He then got moved on to darts as well, adding an energy and excitement to the sport. Nigel came to Sky Sports over twenty years ago to join our Speedway team, it was his true love and he soon became our main commentator and presenter of the show. Nige never had a bad word about anyone and you never heard anyone say anything but good things about Nige. 'Such sad news about Nigel Pearson or Nige to us all. He liked a pint and enjoyed reading the newspaper. 'We didn't even know if there was a bar in town but Nigel would find one somehow. Hopkins joked Pearson could find an Irish bar in the Sahara desert, regaling a story from a trip to Scandinavia. He was great on darts, but he was the best on speedway.' 'I've worked with some great combinations and Nigel and Kelvin (Tatum) made speedway so interesting and so good. 'He just loved sport, although speedway was definitely his first love.

'I reckon when he was a kid, all of us were kicking the ball around, and he would be standing there with a stick in his hand pretending to be a commentator. 'Apart from Clarky (Dave Clark) he's the one reporter, presenter that I would ring up for no reason at all and chat with. 'People think he's good on darts, but listen to some of his speedway commentary and it's just fantastic. He was good so I put him on some commentary and it went from there,' Hopkins recalled.

'He was the British speedway press officer and although I never met him at the time I got him to do an interview. 'He liked a pint and enjoyed reading the newspaper.

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