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Ben Dirs
Ben Dirs is a freelance writer and journalist. He was a sports journalist for the BBC news website from 2001 to 2017. Whilst at the BBC he covered a wide range of major sporting events. He provided live blogging on sports including boxing, golf and rugby for people who cannot watch live television coverage, often for people who live abroad. Dirs is the author oseven books He lives in Manchester with his dog Doris, a Boston Terrier. * ''We Could be Heroes: One Van, Two Blokes and Twelve World Championships'' with Tom Fordyce published 3 July 2009, charting the madcap escapades that resulted from trying to become the world champion in something. * ''Karma Chameleons: No-one said the search for happiness would be dignified'' was published in 2010. * ''Everywhere We Went: Top Tales from Cricket's Barmy Army'' about the Barmy Army was published in 2012. * ''The Hate Game: Benn, Eubank and Boxing's Bitterest Rivalry'', documenting the boxing matches between Nigel Benn and Chris Eub ...
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Blogging
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Until 2009, blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, "multi-author blogs" (MABs) emerged, featuring the writing of multiple authors and sometimes professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups, and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "microblogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into the news media. ''Blog'' can also be used as a verb, meaning ''to maintain or add content to a blog''. The emergence and growth of blogs i ...
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Press Gazette
''Press Gazette'', formerly known as ''UK Press Gazette'' (UKPG), is a British media trade magazine dedicated to journalism and the press. First published in 1965, it had a circulation of about 2,500, before becoming online-only in 2013. Published with the motto ''The Future of Media'', it contains news from the worlds of newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and online, dealing with launches, closures, moves, legislation and technological advances affecting journalists. Commercially, it is funded by subscriptions and by publication of recruitment and classified advertising, as well as occasional display advertising. Since 2010 it has been owned by Progressive Media International, which also owns the magazines ''New Statesman'' and '' Spear's''. History ''Press Gazette'' was launched in November 1965 by Colin Valdar, his wife Jill, and his brother Stewart. Upon the Valdars' retirement in 1983 the magazine was sold to Timothy Benn, who sold it in 1990 to the Canadian publishing c ...
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Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two cities and the surrounding towns form one of the United Kingdom's most populous conurbations, the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, which has a population of 2.87 million. The history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort ('' castra'') of ''Mamucium'' or ''Mancunium'', established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell. Historically part of Lancashire, areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated into Manchester in the 20th century, including Wythenshawe in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchest ...
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Boston Terrier
The Boston Terrier is a breed of dog originating in the United States of America. This "American Gentleman" was accepted in 1893 by the American Kennel Club as a non-sporting breed. Color and markings are important when distinguishing this breed from the AKC standard. They should be either black, brindle or seal with white markings. Boston Terriers are small and compact with a short tail and erect ears. The AKC says they are highly intelligent and very easily trained. They are friendly and can be stubborn at times. The average life span of a Boston Terrier is around 11 to 13 years. The American Kennel Club ranked the Boston Terrier as the 21st most popular breed in 2019. History The Boston terrier breed originated around 1875, when Robert C. Hooper of Boston purchased from Edward Burnett a dog named Judge (known later as Hooper's Judge), which was of a bull and terrier type lineage. Hooper's Judge is directly related to the original bull and terrier breeds of the 19th and earl ...
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Tom Fordyce
Tom Fordyce is a former BBC Sport journalist. He wrote text commentaries on cricket and tennis, also writing features on various other sports and blogging from a number of different events. Fordyce attended Westminster School, where he was a prefect. After graduating from Girton College, Cambridge in 1992 with a degree in Geography, he started his career as a features writer on ''Total Sport'' magazine and as a writer on the ''Sported'' magazine. Both magazines are now defunct due to low sales, although not primarily as a result of his articles. In 2007 he "blogged my way round the Rugby World Cup in a camper van" with BBC colleague Ben Dirs. He drove 4,500 miles around France whilst producing written and video diaries of the matches and interactions they had during the 44-day tournament. In 2008 he covered the Beijing Olympics on a number of different sports. Fordyce also acted as ghost writer for the newspaper columns of a number of athletes while at the games. He is a fan o ...
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Pan Macmillan
Pan Books is a publishing imprint (trade name), imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the United Kingdom, British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. Pan Books began as an independent publisher, established in 1944 by Alan Bott, previously known for his memoirs of his experiences as a flying ace in the First World War. The Pan Books logo, showing the ancient Greek god Pan (god), Pan playing pan-pipes, was designed by Mervyn Peake. A few years after it was founded, Pan Books was bought out by a consortium of several publishing houses, including Macmillan, William Collins, Sons, Collins, Heinemann (publisher)#Heinemann UK history, Heinemann, and, briefly, Hodder & Stoughton. It became wholly owned by Macmillan in 1987. Pan specialised in publishing paperback fiction and, along with Penguin Books, was one of the first popular publishers of this format in the UK. Many popular authors saw their works ...
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Barmy Army
The Barmy Army is a company that provides tickets and arranges touring parties for some of its members to follow the English cricket team in the UK and overseas. The Barmy Army was at first an informal group, but was later turned into a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales. The name is also applied to followers of the team who join in with match day activities in the crowd, but do not necessarily travel as part of an organised tour. Collins dictionary defines the word barmy as "slightly crazy or very foolish". The group, then less organised, was given its name by the Australian media during the 1994–95 Test series in Australia, reportedly for the fans' hopeless audacity in travelling all the way to Australia in the near-certain knowledge that their team would lose, and the fact that they kept on chanting encouragement to the England team even when England were losing quite badly. It was co-founded by Paul Burnham. History On the first day of the 1994 ...
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Nigel Benn Vs
Nigel ( ) is an English masculine given name. The English ''Nigel'' is commonly found in records dating from the Middle Ages; however, it was not used much before being revived by 19th-century antiquarians. For instance, Walter Scott published ''The Fortunes of Nigel'' in 1822, and Arthur Conan Doyle published ''Sir Nigel'' in 1905–06. As a name given for boys in England and Wales, it peaked in popularity from the 1950s to the 1970s (see below). ''Nigel'' has never been as common in other countries as it is in Britain, but was among the 1,000 most common names for boys born in the United States from 1971 to 2010. Numbers peaked in 1994 when 447 were recorded (it was the 478th most common boys' name that year). The peak popularity at 0.02% of boys' names in 1994 compares to a peak popularity in England and Wales of about 1.2% in 1963, 60 times higher. Etymology The name is derived from the church Latin '. This Latin word would at first sight seem to derive from the classical L ...
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Nigel Benn
Nigel Gregory Benn (born 22 January 1964) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1987 to 1996. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the WBO middleweight title in 1990 and the WBC super-middleweight title from 1992 to 1996. At regional level he held the Commonwealth middleweight title from 1988 to 1989. Nicknamed "The Dark Destroyer" for his formidable punching power and aggressive fighting style, Benn retired with an 83.3% knockout-to-win ratio. His best known fights include the successful world middleweight title defence against Iran Barkley in 1989, the two all-British world title contests against Chris Eubank, and the successful defence of his world super-middleweight title against Gerald McClellan in 1995. Prior to his fights, Big Ben would often chime before he came out to his ringwalk music. Early years and amateur career Benn was born in Ilford, East London, on 22 January 1964. Benn joined the Army at the age of 18 and was ...
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Chris Eubank
Christopher Livingstone Eubank (born 8 August 1966) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 1998. He held the WBO middleweight and super-middleweight titles between 1990 and 1995, and is ranked by BoxRec as the third best British super-middleweight boxer of all time. He reigned as world champion for over five years, was undefeated in his first ten years as a professional, and remained undefeated at middleweight. His world title contests against fellow Britons Nigel Benn and Michael Watson helped British boxing ride a peak of popularity in the 1990s, with Eubank's eccentric personality making him one of the most recognisable celebrities of the period. In his final two years of boxing he challenged then-up and coming contender Joe Calzaghe in a bid to reclaim his WBO super-middleweight title, with a victorious Calzaghe later claiming that it was the toughest fight of his whole career. Eubank's last two fights were against WBO junior-heavyweight champi ...
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Curtis Woodhouse
Curtis Woodhouse BEM (born 17 April 1980) is an English former professional footballer turned professional boxer and football manager, currently in charge of Marske United. Woodhouse played football as a central midfielder, and competed as a light-welterweight boxer. He is the former British light-welterweight champion. His career in the Football League spanned across nine seasons, earning four caps for the England under-21 football team. Woodhouse's professional boxing record stands at 29 fights 22 wins, 13 of which are by knock-out, and 7 defeats. He started his footballing career with York City's centre of excellence before joining Sheffield United. In November 2001, he was transferred to Birmingham City for a fee of £1 million, before joining Rotherham United in January 2003, on loan for five months. He then joined Peterborough United on a free transfer in October 2003. In May 2005, he joined Hull City for £25,000, before joining Grimsby Town just eight months lat ...
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Journalisted
The Media Standards Trust is a British media think tank formed in 2006. It carries out research on issues in the media sector. It also advocates for press freedom as well as industry quality, transparency and accountability. It is a registered charity and is not aligned with any political party or media company. Activities Media Standards Trust hosts debates about standards in the news media, conducts research into areas it considers of concern, hosts online projects, and formerly sponsored the Orwell Prize. Projects Journalisted.com In 2007 the MST founded journalisted.com. The site has an archive of over four million news articles and a database of the work, biographical and contact information of several thousand journalists. The site scrapes the news articles from several national and local publications, and sorts them according to byline. The database is utilized by the MST for conducting research into matters relating to news coverage; a weekly newsletter is published summa ...
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