Stuart Pyke (born 8 July 1961) is a British-born sports journalist and broadcaster. Stuart was born in

St Helens, Lancashire St Helens () is a town in Merseyside, England, with a population of 102,629. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, which had a population of 176,843 at the 2001 Census. St Helens is in the south-west of the ...

, 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 h ...

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 The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet ...

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 Engl ...

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 Foo ...

. 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 pay television, paid television sports news channel run by Sky Limited, Sky, a division of Comcast. History Since 1992, Sky Sports had broadcast sports news, initially a brief ''Football Update'' and lat ...

Current career

Stuart has commentated on many Rugby League

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves a ...

Finals,

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

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 BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra (formerly BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra) is a national digital radio station in the United Kingdom, operated by the BBC, and specialising in extended live sports coverage. It is a sister station to BBC Radio 5 Live a ...

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 ...

, was between Keith Deller and John Lowe. Since then, he has been involved in nearly every major

Professional Darts Corporation The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...

event live on

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 classi ...

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%). The ...

, PDC.TV at

Championship League Darts Championship League was a PDC darts tournament that used a league and legs format similar to the Premier League but offered the top players outside the top 8 in the PDC Order of Merit a chance to compete for the championship. It was the first e ...

, 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 website

Stuart Pyke's studio - Reactive Audio

Unicorn Web Site - Stuart Pyke blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pyke, Stuart British male journalists British sports broadcasters Darts people Living people 1961 births