Ian Stafford

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|date=May 2011}}

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.[https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/book-of-the-week-playground-of-the-gods--the-fulfillment-of-a-sporting-fantasy-1120653.html Book of the Week: Playground Of The Gods – The Fulfillment of a Sporting Fantasy]{{cite news |title=Playgournd of the Gods (book review) |newspaper=Sunday Times |location= London) |date=19 September 1999|id={{ProQuest|320643092}} }} 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.{{cite news |title=A sporting chance at making dreams come true In Your Dreams (Book Review) |publisher=The News Letter |date=3 August 2001|id={{ProQuest|324682881}} }} 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.{{cite news |title=Chase to overtake Schumacher serves up a hilarious formula; Who do you think you are. . .Michael Schumacher? (book review) |newspaper=Birmingham Post |date=1 October 2005|id={{ProQuest|324031676}} }}

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.

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.

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.

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Category:Living people

Category:English sportswriters

Category:English broadcasters

Category:English rugby union commentators

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)