story of Swansea winning the Capital One Cup
yesterday at Wembley was the on pitch squabble between
Nathan Dyer and Jonathan De Guzman over who should take the
penalty to make the score 4-0.
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Edwards Wants Jones v Collins Rematch
It was deep in the bowels of the Stade de France late on
Saturday night and Shaun Edwards was smiling.
This wasn't surprising considering the Welsh rugby team had
just ended a miserable losing run of eight test matches with
a character-filled 6-13 win in the RBS Six Nations against
France in Paris.
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Watching Sir Chris Hoy’s excellent and loving documentary
about Colin McRae the other night reminded me of the day I
spent with the Flying Scot a few years’ back in a
rain-sodden Cumbria where the silence of the breathtaking
countryside was shattered by the roar of a rally car.
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It has been a year beyond our dreams, a year when everything
seemingly came together in one, massive click, and a year
when sport – yes sport, that useless pastime considered
nothing more than “Games” over the years by politicians
and some schools – reared its head again to declare its
crucial role in British...
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I was not that surprised when I heard that Ron Howard, the
acclaimed American film director and the man behind such
movies as Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind and Frost/Nixon, has
now turned his attention to the story of Niki Lauda, the
incredible Austrian Formula One racing driver who, having
won a world title, all...
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Even the best of the best begin to decline as age seeps in
but, even though Ricky Ponting may not quite be as good as
he was, which is the reason why the Australian cricketer
announced his retirement from test cricket today, he will go
down as one of the greatest men to have...
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So no more Ben Ainslie, then, at the Olympics.
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I am almost incredulous with the news that some –
presumably a very small, moronic minority of West Ham
so-called fans – were making anti-semitic chants yesterday
at White Hart Lane and taunting their Spurs counterparts
about the Tottenham fans stabbed in Rome last week.
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