Rich Stonehouse

  • The Yahoo Sport Christmas Gift Guide: 7 great sports gifts to buy this year

    Christmas is nigh and like Wayne Rooney’s hair, your ideas for presents are thin on the ground. Most school bags are as dull as Alan Shearer being banterous with Gary Linekar. Sportpax’s sports-themed backpacks for kids are the perfect school or sports bag, with room for books, their lunchbox, boots and gym kit.

  • Meet the English footballer who was imprisoned by the Germans in WW1...and escaped

    Fred Spiksley, always in a hat, was the coach of Nuremberg in 1914. When International football first kicked off across Europe at the start of the twentieth century the idea of Germany – or any other continental side — beating England was regarded as unthinkable. One man who predicted that there may well come a time when England would face Germany as outsiders was the Sheffield Wednesday legend Fred Spiksley, whose remarkable career on the pitch was matched by his time as a coach and manager off it.

  • ‘The World Cup of horse racing’ - day one

    The Cheltenham Festival has been described as ‘The World Cup of horse racing’ and following 361 days of meticulous preparation from trainers, owners and jockeys  their equine athletes arrive in the Cotswolds in peak physical condition, dreaming of making history at a four day jamboree which is jump racing’s annual showcase. The meeting is famous for its Irish influence and despite only 10 thousand of each day’s 60,000-strong crowd coming from across the Irish Sea, it feels like the entire Emerald Isle has taken over the course and along with the very best horses and riders the Irish come thirsty, helping racegoers sink an estimated 265,000 pints of Guinness in total over the duration of the meeting. In 2016 a string of hot favourites all won leaving the bookies to shell out a staggering £60m and the oddsmakers are still shuddering at the prospect of Cheltenham kings Ruby Walsh (jockey) and Willie Mullins (trainer) teaming up to be the toast of punters again.

  • Book review: Flying over an Olive Grove: The remarkable story of Fred Spiksley

    A contemporary of Steve Bloomer, John Goodall and William “Fatty” Foulke, Fred Spiksley was one of the most famous footballers of the late-Victorian era, even if his name (often misspelt, during his career and beyond) is not as well-known today. The England and Sheffield Wednesday outside-left scored more than 300 career goals, and won every major honour available to him – the British Home Championship twice with England, and the Football League and the FA Cup with Wednesday.