Steve Rider

69
Steve Rider bigraphy, stories - Motorsport

Steve Rider : biography

28 April 1950 –

Stephen Rider (born 28 April 1950 in Dartford, Kent) is an English sports presenter, and was the anchorman of ITV’s football coverage, which included the Champions League, England Internationals, the FA Cup and the 2006 World Cup. He anchored ITV’s Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008, and football coverage from 2006 to April 2010. He was the lead presenter for ITV’s coverage of 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

Personal life

Rider married Jane Eydmann in November 1985 in Camden. The couple have two children, a son (born November 1989) and daughter (born September 1992). The family live in Maidenhead, and have a second home in East Portlemouth, Devon. Rider had objected to the building of affordable housing within East Portlemouth, where property prices had soared due to wealthy second home owners, leaving local people unable to afford to live within their own communities. The objections were quashed by South Hams council. In 2007, Rider’s son’s birthday party was disturbed when a canister of CS gas was set off.

Rider supports Charlton Athletic F.C.

Early life

Rider attended the John Roan Boys’ Grammar School on Maze Hill in Blackheath. He began his career working for a newspaper in south-east London, followed by writing for sports news agency ." BBC Sport – Grandstand, 3 July 2000; Retrieved 2 April 2006" The Times, 4 March 2006; Retrieved 2 April 2006 Early in his career he was a sports reporter for Independent Radio News and also covered motor racing for Anglia Television, later becoming Head of Sport on the regional news programme About Anglia and lived near Halesworth in Suffolk.

Charity interests

Steve is patron of the south Buckinghamshire charity Headway South Bucks, which raises money for people with head injuries; and an active patron for children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent. He is also president of the North West Kent Addicks, an independent Charlton supporters group that raises money for local charities. He has recently also become the patron of Children and Families Across Borders, a charity dedicated to reuniting children who have been separated from their families.

Broadcasting

ITV

Rider worked for ITV Sport for several years providing reports for the World of Sport programme, and reporting from the 1980 Summer Olympics. He was also a presenter for some of the golf coverage on Channel 4 and presented some live European football for ITV.

BBC

Rider joined BBC Sport in July 1985, taking over from Harry Carpenter on the network’s Sportsnight programme, which he presented for six years. He became a familiar face on British television, presenting shows such as Grandstand (he was the show’s main presenter from 1991 until 2005), BBC Sports Personality of the Year and much of the BBC’s motorsports, rugby and golf coverage.

He also anchored the channel’s coverage of the University Boat Race until 2005, and every Olympic Games between 1988 and 2004. In 1996 ITV attempted to recruit Rider, when it was announced that Formula One coverage would move from the BBC to ITV, however he chose to remain with the BBC and the ITV F1 frontman role was handed to Jim Rosenthal. His last assignment for the corporation came at the World Rowing Championships in Japan in the autumn of 2005. He was succeeded by Gary Lineker and Hazel Irvine in golf, John Inverdale for the rowing and rugby union and Clare Balding for rugby league.

ITV again

In September 2005 it was reported that ITV had secured Rider’s services and would replace Jim Rosenthal from 2006 onwards to present coverage of Formula One. He later said that a factor in his decision to move network was the BBC’s unwillingness to agree his long-term future, he told The Times "I went…to the BBC and said ‘Look, you know me as a presenter, you know the way I work, the way I want to work, I want to make a long-term commitment to encompass 2012.’ They did not feel able to do that and it was easy to make a decision [about my future] from that point on". In March 2006 Rider made his coverage debut on ITV, appearing on a Formula One preview show for the new season. Later that year he was chosen over Gabby Logan to be the main presenter of ITV’s coverage of the 2006 World Cup and remained in that role until Adrian Chiles’s arrival as the channel’s main football anchor in May 2010.