User:Petestapes/sandbox

Peter Staples was born (16/09/52) in East Melbourne, Victoria. He attended King Street State School (#1689) in West Melbourne where he excelled to be dux of the school in his final year (six) and was awarded the Percy Walker Scholarship. He attended Princes Hill High School and later finished his education at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Staples worked in Melbourne until 1982 when he relocated to Hobart, Tasmania, with his family to begin a new career at The Mercury Newspaper. From 1986 until 2001 he was based in the Hobart office as a sports reporter working his way to chief racing writer and the paper's golf scribe for the last 10 years of his tenure with the newspaper. He formed his own business in 2001 and worked under contract for a number of racing related businesses including TOTE Tasmania. He has been Racing Journalist with the Tasmanian racing industry's controlling bodies since 2002. One of his prime tasks in recent years was to assist with the development of the industry's website www.tasracing.com.au that is now rated by many as the best of its type in Australia. Staples has spent the last eight years as a judge on the Australian Racing Hall of Fame and he is often referred to as the face and voice of Tasmanian racing through his contribution on Sky Channel, the official broadcaster of racing in Australia. Staples also is a published author, having written former Australian Test cricket captain Ricky Ponting's first book - Punter - First Tests of a Champion(Ironbark - Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd - 1998. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2453950.Punter