Sports Direct

Sports Direct International plc is a British retailing group. Established in 1982, by Mike Ashley, the company is the United Kingdom's largest sporting retailer, and operates over 500 stores worldwide. The company owns a large number of sporting brands, and trades predominantly under the SportsDirect.com brand. Other retailers owned by the company include USC and Lillywhites. The company operates under low margins.

Sports Direct has been a publicly traded company since 2007 and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Mike Ashley has continued to hold a majority stake in the business, and his holding has been 61.7 percent since October 2013.

Sporting and fashion brands owned include Donnay, Slazenger, Firetrap, Dunlop (in most markets), Everlast, Kangol, Karrimor and Lonsdale.

History

Early history

The company was founded by Mike Ashley in 1982 as a single store in Maidenhead trading under the name of Mike Ashley Sports. In 1984, Preston Sports shop was opened in London and by 1992 the Company had 12 stores. 1995/96 saw the stores change to Sports Soccer along with the re-location of head office and warehouse to a 100,000 sq. foot unit in Dunstable. The number of retail stores had now increased to 50, along with the acquisition of the Donnay tennis and golf brand. Ashley incorporated the business in 1999.

Brent Cross

Coordinates: 51°34′37″N 0°13′08″W / 51.577°N 0.219°W / 51.577; -0.219

Brent Cross is an area of north London, in the London Borough of Barnet. It is located near the A41 Brent Cross Flyover over the A406 North Circular Road. Brent Cross is best known for its shopping centre and the proposed Brent Cross Cricklewood development.

Geography

Brent Cross is in the London Borough of Barnet and contains the Brent Cross Shopping Centre. The area takes its name from an old crossroads near the River Brent and is not in the London Borough of Brent (that local authority lies to the west of the nearby A5 Edgware Road). It has no specific boundaries but in general only premises west of the Brent Cross Flyover, east of the M1 motorway and close to the North Circular are described as being in Brent Cross. The River Brent passes through it, flowing from east to west in a man-made channel.

History

"Brent Cross" was originally the name of a crossroads in the vicinity of the current Brent Cross Flyover. By 1944, the term was being used to describe addresses north of the A406 North Circular Road and west of the A41 Hendon Way and after the eponymous shopping centre was built it was also used to describe business addresses south of the North Circular.

Sport

Sport (UK) or sports (US) are all forms of usually competitive physical activity or games which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators. Usually the contest or game is between two sides, each attempting to exceed the other. Some sports allow a tie game; others provide tie-breaking methods, to ensure one winner and one loser. A number of such two-sided contests may be arranged in a tournament producing a champion. Many sports leagues make an annual champion by arranging games in a regular sports season, followed in some cases by playoffs. Hundreds of sports exist, from those between single contestants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals. In certain sports such as racing, many contestants may compete, each against all with one winner.

Sport is generally recognised as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition, and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports. However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as bona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports, although limits the number of mind games which can be admitted as sports.

Direct

Direct may refer to:

Computing

Mathematics

See also

The Secrets

The Secrets were an American girl group from Cleveland, Ohio.

The group first performed under the name The Sonnets, named after the Sonnet piano. They were offered a local gig supporting local ensemble the Starfires (later The Outsiders), and at one of these performances, talent scout Redda Robbins offered them a contract. The group then met with songwriters Johnny Madara and David White, members of The Spokesmen. Through their influence, the group was able to release a single on Philips Records called "The Boy Next Door"; the song hit #18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in December 1963. Three more singles followed on Philips, but none of them charted, and the group parted ways in 1965. The group has two interesting bits of music trivia. They were booked to appear on American Bandstand the weekend of November 22, 1963, which was cancelled due to John F. Kennedy's assassination, and they were the last group to appear on American Bandstand in the spring of 1964, before Bandstand shifted from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.