James Cockle

Date of Birth	26/05/86
Place of Birth	London
Height	5'8"
2007 Club	Sheffield
Favourite Track	Sheffield
Favourite Rider	Mark Loram, Leigh Adams

2004 Glasgow Scoring Record
2005 Glasgow Scoring Record
2006 Glasgow Scoring Record

James came to Glasgow towards the end of the 2004 season after Corey Blackman quit, and he quickly became popular amongst the Glasgow faithful.

The London lad started riding speedway in 2001 at Rye House. It looked as if he was going to get his opportunity in the PL at the start of 2004 when he was named as sharing the reserve berth at Reading with Steven Braidford but he was never really given a chance, only being given 3 meetings when Braidford was unavailable.

He remained in the conference league at Boston and worked hard to achieve an average of around 7.5 before being asked to guest for both Scottish clubs and grabbing the chance with both hands and shortly after signing for Glasgow for the remainder of the season.

Once the season had ended, he agreed terms pretty quickly to ride for the Tigers in 2005. He has been heard to praise the set up and fans at Glasgow as well as commenting very favourably on the amount of advice he received in a short space of time from the experienced riders in the team.

The Promotion made no secret of their ambition to add James to the Tigers asset base and this was finally acheived in early June 2005.

He improved steadily throughout last season despite a bad patch mid way through and it was no surprise when he was the first name announced for 2006. His partnership with Shane in the relevant heats provided him with quite a few victories over 'better' riders and earned him the rather tongue in cheek nickname of the 'Legend Killer'.

However although he had the advantage of a full season at reserve in 2006, James did not progress in the way many expected and although he did increase his average he found himself in the shadow of fellow reserve Robert Ksiezak.

For 2007, James has elected to ride for Sheffield, his favourite track, nearer to his home and a different style of track, to help him continue developing although a return to Glasgow in the future has not been ruled out.

Outside speedway, James was also a decent football player and was at one time on the books at Tottenham Hotspur at a junior level