Gareth Thomas Email & Phone Number

Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

Founded in February 2013 whilst my housemate and I were looking to expand our writing beyond our history degree. We cover a number of historical topics which involve deep research through history books, websites and old newspapers. As of 23 October 2014, http://www.thefootballhistoryboys.com has received over 195,000 views and have been nominated as a finalist of "Best New Blog" in the November 2014 Football Blogging Awards in Manchester.I specialise in the "The Crest Dissected" series, this is looking at the history of a club's badge and my Paris Saint Germain article is the highest individually viewed piece that has been produced: "http://www.thefootballhistoryboys.com/2013/04/the-crest-dissected-paris-saint-germain.html". I have also written features on various World Cups, topics of current interest and their historical nature, individuals from the sport as well as modern articles too.

Cardiff & Pontypridd

Cardiff & Swindon

Daily sports writing, covering mainly football. Myself and another graduate work to produce a number of articles, seeking to grow Brandish as a website and online magazine. These articles have been World Cup related over the summer of 2014 as well as transfer stories during the transfer window. Now I continue with coverage of Europe's leagues, looking at matches, injuries, contracts and various other pieces of football interest.It has given me a chance to hone my writing skills as well as work under pressure to a deadline. It was topped by transfer deadline day in 2014 where I spent 14 hours covering all the stories and producing 27 articles about done deals and rumours that led to over 50,000 hits in the day.Thanks to the success I was also asked to write for http://www.basildonpost.co.uk, owned by Brandish and cover the sport going on in that area.

I worked with BBC Wales Sport as part of the 2013 BBC Kick Off Sports Report scheme. It was a fantastic experience and I got to try my hand at interviewing, online article writing and clipping radio pieces in studio during a match day. As well as this I travelled to Stoke with BBC Sport Wales (the weekly magazine show about Welsh sport) and assisted head sports reporter Ashleigh Crowter in his Gareth Bale report for BBC Wales Today (daily news show) after he signed for Real Madrid. Another of the highlights was when I joined Rob Phillips (head Radio commentator) and others at Swansea City’s European game at the Liberty Stadium, giving me a taste of life in the press box and setting my mind that I wanted to be a sports journalist.

During the summer of 2013 the British Darts Organisation saw their press officer resign. I was initially offered the role on a permanent basis but only took it as an interim job because I was yet to finish my degree in Swansea University. I would produce match reports for the darts games from around the country and conducted interviews with players. I saw the following on social media and the views on the website grow as this area of the organisation had previously been largely ignored.

Pgce - History Teaching, Education

Bachelor'S Degree, History, 2:1

Activities and Societies: Christian Union, Kayaking

A-Levels