Stuart Pyke (born 8 July 1961)
is a British-born sports journalist and broadcaster. Stuart was born in
St Helens, Lancashire, and is married to Christine. He has two children; Daniel and Rachael and two stepdaughters Emma and Victoria.
He is now most well known for his darts and rugby league commentary on
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
and rugby league commentary on
BBC Radio Five Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcas ...
. He also writes for the
Daily Telegraph,
Sunday Express and the website of darts equipment manufacturer, Unicorn.
Early career
Stuart started commentating on sport back in 1984, when he joined
Piccadilly Radio
Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West is an Independent Local Radio station based in Manchester, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio Network. It broadcasts to Greater Manchester and North West Eng ...
in Manchester, after a four-year grounding on local newspapers. He commentated on
Oldham Athletic
Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system.
The history of Oldham Athletic be ...
's football matches during their most successful era, when they reached the League Cup Final and won promotion to the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
. During his time at Piccadilly Radio Stuart also commentated on Rugby League matches often combining commentary with programme presentation from the ground he was at.
He then moved on to become the Cricket Correspondent for Independent Radio News, covering England tours to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies. He also covered Rugby League and was the first man to cover a
Great Britain Lions
The Great Britain national rugby league team represents Great Britain in rugby league. Administered by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the team is nicknamed The Lions.
For most of the 20th century, the Great Britain team toured overseas, ...
Tour for the Independent Radio network in 1988, when Great Britain were in Australia and New Zealand.
In 1998, Stuart moved into television sport and for five years he covered the North West region for
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News (SSN) is a British paid television sports news channel run by Sky, a division of Comcast.
History
Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and later this was expanded into a ...
.
Current career
Stuart has commentated on many Rugby League
Challenge Cup Finals,
Super League Grand Finals and Great Britain test matches during his career. Since 2002 he has been heard regularly on Five Live and its digital companion station
BBC Five Live Sports Extra covering Rugby League and other sports.
Having always been a huge darts fan he joined the Sky Sports team at the 2003 World Matchplay tournament. His first match, with
Sid Waddell
Sid Waddell (10 August 1940 – 11 August 2012) was an English sports commentator and television personality. He was nicknamed the 'Voice of Darts' due to his fame as a darts commentator, and worked for Granada, Yorkshire, BBC and Sky Sports. D ...
, was between Keith Deller and John Lowe. Since then, he has been involved in nearly every major
Professional Darts Corporation event live on
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
,
ITV4
ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult classic ...
,
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
, PDC.TV at
Championship League Darts,
US Open with South African Masters in 2007 and 2008 on
Nuts TV
Nuts TV was a British television channel related to '' Nuts'' magazine. Nuts TV began broadcasting on Freeview channel 42 on 12 September 2007, and launched on Sky Digital on 21 January 2008. A 1-hour timeshift channel, Nuts TV +1 launched on ...
and
Challenge TV
Challenge is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel mostly transmits game shows from the UK and around the world, with some original productions.
History
The Family Channel
The channel was ...
.
References
External links
Stuart Pyke's official websiteStuart Pyke's studio - Reactive AudioUnicorn Web Site - Stuart Pyke blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyke, Stuart
British male journalists
British sports broadcasters
Darts people
Living people
1961 births