Andrew Flintoff

(b 1977)
Andrew (Freddy) Flintoff was born in Preston, Lancashire on 6th December 1977. He is Lancashire County and England Cricket player, widely regarded as one of the best all-round cricketers in the world. Andrew picked up the nickname "Freddie" when friends likened him to Fred Flintstone (the cartoon character). Flintoff was captain of the England under-19 cricket team for their "Test" match tour to Pakistan in 1996-7 and at home against Zimbabwe in 1997. He made his Test match debut for England in 1998 against South Africa at Trent Bridge
The early part of his career for was blighted by injury and weight problems; he was considered a raw talent, often accused of having a poor attitude to fitness and dogged by back problems. He was also widely reported as having a serious lack of concentration and frequently made wild ill-considered shots. However, by 2001 he had apparently addressed these early drawbacks and returned to play for England and inn 2002 he scored his first Test century.
The 2005 Ashes Test series against Australia turned out to be a total vindication of his talents. He played in all five test matches, scored 402 runs, the third highest for the series for England, and made more runs than any Australian player. As a bowler, Flintoff took 24 wickets, having now become a fiery fast bowler. England's historic winning of the Ashes was in no small part down to the great contribution made by Flintoff. For his achievements in the series he was named as "Man of the Series". His outstanding achievement also won him the inaugural Compton-Miller Medal. In October 2005, Flintoff shared the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC "Player of the Year" award with Jacques Kallis of South Africa. He has been likened to his boyhood hero, Ian Botham, and many believe that Andrew Flintoff will go on to be one of the best English cricketers of all time. He was also awarded the Freedom of the City of Preston in 2005.

Back to Top

DVDs about Ricky Hatton

Ricky Hatton

(b. 1978)
Born on the 6th October 1978 in Stockport, and still living at his home with his parents in Hattersley, Hyde, Ricky Hatton was a relatively little known light welterweight boxer until he burst onto the national scene on 4th June 2005 with a dramatic victory over Kostya Tszyu at the MEN Arena in Manchester to become International Boxing Federation Light Welterweight Champion of the World.
Hatton, a self-confessed Manchester City Football Club fanatic, might easily have followed in his father's footsteps and played football for Man City, but chose boxing instead.
While still an amateur boxer, he lost to a Russian fighter in the semi-finals of the world championships in 1996 and was so disappointed with his own performance that he reputedly locked away his bronze medal in a drawer and has never looked at it since.
He turned professional in 1997, and beat Tommy Peacock before going on to defeat Jon Thaxton in a British title bout.
In 2001 he decicively beat Tony Pep to win the World Boxing Union title. Soon known simply as the "Hitman", Hatton gained a reputation as a ferocious, aggressive and focused fighter. He trains out of a backstreet gymnasium in Denton, and is frequently to be seen doing road work down Stockport Road in the early hours of the morning.
By the time he faced hard man Kostya Tszyu as the supposed underdog in the title fight in Manchester, Hatton had been undefeated in the 38 previous bouts. Before a crowd of local fans, his determination and power dominated Tszyu throughout, forcing the Australian-based Russian, the hitherto so-called "Thunder from Down Under", to fail to continue beyond Round 11. Just now, the world seems to be Ricky's well-deserved oyster!

Back to Top

Books about Paula Radcliffe

Paula Radcliffe

(b. 1973)
Paula Jane Radcliffe was born on 17 December 1973 in Davenham near Northwich, Cheshire and grew up in Barnton before moving to Kingsley. She has become one of the country's best known and most celebrated long distance runners, and is nowadays based at Bedford & County Athletics Club.
Paula first came to a wider public notice in 1992, when she defeated Wang Junxia to win the World Junior Cross-Country title in Boston, despite suffering for much of that season with anaemia.
Due to a leg injury, she was forced to watch the 1994 events in Budapest from the sidelines on crutches, but by 1995 she was back on form and finished fifth in the Gothenburg World Championships over 5000 metres.She came fifth again Olympic Games in Atlanta and improved to fourth position in the 1997 World Championships. In 1998 she moved up to the 10,000 metres event.
Her first major medal win was a silver medal at the 1999 World Championships. A variable performance meant that at the 2000 Olympics, though setting a new UK record she failed to finish among the medalists.
Paula has now set five UK records at 5000 and 10,000 metres, and three at 3000 metres. She won the world half-marathon gold medal at Veracruz in Mexico in 2000 and successfully defended her crown in Bristol in 2001.Wins at the European and the Commonwealth Games in 2002 as well as the Chicago Marathon, resulted in her being voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
There followed mixed fortunes, with her missing the World Championships in Paris due to injuries, a world best time in the 10 kilometre race in Puerto Rico, and a win at the Flora London Marathon later in which she beat her previous time by a full two minutes. In the BUPA Great North Run her time was the fastest half-marathon ever run by a woman although the nature of the Tyneside course ruled it out for record purposes.
Her defeat in Japan followed but she bounced back by winning the European cross-country title in front of an appreciative home crowd at Edinburgh, leading Britain to team gold.
Disaster struck during the 2004 Olympics where she failed to finish the course and seemed to have had her nerves badly shaken.
Despite her variable performances, Paula Radcliffe retains her position as one of Britain's leading British athletes.

Back to Top

David Lloyd

(b. 1947)
David Lloyd was born on the 18th March 1947 in Accrington, Lancashire, and has had a celebrated career as Captain of the Lancashire County Cricket Team, as well as representing Cumberland and England.
A former England team coach, Lloyd is a left-handed batsman and a slow left-arm orthodox bowler, and in an
outstanding professional career he has scored 20,000 runs (including 43 hundreds), taken 247 wickets as a bowler and made 360 catches.
He was Captain of Lancashire for five years and played nine times for England with a top score of 214 not out against India in 1974.
In his last match for Lancashire in 1983 he scored 100 runs.
When he was head coach for Lancashire, they achieved significant success in the one-day matches. Later, as England coach, he led the team to a series win against the New Zealand Kiwis in early 1997.
He played at one time for Cumberland before becoming a first-class umpire.
He has also been a member of the BBC's 'Test Match Special' commentary team, where his down to earth attitudes and winning Lancashire accent made him both popular and respected. He is known, affectionately, as "Bumble"!
Always a powerful motivational speaker who galvanised England cricketers into action, he has made a second career over the past decade as an entertaining after-dinner speaker, where his amusing personal cricketing anecdotes are in ever popular demand.

Back to Top

Geoff Duke

Geoff Duke OBE

(b. 1923)
The name of Geoff Duke OBE is synonymous with powersport, for he dominated motorcycle racing in the 1950s, winning six world championships and five Isle of Man TT races. Born Geoffrey Ernest Duke on March 29th 1923 in St. Helens, Lancashire, Duke came to prominence after winning the 1949 Senior Clubmans TT and the Senior Manx Grand Prix and was to become the very first post-war motorcycling 'superstar', popularly known amongst the racing fraternity simply as 'the Duke'.
He was signed up to the Norton works team for the 1950 TT, finishing second in the Junior and breaking both lap and race records in the Senior.
After several notable wins for Norton he surprised everybody by moving abroad to Gilera in 1953. In 1955 he was declared the first rider to lap at 100mph. His final race was the 1959 Junior when he finished fourth on a Norton.
Duke cut a distinctive figure on racing circuits as he was the first rider to wear one-piece leathers - he had enlisted his local tailor, Frank Barker from St Helens, to make the first of his now famous one-piece race suits. He was named Sportsman of the Year in 1951, awarded the RAC Seagrave Trophy and, in recognition of his services to motorcycling, was awarded the OBE (the Order of the British Empire) in 1953.
Highly honoured by the Isle of man, where he made so many of his world record breaking rides, a point on the Mountain Course has been named after him. Three sharp bends at the 32nd Milestone between Brandywell and Windy Corner now carry the title 'Duke's'.
After retiring from racing Duke became a successful businessman and formed Scuderia Duke with Gilera to produce racing machines

Back to Top

Books about Stanley Matthews

Sir Stanley Matthews CBE

(1915-2000)

Sir Stanley Matthews, the first professional footballer to be knighted, was the most renowned player of modern times. Born 1st February 1915 in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent in the Potteries, the son of a professional featherweight boxer, he attended the local Wellington Road School. He joined Stoke City Football Club straight from school at the age of fourteen and was already a Schoolboy International by 1929. Named as the 'Wizard of the Dribble', his professional career covered some 33 years until he retired in 1965 at the age of 50.
In 1932 he became a full-time professional footballer, favouring the right-back field position, and in 1934 he played for England in a full international for the first time. In 1947, on demobilisation from the RAF, he left Stoke City, and joined Blackpool Football Club, where he stayed for 14 years. During his time at Blackpool he achieved his greatest triumph in what became known as "the Matthews Cup Final" of 1953, paving the way for Blackpool's win over Bolton Wanderers.
He played his last international match, against Scotland, in 1957, and in that year was made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).
Matthews was knighted in 1964, and played his last game in 1965, shortly after his 50th birthday.
During a long and successful career Matthews was awarded many honours, including being named 'Footballer of the Year' in 1948 and 1963 and 'European Footballer of the Year' in 1956. He was given the International Fair Play Committee Award for Services to Sport 1987.
In all he made 664 league appearances, won 84 England caps and scored 11 goals for England.
Widely regarded as a 'gentleman' player, Matthews did not receive a single booking during his long career. He died on the 23rd of February 2000 aged 85. At his funeral, around 100,000 people lined the streets of Stoke-on-Trent to honour their local hero.

Back to Top

Billy Nevett

(1906-1992)
Billy Nevett started out as a groom, and worked his way up to become a championship winning jockey during his heyday of the 1940s and early 1950s. He rode several winners in the Derby - the first one in 1941 on Owen Tudor (trained by Fred Darling), then in 1944 on Ocean Swell (trained by Jack Jarvis and owned by Lord Rosebery), and perhaps his most famous win in 1945 on Dante.
Though born in Chorley, Lancashire, Nevett lived in Yorkshire most of his racing life, He was also known buy a nickname - the press they called him 'Cock of the North'.. The Billy Nevett Memorial Handicap is named in his honour.

Back to Top