Nigel Pearson – A Tribute

As I made the trip to Armadale last night for the I received a message informing me that Nigel Pearson had died and, in that moment, I prayed it was a mistake.

Surely not, not Nige.

Unfortunately, not long after the news of his tragic passing at only 52 was confirmed and truth be told I, like many others was stunned and truly shell-shocked by the news. Now there have been thousands of tributes over social media etc and lots of kind words said about the man who did so much for our great sport.

Now I’m not sure if I can ever do the man justice with my words or not but I simply can’t let it pass by without sharing some of my stories of Nigel and the impact he had on me. It’s no secret that I have always been a huge fan of Nigel Pearson and Kelvin Tatum on commentary and despite a few folks online criticising them, I was always of the opinion that nobody was even remotely close to being on their level.

Nigel’s enthusiasm for speedway was simply infectious and you couldn’t help but love the man for that because ultimately, he was a fan just like us and he just got the hype around the sport. That same hype that we’ve tried so hard to explain to our “non speedway” mates, Nigel got it.

He did more to promote the sport than most in the last 15 plus years and between him and Kelvin Tatum they had this knack of making a mundane meeting entertaining and between them they didn’t just commentate, they made meetings, they made moments, they made magic.

On many an occasion I have seen me show some of those non speedway pals an epic race on YouTube and they would often say “Who’s the guy commentating?!” Enough said really.

The camaraderie, the banter, and my god the catchphrases…there are no words to describe just how phenomenal and iconic that was. Truth be told it wasn’t uncommon for myself and my speedway mates to recycle plenty of that content between us, both in younger days and even now. In fact, just about every single one you can think of, we will have recycled them repeatedly and then recycled them some more.

I could talk all day and long into the night about that alone, but I want to share a couple of stories about my own experiences with Nigel.

When Sky Sports came to Berwick a few years ago, I got a Tweet from Nigel saying that he had enjoyed my programme column and to keep up the good work. That coming from a man of Nigel’s stature in speedway and journalism in general meant a lot to me and it was something I never forgot.

Fast forward to last season and I received a very surprising email from Nigel saying that he had been keeping an eye on my content and if I was interested in doing some work for him. Initially I thought this was a wind up but naturally I jumped at the chance and as such that opened lots of doors for me.

It eventually resulted in me having columns in the Speedway Star as well as in programmes for Leicester, Poole and Belle Vue, with perhaps the crowning achievement being a column in the British Final programme.

There is a side story to the British Final column though, when he sent me the PDF of the programme to see what I thought I noticed that the column that was printed wasn’t what I sent for the intended use in that programme. Truth be told I was gutted but I wasn’t sure whether to say anything or not but after carefully selecting my words I mentioned it to him.

After realising his error, he replied “Oh B******s! I don’t know how I have done that!”

I replied saying it wasn’t a problem I was just pleased to be included. Ten minutes later he responded to me and said to check the Speedway GB website. He had used my column there instead because in his words, it was too good not to be seen.

Just class.

Despite me being nothing like qualified and arguably having no right to be in any of those publications, Nigel gave me a chance and as a result, I had arguably the best season I have ever had.

That is something that I will be forever grateful for, and it is something that I will never ever forget.

The legacy that Nigel Pearson has left on speedway will be felt forever and the impact that he has on people’s lives will equally be felt forever. He will be massively missed by everyone in the speedway world, and I know I’m not alone in sending condolences to his family and friends.

Thank you for the memories, thank you for the moments and thank you for everything you have done for speedway.

Thank you for being “Simply Sensational.”

Thank you, Nigel Pearson.

Of course if you wish to agree, or disagree with the Mythman, have an idea for a feature, or you simply wish to chew the fat over all things speedway, you can email me jbspeedwaymedia@hotmail.com or get in touch via the JB Speedway Media Facebook page. If your compliments, or indeed gripes can be contained to limited characters you can tweet @Mythman666.

Until next time…and there will be a next time.

Right, I’ll hae’tae gan.

Mythman