Author: Joe Leavey

Joe is a 23-year-old graduate of the University of Birmingham, where he completed his undergraduate degree in English Literature & American Studies. Always a far more adept viewer than participant, although not for a lack of trying, Joe became heavily involved in student radio whilst at Birmingham. He served as Deputy Head of Sport, hosting regular shows on various topics and recording weekly commentaries on University sport as well as writing for the station website. A long time fan of Arsenal, Joe has been going to the Emirates for nearly 10 years, whilst a year of studying in America helped to cement an interest in Baseball and the Chicago Cubs. Work experience at ITV, where he wrote a piece for the website, Seven League and Aser Media among others has helped Joe to gain a greater contextual understanding of the industry as a whole, and he is now studying for an MA in Sports Journalism at St Mary’s.

What have England fans been googling during the World Cup?

by Joe Leavey - 29 June 201829 June 2018 0983

Google reveals all. Whilst England’s encouraging start to the World Cup has got many excited, especially with what looks like a comparatively favourable route in the knockout stages, most superstitious England fans would baulk at any sort of lofty optimism regarding their team’s World Cup. Thanks to Google Trends, however,

Sports Journalism: Ethical Minefield or Vacuum?

Features

by Joe Leavey - 28 June 2018 0849

The British media are no strangers to ethical controversies. Phone-hacking scandals, the Fake Sheikh, and treatment of Christopher Jefferies have all tarnished the reputation of the press in this country in recent years. Sports Journalism, however, seems to have escaped these preconceptions. Perhaps because of the nature of the subject

Arsenal’s Gay Gooners lead the way at London Pride

by Joe Leavey - 26 June 2018 01350

Gay Gooners are true pioneers in English football. Founded in 2013, with over 650 members and counting, the group are football’s largest LGBT fan club. They were also the first to represent a football team at London Pride, and this year’s march on July 7th will be their sixth, helping to

London’s Winter Sports

by Joe Leavey - 14 June 201827 June 2018 0950

With temperatures back home in London currently peaking at 30C, common sense would suggest that now is not a time for Winter Sports in the capital. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Whilst the success of Lizzy Yarnold and Laura Deas in the Skeleton, and the continual strength

A Day at the Arsenal Museum

by Joe Leavey - 13 June 2018 01194

Despite a tricky couple of years on the pitch, Arsenal fans stand by their history. They became the first London club to win England’s top flight in 1931 and remain the capital’s most decorated side domestically, with 13 league titles and the same number of FA Cups. This history is well

“I so believed that we were actually going to get to the top six”: Dean Smith reflects on a frustrating season for Brentford

Football

by Joe Leavey - 5 May 201821 May 2018 0958

TS Eliot famously wrote - in his modernist epic The Waste Land - that ‘April is the cruellest month.’ Whilst the poet is here referencing the degradation of humanity, the line in fact seems cannily relevant to domestic football: April signals what many deem ‘the business end’ of the season. For

Dean Smith and Florian Jozefzoon on Brentford’s Premier League Dream

Football

by Joe Leavey - 27 April 201825 September 2018 01275

As another typically hectic end to the Championship season beckons, with plenty still to play for, Sports Gazette visited playoff hopefuls Brentford to chat to manager Dean Smith and forward Florian Jozefzoon about the final push. With just two games to go in the league this campaign, the Bees sit three

“That would be one of the fairytales of fairytales”: Gary Wolstenholme on Tiger Woods and the Masters

by Joe Leavey - 5 April 201811 June 2018 01223

It’s that time of year again: the azaleas are in bloom, the fairways preened and the green jackets pressed in preparation for the return of the Masters where, once more, there is a familiar name on the lips of all concerned: Tiger Woods. It’s now more than two decades since the

One step too far: a requiem for the Panini football sticker

Football

by Joe Leavey - 23 March 201823 March 2018 01251

Got, got need: Panini stickers are back! Cue the inevitable blitz of your local newsagent, the frustration as you tear open a pack only to be met with your 16th adhesive likeness of Graeme Le Saux, and the impromptu swap markets that will spring up in every park, office and school

Wilt Chamberlain and the Unbreakable Scoring Record

by Joe Leavey - 2 March 2018 01454

The debate surrounding sport’s unbreakable records always provides a fascinating microcosmic insight into the nature of competition at the highest level. Today marks the anniversary of perhaps one of the most enduring statistics in the world of professional sport: Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. To speculate on the nature of sporting records,