Difference between revisions of "Newest Sport Reviews"

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[[Category:Sport|*]]
 
[[Category:Sport|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Sport]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Sport]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
 
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{{Frontpage
==Sport==
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|isbn=Hurst_Norfolk
__NOTOC__
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|title=On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks
{{newreview
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|author=John Hurst
|author=Paul Watson
 
|title=Up Pohnpei: A quest to reclaim the soul of football by leading the world's ultimate underdogs to glory
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Sport
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|genre=Art
|summary=I'm a huge fan of both football and reading, so a book about football is always likely to appeal to me as the best way of combining the twoRecently, I've read books set at the pinnacle of the game in [[Life with Sir Alex: A Fan's Story of Ferguson's 25 Years at Manchester United by Will Tidey]] and about one man's struggle to bring football to a foreign land in [[Bamboo Goalposts by Rowan Simons]].  ''Up'' ''Pohnpei'' is firmly in the latter category, treading very similar ground to Simons' book.
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|summary=It was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the most gorgeous pictures.  I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of greetings cards when I saw ''On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks'' and I couldn't resist buying it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668501X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Ignotofsky_Sport
|author=Will Tidey
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|title=Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win
|title=Life with Sir Alex: A Fan's Story of Ferguson's 25 Years at Manchester United
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|author=Rachel Ignotofsky
|rating=4
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|rating=5
|genre=Sport
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=In his 25 years as manager of Manchester United Football Club, Sir Alex Ferguson has won everything, most of them more than once.  He's taken his team to the top of English football with some lavish purchases, some expert man management and a ruthless dedication to his club and his players.  Depending which side of the fence you sit on, this has made him either the most popular, or most hated, man in English football. I'm in the latter group. I'm a Liverpool fan.
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|summary=''Women in Sport'' is coming to us just before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. It celebrates a century and a half of the development of women's sport by looking at fifty of its highest achievers, covering sports as diverse as swimming, fencing, riding, skating, and much more. Think of a sport and a pioneering woman succeeding at it is probably in this book somewhere. Each entry is a double-page spread with a brief biography and a striking portrait.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408149516</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Burrell_12
|author=Mark Kreidler
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|title=Twelve Times To The Max: One Man's Journey to, and Recollections of, Setting Twelve Verified World Records
|title=The Voodoo Wave - Inside a Season of Triumph and Tumult at Maverick's
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|author=Stuart Burrell
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Maverick's is one of the biggest, nastiest, jaw droppingly huge waves in the Pacific Ocean and as such has become something of a Mecca for the world's top surfers. Situated off the coast of Northern California its freezing cold conditions make it a far cry from the sun drenched breaks in Hawaii, Mexico and South Africa with the number of surfers adequately qualified (and fearless enough) to take on the cliff like drops probably numbering less than 100.
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|summary=The first of Stuart Burrell's world records, well, the first two, actually, as he's not a man to do things by halves, came about by accident. There had been a plan to raise some money for the Children in Need Charity and quite late on the people who were to have been the main attraction got a better offer and Burrell is not a man to let people down. What could be done to bring people in and raise some money? Most of us would have thought of jumble sales and cake bakes, but Burrell had made a hobby of escapology and idea of a sponsored escape had life breathed into it. On 3 November 2002, he went for the Fastest Handcuff Escape world record and immediately afterwards Most Handcuffs Escaped in One Hour. Both were successful and more than £300 was raised for Children in Need.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393065359</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Landreth_Swell
|author=Ian Ridley
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|title=Swell
|title=There's A Golden Sky: How 20 years of the Premier League has changed football forever
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|author=Jenny Landreth
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Twenty years ago the Premier League was founded, changing English football irreversibly. Also 20 years ago, journalist Ian Ridley wrote the classic ''Season In The Cold'', a snapshot of the game at the time. Since then, clubs have risen and fallen, players have become legends, and Ridley himself has become chairman of not one but two non-league clubs – first Weymouth, from 2003-2004 (and again briefly in 2009) and more recently St Albans City. In this stunning follow-up to Season In The Cold, Ridley explore the effect that the changes in the sport have had at all levels.
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|summary=I love Jenny's own description of her book as a waterbiography and I love her encouragement that we should each write our own. This is more than just (I say ''just''!) a recollection of the author's own encounters with water; it's also a history of women's fight for the right to swim. That sounds absurd until you start reading about it, then it becomes serious.  Not too serious though – because Jenny Landreth is clearly a lover of the absurd. Not a lover of book blurbs myself, I do always seek to give a shout-out to those who get it dead right: in this case, I'm definitely with Alexandra Heminsley's ''giggles-on-the-commute funny''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408130408</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Oakeshott_Derby
|author=David Goldblatt and Johnny Acton
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|title=A Guide to the Classics: Or How to Pick the Derby Winner
|title=How to Watch the Olympics: Scores and laws, heroes and zeros – an instant initiation to every sport
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|author=Guy Griffith and Michael Oakeshott
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Are you planning an Olympic telefest for a few weeks in July 2012?  Are you one of the lucky people who have tickets to their chosen events? Or are you one of those many people who are genuinely confused by the rules, or the scoring and who would like to know a little more so that they can understand what it's all about?  If so, you should look no further. We have the book for you.  Whether you're heading for London or going no further than the television we have the background to the sports.
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|summary=It's not often that you get a glimpse into the personal, youthful interests of one of the greatest Conservative philosophers of the twentieth century, but ''A Guide to the Classics'' co-authored by Michael Oakeshott is a light-hearted look at how to pick the Derby winner. Originally written in 1936 it is, amazingly, as relevant today as it was then. In fact, the techniques and analysis employed by the authors were way ahead of their time and have only come into general use relatively recently.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684757</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Gibbons_Game
|author=Kevin Mitchell
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|title=The Beautiful Game
|title=Jacobs Beach: The Mob, the Garden, and the Golden Age of Boxing
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|author=Alan Gibbons
|rating=5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Despite not being a particular fan of the sport of boxing, Kevin Mitchell's compelling knowledge of the personalities involved in the fight game in the 20th century, coupled with a staccato writing style which got my attention quickly and kept it to the very last page, meant this book actually rose far above my expectations.
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|summary=Football is all about its colours. And even if I write in the season when one team in blue knocks another team in blue from the throne of English football, it's common knowledge that red is the more successful colour to wear. But is that flame red? Blood red? The red of the Sun cover banner when it falsely declared 96 Liverpool FC fans were fatally caught up in a tragedy – and that it had been one of their own making? And while we're on about colour, where were the people of colour in football in the olden days? There are so many darker sides to football's history it's enough to make a young lad question the whole game…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224075098</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Askwith_Today
|author=Scott Murray and Simon Farnaby
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|title=Today We Die a Little: Emil Zatopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero
|title=The Phantom of The Open: Maurice Flitcroft, the World's Worst Golfer
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|author=Richard Askwith
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Maurice Flitcroft was forty six when he played his first round of golf. Most golfers start on the local course and hack around until they develop some skill. Not Maurice. That wasn't his way.  He borrowed some books on golf from the library and decided that he was going to enter the Open.  Yes – the Open.  No starting at the bottom and working his way up – Maurice went straight for the big one.  He ran up a score of 121 and the R&A (that's Royal and Ancient if you're not a golf fan) went ballistic.  It might be said that they lacked a sense of humour but golf at this level is a serious game and Maurice was banned for life.
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|summary=As a runner myself, I often look for sources of inspiration. Training is rewarding, but every so often a day comes along when I question whether it is all worth it or not. Zatopek proves that is, indeed, all worth it. He put copious amounts of effort into his training, and the number of races he won over his career as a professional athlete clearly shows the results of it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083171</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Pavey_Mum
|author=Susan Casey
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|title=This Mum Runs
|title=The Wave: In Pursuit of the Oceans' Greatest Furies
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|author=Jo Pavey
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=They're powerful enough to capsize unsinkable ships, wrench oil rigs from their moorings and can destroy vast swathes of coastal regions, flattening everything in their path and killing thousands of people in the process. So what is it that makes some men, and it is mostly men, go in search of these oceanic monsters? That is what Susan Casey tries to find out in this engaging, often awe inspiring and sometimes terrifying look at the world of big wave surfing.
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|summary=I am something of a self-confessed running addict: I think nothing of hitting the roads for 50 miles a week, and spend much of my time searching for races to run all over the country. That is, until I wound up with a persistent sports injury, hung up my running shoes for nearly a year, and switched the road to the pool. At the time I thought nothing could alleviate the misery of not being able to run; but now I wish I had had Jo Pavey's autobiography, ''This Mum Runs'', to keep me company because the elite athlete’s account of the Olympics, injury, family, and life, in general, falls nothing short of inspirational.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531763</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Lee_Lean
|author=Anthony Bateman and Jeff Hill (Editors)
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|title=Lean Gains
|title=The Cambridge Companion to Cricket
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|author=Jonathan S Lee
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Cricket has an international reach which can be rivaled by few other team sports, and this book looks at the history of the game going from England around the world to the other major Test-playing nations. While it's packed full of initially rather dauntingly dense prose, none of the 17 chapters are particularly long – most weighing in at a little under 20 pages – and the writing styles of all of the various authors are very accessible.
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|summary=I don't often begin a book by telling you what it ''isn't'' but in this case I think it's important.  If you're a fairly sedentary person or a casual sportsman or woman looking to shed a few pounds then you won't get the best out of this book.  You'll find some good advice about diet but I'm afraid that much of it is going to go over your head.  Of course you could always take up a sport seriously...  On the other hand, if you ''are'' a serious sportsman then you could find that the advice in ''Lean Gains'' could lift you up to the next level of performance.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521167876</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Long_Mock
|author=Victoria Coren
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|title=The Mock Olympian
|title=For Richer, For Poorer: Confessions of a Player
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|author=Michael Long
|rating=5
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|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Some things are in the blood.  For Victoria Coren it was cards.  As a child she and brother Giles were taught to play Blackjack by their grandfather.  He called it Pontoon but the most valuable lesson was that grandfather was ''always'' the dealer and ''always'' the winner.  Giles played Poker but wasn't really a gambler.  Victoria was one of life's risk-takers and she leant to the more adventurous side of her father's family.  She was unhappy at school, preferring the company of her brother's straight-talking friends to the bitchy all-girl atmosphere at school.  In the intervening twenty years she's won a million dollars, but for her it's never been about the money.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847672930</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tom Fordyce and Ben Dirs
 
|title=We Could be Heroes: One Van, Two Blokes and Twelve World Championships
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Meet Ben Dirs. Apart from having one of the most unfortunate names on record, he’s a fairly laid-back guy whose daily breakfast consists of two cigarettes. Compared to Dirs, his BBC colleague Tom Fordyce – a keen amateur triathlete – looks like Daley Thompson in his prime. But Tom’s ambition of winning a world
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|summary=It started with an idle conversation just before the 2012 London Olympics: Michael Long's friend Sarah gave him a book as part of his birthday present. It was Time Out's guide to the history of the Olympics and it covered each of the summer Olympics in chronological order from the inaugural games in Athens in 1896. Sarah's boyfriend James commented that with all the running Michael did, he'd probably have run in most of the Olympic cities. Although Long had done a goodly number of runs, bike rides and triathlons he'd only competed in two of the twenty-three cities - London and Athens. Now most of us would have left it at that, but that's not the Michael Long you're going to come to know and love. He saw it as a challenge and what's more, he blogged about it and then wrote this book.
championship is still completely unachievable, surely? You don’t go from BBC blogger to 100m champion, football World Cup winner, or even the number 1 snooker player on Earth, after all. On the other hand, there are some more obscure Championships out there… could these two unlikely heroes make their dreams come true, and be recognised as the best shin kickers in the world? Not if Rory McGrath has anything to do with it! In addition to the Cotswold Olympicks and their shin-kicking, Dirs and Fordyce try snail racing, wife carrying, nettle eating, and many more weird and wonderful events. The only thing they have in common is the humour which the pair see in all of them.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230736157</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Roberts_Home
|author=Jakob Lovstad
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|title=Home and Away
|title=Going Mental: Reaching Your Goals in Business and Sports - Full Contact NLP Coaching from a Full Contact Fighter
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|author=Dave Roberts
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Some books seem determined to put you off.  Unless it's literary fiction 'Going Mental' suggests something that I've gone to great lengths to avoid. The man on the cover is bald, bloodied and apparently screaming. I've been avoiding men like that too. '…not for the soft and sensitive!' it says and whilst I wouldn't describe myself as either I do wonder whether allowing Jakob Lovstad to mess with my head is the wisest thing I've ever done.  When I realise that he's a cage fighter I'm ready to run.  What has that got to do with my business?  Because that's what this book is about – reaching your goals in business and sports.
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|summary=For most football fans, non-league clubs (that is, teams who play outside the top four divisions of English football) are like a distant relative fallen on hard times; you're vaguely aware of their existence but have no particular wish to visit them. Apart from a few weeks in early January, when the odd non-league club reaches the third round of the FA cup and embarks on a spot of giant-killing, the lower leagues receive almost no attention outside their small groups of devoted supporters. So what's it like to support a non-league team? Enter Dave Roberts, a fan of Bromley FC who are currently plying their trade in the Vanarama National League – the fifth tier of English football. In ''Home and Away'', Dave documents the highs and lows of travelling the country watching Bromley during the 2015/2016 season.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685588</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Mcgrath_Darley
|author=Dr Stephen Simpson
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|title=Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses
|title=Play Magic Golf - How to use self-hypnosis, meditation, Zen, universal laws, quantum energy, and the latest psychological and NLP techniques to be a better golfer
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|author=Christopher McGrath
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Do you find that when you're at the driving range or on the practice ground you're full of promise but once you translate this to the course all that promise drains away, leaving you stuck with the high handicappers?  Do you know that you're better than this, but somehow you never seem to realise your potential?  Yes?  Then you '''need''' this book – and the probability is that you don't just need it on the golf course, but in 'real' life too. Maybe you're a more proficient golfer than that?  You do ''quite '' well on the course?  Then this book will show you how you can improve even more.
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|summary=All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from one of just three stallions which came to England about three hundred years ago; The Byerley Turk, The Darley Arabian and The Godolphin Arabian. The last century or so has seen a decline in the lines from the first and last of these stallions, to the extent that some 95% of all thoroughbreds worldwide - not just in England - are descended from The Darley Arabian, which was originally bought in Aleppo from Bedouin tribesmen and shipped to Yorkshire in 1704, by Thomas Darley, who died, in difficult financial circumstances before he could follow his horse home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685014</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Paul Mathieu
 
|title=The Masters of Manton: From Alec Taylor to George Todd
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary='Manton' is one of those iconic names in horse racing: the yard on the edge of the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire and currently the home of trainer Brian Meehan.  But Paul Mathieu isn't looking at what's happening today, or even in the recent past; he's looking back at the men who made Manton a household name from when the yard was built in 1870 through to George Todd's death in 1974.  The first master was Alec Taylor – generally known as 'Old Alec Taylor', who came to Manton from Fyfield with a string of classic winners to his name. He, his son, 'Young Alec', Joe Lawson and George Todd were the great names in just over a century at the yard.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955389402</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Royal and Ancient
 
|title=Decisions on the Rules of Golf 2010 - 2011
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=The rules of golf are complex, but designed so that they give no unfair advantages or disadvantages to any players across the full range of abilities.  Followed faithfully and honestly they should ensure a fair and comfortable game for all.  But times have changed and there are always situations which are not explicitly covered by the rules.  The Royal and Ancient receives over three thousand written requests for clarification each year  – and these are not frivolous requests since they will only be considered if they are submitted by a representative of the committee in charge of the particular competition. 'Decisions on the Rules of Golf' is the accumulated wisdom on situations which might be considered ambiguous.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>060062045X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael Hutchinson
 
|title=Missing the Boat: Chasing a Childhood Sailing Dream
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=As a youngster in the nineteen eighties, Michael Hutchinson was passionate about sailing.  He acquired a dinghy and crew, and spent his early years messing around on Belfast Lough.  He learned to sail, race Mirrors and fling jellyfish accurately at passing competitors.  In time, his salty daydreams became ambitious, encompassing the Olympic Games, America's Cup and Round the World yacht races.  Trouble was, Hutchinson proved to be a deeply mediocre dinghy sailor, clocking up only one win in several seasons round the buoys.  Although he was good enough at race tactics and seamanship, he lacked the sprinkling of gold dust that differentiates the very good performer from the brilliant.  And so eventually, as is the way of sensible young men, he became disenchanted and stopped trying.  Ironically, he then found he had a talent for cycling which took him as far as the Commonwealth Games.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552345</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Mills_Top
|author=David Lane
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|title=Top Of The League
|title=England 'Til I Die - A celebration of England's amazing supporters
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|author=Andrea Mills
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=To start with, an admission.  I am an English fan of football, but I am not a fan of England’s football squadHardly ever would I prefer to see the Three Lions triumphant.  I never got into the habit, partly because I never saw the singularly English habit of supporting the underdog as making any sense. Plus you'll never get me standing up and singing that awful tune before the match.  But here are testimonies from twenty or so people who see things completely differently to me.
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|summary=Football is known as the beautiful game and when I was younger I kind of believed thisI would spend my free time playing Heads and Volleys with my mates and then go home to try and complete my Panini sticker album.  There was even the halcyon days when Blackburn Rovers won the titleAs I have grown older, my cynicism has grown too.  Leicester may be champions, but the day I feel that a group of multimillionaires beating a group of slightly richer multimillionaires is a win for the everyman, will be a sad one.  Perhaps the love of football still burns bright in the youth of today? ''Top Of the League'' certainly hopes so as it is full of facts and figures all about the ball they call foot.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906796505</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Bradbury_Walks
|author=John Feinstein
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|title=Unforgettable Walks
|title=Moment of Glory: The Year Tiger Lost His Swing and Underdogs Ruled the Majors
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|author=Julia Bradbury
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Despite the picture of Tiger Woods on the dust jacket this book is only incidentally about him.  Between 2000 and 2002 Woods had dominated top-class golf, winning six of the twelve majors. But he's always after improvement and he sacked his swing coach and turned to someone new. The swing is the engine of a golfer's game and tinkering with a good swing has major implications.  For Woods it meant that he floundered out of the big money in 2003.  For everyone else it meant that there were chances to be taken.  You might have expected that it would be the established stars who took advantage, but it wasn't to be.
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|summary=I've long been a fan of Julia Bradbury's walking programmes on television - I credit her with sparking my own interest in walking - so the news that there would shortly be another series of programmes and a book to accompany the series was music to my ears. This time she's looking at Britain's best walks with a view and she roams through Dorset, the Cotswolds, Anglesey, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lakes, Cumbria, the South Downs and the Peak District. Unless you're in Scotland there's something reasonably close to just about everyone, with a good spread around all points of the compass.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442455</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Martin_When
|author=Catrine Clay
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|title=When You Dead, You Dead
|title=Trautmann's Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup Legend
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|author=Guy Martin
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
 
|summary='You have to learn to be hard men, to accept sacrifice without ever succumbing'.  Such did Hitler say at the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies in the 1930s.  He probably did not have in mind playing in goal at a FA Cup final with a broken neck, such is the lifetime of difference between the two references.  But that lifetime, as packed and varied as it was, is in the pages of this ever-interesting and swiftly-devoured book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082884</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Paul R Spiring (Editor)
 
|title=Rugby Football during the Nineteenth Century: A Collection of Contemporary Essays about the Game by Bertram Fletcher Robinson
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=The mid-nineteenth century represented the sporting equivalent of the 'big bang' in terms of winter sports in England, giving rise to the development of what today we call rugby union, football and rugby league, all from the same origin. Perhaps due to its popularity amongst the public schools of the day, rugby union for many years claimed the moral high ground, advocating amateurism and an emphasis on playing the game rather than providing a public spectacle. Indeed, the arguments over the dangers of professionalism, which initially led to the split into rugby league from the Northern clubs, continued in union for well over a hundred years right up to the former England captain Will Carling's description of the powers that be of the RFU as 'old farts'. In 1896 Bertrand Fletcher Robinson, together with contributions from a few leading players of the day, wrote Rugby Football which was the first volume in a successful nine-part series on Sports and Pastimes that was written for the Isthmian Library. This edition is effectively a facsimile of that book, with the addition of an introduction, penned by Patrick Casey and Hugh Cooke and compiled by Paul Spring.
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|summary=It's a little depressing when a 34-year-old is publishing his second autobiography, but that's what this book is, and Martin proves he's certainly not short on material. The author, for those of you who don't know, is a mechanic who dabbles in TV presenting and motorcycle racing, though it's the latter for which he will be most well-known. As an F1 widow to a boy who likes all things fast, I thought he might like this book and so, perhaps unusually, I chose it with someone else in mind but made myself read it first.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190431287X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Mccoy_Winner
|author=Michael Lewis
+
|title=Winner: My Racing Life
|title=The Blind Side
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|author=A P McCoy
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=I think my husband was a little taken aback to see me curled up on the sofa engrossed in a book about American FootballI suppose I should admit that I didn't actually know it was going to be about American FootballWell, I knew it was about a boy who ''played'' American Football, but I'd thought that was just going to be the background story, you know, like in ''Jerry Maguire''.  So the first chapter seemed to go on and on forever, and I thought my head might pop from reading about quarterbacks and blind sides and plays and offence and defence and running statistics...but then somehow I stumbled to the real heart of the story; the story of Michael Oher, a young African-American from the slums of Memphis whose father was never around, and whose mother was a drug addict and lost him to social services at a young age.
+
|summary=In any walk of life, there are people who are universally known by their first names aloneIn flat racing, everyone knows who 'Frankie' is and in National Hunt, you need to say no more than 'A.P.' Legend is an over-used word but not when it comes to the achievements of Tony 'A.P.' McCoy.  He's been champion jockey an unprecedented twenty times and his career record of 4,348 wins may never be beaten.  In fact, it's tempting to say that it will ''never'' be beatenHe's won the Grand National, the Irish Grand National, two Cheltenham Gold Cups and won the Champion Hurdle three times. Unusually for a jockey, he's also been BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He achieved all this by the age of forty one when he retired from racing.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039333838X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Patrick Casey and Richard I Hale
 
|title=For College, Club & Country - A History of Clifton Rugby Football Club
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=Clifton Rugby Football Club can proudly trace its history back to the very emergence of the sport of rugby union. Founded in September 1872, the same year that William Webb Ellis, who is reputed to have been the rebellious Rugby schoolboy who first ran with the ball, died. In reality, it is highly likely that the Webb Ellis story is something of a spin job on behalf of Rugby School, although it did mean that Rugby School was able to impose its rules on the game at a time when most public schools had their own rules for playing versions of the game.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312756</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Krien_Night
|author=Matt Allen
+
|title=Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport
|title=Where Are They Now? - Rediscovering Over 100 Football Stars of the 70s and 80s
+
|author=Anna Krien
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=This looks like some people's worst idea of a book, ever.  Trivia, nostalgia, football, and lists - does it get more masculine? There's not a female in sight, either, as we get 101 portraits of footballers from times past, and most importantly, a summary of their career since hanging up the boots in the professional game.
+
|summary=Mere mortals relax by having a game of footy of a weekend and a couple of drinks, but what does a professional sportsman do to cut loose? What do they do when they go out en masse? Investigative journalist Anna Krien looks at a rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer, just into his twenties and follows the case as it goes to court, interviewing some of those directly or indirectly involved and digressing into related areas. In deference to the fact that the woman had automatic anonymity, she's chosen to give the man who was charged the name of 'Justin Dyer' in an attempt to level the playing field, so to speak. You could Google the facts and come up with the correct name, but this isn't a book of gossip about particular people. It's an investigation of a culture which has increasingly treated women as sexual commodities.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905156421</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Philippe Auclair
 
|title=Cantona: The Rebel Who Would Be King
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=Even though I'm not a Manchester United fan, Eric Cantona is one of my all time favourite players and I was really excited to get the opportunity to read a book which was billed as revealing his innermost thoughts, and being the definitive account of his career.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230706347</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Scott_Born
|author=Ruth Merry and Steve Emecz 
+
|title=Born to Rumble
|title=Enabled: One Disabled Woman's Incredible Story of Tackling Her Disability in Pursuit of a Lifelong Dream
+
|author=Jeff Scott
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Ruth Merry has never been your common-or-garden young lady.  Born with no ability to move her legs, and more, due to a condition called arthrogryposis, she still became an avid equestrian, downhill skier, competitive swimmer, fund-raiser and more.  At the beginning of this book a flippant comment inspires another, future dream - that of going down in a four-man bobsleigh.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312322</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Wendy Kendall
 
|title=Wind Driven: Barbara Kendall's Story
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
 
|summary=Barbara Kendell is an extraordinary woman. She has not only won windsurfing medals at three Olympics, she is a mother, an IOC representative, public speaker and mentor. This biography, written by her sister, tells the inspiring story of an extraordinary woman who overcame her personal challenges and remains at the top of her sport after twenty years of competition.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186979043X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Dave Roberts
 
|title=The Bromley Boys
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Most football fans (except my brother, who refuses to have anything to do with anything that has anything to do with the Arsenal) will have read ''Fever Pitch'' by Nick Hornby. It's the definitive book on what it's like to be a bloke who also supports a football team. It's also quite funny. It influenced every subsequent book about what it's like to be a football supporter. It also gave birth to a genre of writing that was subsequently termed 'lad lit'. Despite its imitators, nothing has been as good as ''Fever Pitch''. Until now.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906032246</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Tim Harris
 
|title=Sport: Almost Everything You Ever Wanted To Know
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=We all know one.  Someone who can tell you who was the last player to score a hat trick for Accrington Stanley away to Grimsby on a Wednesday night in January.  This was just a random example, by the way, so please don't write in with the answer.  The kind of person who is wonderful to have on your side at a Quiz Night, but who you don't really want to be getting into conversation with if you can avoid it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224080210</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Rowan Simons
 
|title=Bamboo Goalposts
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=When it comes to football, I'm in agreement with the great Bill Shankly when he said: ''Football is not a matter of life and death, it's far more important than that''.  When it comes to China, my knowledge is limited to what I've seen on the TV recently about the earthquake, the Olympics and the protests; vague memories of Tiananmen Square and a love of the cuisine, or at least the version that comes from my local takeaway.  Like many in the Western world, I have no concept of what life is truly like in China.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230703720</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=George Plimpton 
 
|title=Paper Lion
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=Many a sports fan has dreamt of taking five wickets at Lord's or scoring the winning goal at the FA Cup Final at Wembley. For writer and American football aficionado George Plimpton that implausible fantasy became a reality.
 
 
Despite being 36 years old and possessing precisely zero in footballing credentials, Plimpton was determined to find out what it would take to become a pro quarterback with one of America's premier clubs, the Detroit Lions. Paper Lion tells the story of his incredible adventure.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1599210053</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Cristiano Ronaldo
 
|title=Moments
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=For football fans the name of Cristiano Ronaldo conjures images of Manchester United and the famous number 7 shirt worn by the likes of David Beckham, Eric Cantona, Bryan Robson and George Best in the past.  Originally thought of as nothing more than a nice face and hairstyle he's now proving himself to be a footballer of great talent and possibly even the best of his generation.  ''Moments'' is not an autobiography but a series of snapshots of his life.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330457705</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Renton Laidlaw
 
|title=The R&A Golfer's Handbook
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Sport
 
|genre=Sport
|summary=Renton Laidlaw, former golf correspondent of The ''Evening Standard'' and respected commentator has been editing ''The R & A Golfer's Handbook'' for ten years.  It's a veritable brick of a book and provides intelligent reading for anyone who is serious about the game, be they enthusiastic spectator, dedicated amateur or professional.  It's not a book to read through but one which will provide hours of browsing.
+
|summary=''Rumble''.  It's an odd word, isn't it, with that sense of a noise like thunder (or even of a motorcycle engine) ''and'' of a street fight between rival gangs.  Author Jeff Scott has picked the perfect title for his journey around various speedway venues looking at those occasions when the combination of brakeless bikes, adrenalin, ridiculous speeds and not a lot of space explode into a confrontation on or off the track.  It's hardly surprising that it happens - in fact, it's surprising that it doesn't happen more often given the competitive nature of the sport and the diva-like qualities of some of the top riders.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230704492</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Teens Reviews]]
|title=You'll Win Nothing With Kids
 
|author=Jim White
 
|genre=Sport
 
|rating=4
 
|summary=Jim White has coached his son's football team for the past six years. He is that touchline wally. He is the man who makes you nudge your neighbour in the sparsely-populated stand, point him out and say "Watch him. Look at him now. Ha. Oh. Oh my lord. What's he doing?" That is Jim White. Father and son and football. They love it. They hate it. They obsess over it. They argue. It's probably the only time they exchange more than three words to one another in an entire week. It takes over the entire house. And now, it's even made it into a book.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316029823</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 14:58, 1 September 2020

Hurst Norfolk.jpg

Review of

On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks by John Hurst

4star.jpg Art

It was pure serendipity: after a five-hour drive, we were, annoyingly, left with an hour to fill in Blakeney before we could have the keys to our holiday cottage. There was an art exhibition in the church hall, so we went in - and found a display of the most gorgeous pictures. I'd cheerfully have bought every one and hung them on our walls, but thought that I would have to make do with a couple of greetings cards when I saw On My Way: Norfolk Coastal Walks and I couldn't resist buying it. Full Review

Ignotofsky Sport.jpg

Review of

Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsky

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Women in Sport is coming to us just before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018. It celebrates a century and a half of the development of women's sport by looking at fifty of its highest achievers, covering sports as diverse as swimming, fencing, riding, skating, and much more. Think of a sport and a pioneering woman succeeding at it is probably in this book somewhere. Each entry is a double-page spread with a brief biography and a striking portrait. Full Review

Burrell 12.jpg

Review of

Twelve Times To The Max: One Man's Journey to, and Recollections of, Setting Twelve Verified World Records by Stuart Burrell

4star.jpg Sport

The first of Stuart Burrell's world records, well, the first two, actually, as he's not a man to do things by halves, came about by accident. There had been a plan to raise some money for the Children in Need Charity and quite late on the people who were to have been the main attraction got a better offer and Burrell is not a man to let people down. What could be done to bring people in and raise some money? Most of us would have thought of jumble sales and cake bakes, but Burrell had made a hobby of escapology and idea of a sponsored escape had life breathed into it. On 3 November 2002, he went for the Fastest Handcuff Escape world record and immediately afterwards Most Handcuffs Escaped in One Hour. Both were successful and more than £300 was raised for Children in Need. Full Review

Landreth Swell.jpg

Review of

Swell by Jenny Landreth

5star.jpg Sport

I love Jenny's own description of her book as a waterbiography and I love her encouragement that we should each write our own. This is more than just (I say just!) a recollection of the author's own encounters with water; it's also a history of women's fight for the right to swim. That sounds absurd until you start reading about it, then it becomes serious. Not too serious though – because Jenny Landreth is clearly a lover of the absurd. Not a lover of book blurbs myself, I do always seek to give a shout-out to those who get it dead right: in this case, I'm definitely with Alexandra Heminsley's giggles-on-the-commute funny. Full Review

Oakeshott Derby.jpg

Review of

A Guide to the Classics: Or How to Pick the Derby Winner by Guy Griffith and Michael Oakeshott

4star.jpg Sport

It's not often that you get a glimpse into the personal, youthful interests of one of the greatest Conservative philosophers of the twentieth century, but A Guide to the Classics co-authored by Michael Oakeshott is a light-hearted look at how to pick the Derby winner. Originally written in 1936 it is, amazingly, as relevant today as it was then. In fact, the techniques and analysis employed by the authors were way ahead of their time and have only come into general use relatively recently. Full Review

Gibbons Game.jpg

Review of

The Beautiful Game by Alan Gibbons

4star.jpg Sport

Football is all about its colours. And even if I write in the season when one team in blue knocks another team in blue from the throne of English football, it's common knowledge that red is the more successful colour to wear. But is that flame red? Blood red? The red of the Sun cover banner when it falsely declared 96 Liverpool FC fans were fatally caught up in a tragedy – and that it had been one of their own making? And while we're on about colour, where were the people of colour in football in the olden days? There are so many darker sides to football's history it's enough to make a young lad question the whole game… Full Review

Askwith Today.jpg

Review of

Today We Die a Little: Emil Zatopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War Hero by Richard Askwith

4star.jpg Sport

As a runner myself, I often look for sources of inspiration. Training is rewarding, but every so often a day comes along when I question whether it is all worth it or not. Zatopek proves that is, indeed, all worth it. He put copious amounts of effort into his training, and the number of races he won over his career as a professional athlete clearly shows the results of it. Full Review

Pavey Mum.jpg

Review of

This Mum Runs by Jo Pavey

4star.jpg Sport

I am something of a self-confessed running addict: I think nothing of hitting the roads for 50 miles a week, and spend much of my time searching for races to run all over the country. That is, until I wound up with a persistent sports injury, hung up my running shoes for nearly a year, and switched the road to the pool. At the time I thought nothing could alleviate the misery of not being able to run; but now I wish I had had Jo Pavey's autobiography, This Mum Runs, to keep me company because the elite athlete’s account of the Olympics, injury, family, and life, in general, falls nothing short of inspirational. Full Review

Lee Lean.jpg

Review of

Lean Gains by Jonathan S Lee

4star.jpg Sport

I don't often begin a book by telling you what it isn't but in this case I think it's important. If you're a fairly sedentary person or a casual sportsman or woman looking to shed a few pounds then you won't get the best out of this book. You'll find some good advice about diet but I'm afraid that much of it is going to go over your head. Of course you could always take up a sport seriously... On the other hand, if you are a serious sportsman then you could find that the advice in Lean Gains could lift you up to the next level of performance. Full Review

Long Mock.jpg

Review of

The Mock Olympian by Michael Long

4star.jpg Sport

It started with an idle conversation just before the 2012 London Olympics: Michael Long's friend Sarah gave him a book as part of his birthday present. It was Time Out's guide to the history of the Olympics and it covered each of the summer Olympics in chronological order from the inaugural games in Athens in 1896. Sarah's boyfriend James commented that with all the running Michael did, he'd probably have run in most of the Olympic cities. Although Long had done a goodly number of runs, bike rides and triathlons he'd only competed in two of the twenty-three cities - London and Athens. Now most of us would have left it at that, but that's not the Michael Long you're going to come to know and love. He saw it as a challenge and what's more, he blogged about it and then wrote this book. Full Review

Roberts Home.jpg

Review of

Home and Away by Dave Roberts

4star.jpg Sport

For most football fans, non-league clubs (that is, teams who play outside the top four divisions of English football) are like a distant relative fallen on hard times; you're vaguely aware of their existence but have no particular wish to visit them. Apart from a few weeks in early January, when the odd non-league club reaches the third round of the FA cup and embarks on a spot of giant-killing, the lower leagues receive almost no attention outside their small groups of devoted supporters. So what's it like to support a non-league team? Enter Dave Roberts, a fan of Bromley FC who are currently plying their trade in the Vanarama National League – the fifth tier of English football. In Home and Away, Dave documents the highs and lows of travelling the country watching Bromley during the 2015/2016 season. Full Review

Mcgrath Darley.jpg

Review of

Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses by Christopher McGrath

5star.jpg Sport

All thoroughbred racehorses are descended from one of just three stallions which came to England about three hundred years ago; The Byerley Turk, The Darley Arabian and The Godolphin Arabian. The last century or so has seen a decline in the lines from the first and last of these stallions, to the extent that some 95% of all thoroughbreds worldwide - not just in England - are descended from The Darley Arabian, which was originally bought in Aleppo from Bedouin tribesmen and shipped to Yorkshire in 1704, by Thomas Darley, who died, in difficult financial circumstances before he could follow his horse home. Full Review

Mills Top.jpg

Review of

Top Of The League by Andrea Mills

3.5star.jpg Sport

Football is known as the beautiful game and when I was younger I kind of believed this. I would spend my free time playing Heads and Volleys with my mates and then go home to try and complete my Panini sticker album. There was even the halcyon days when Blackburn Rovers won the title. As I have grown older, my cynicism has grown too. Leicester may be champions, but the day I feel that a group of multimillionaires beating a group of slightly richer multimillionaires is a win for the everyman, will be a sad one. Perhaps the love of football still burns bright in the youth of today? Top Of the League certainly hopes so as it is full of facts and figures all about the ball they call foot. Full Review

Bradbury Walks.jpg

Review of

Unforgettable Walks by Julia Bradbury

4star.jpg Sport

I've long been a fan of Julia Bradbury's walking programmes on television - I credit her with sparking my own interest in walking - so the news that there would shortly be another series of programmes and a book to accompany the series was music to my ears. This time she's looking at Britain's best walks with a view and she roams through Dorset, the Cotswolds, Anglesey, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lakes, Cumbria, the South Downs and the Peak District. Unless you're in Scotland there's something reasonably close to just about everyone, with a good spread around all points of the compass. Full Review

Martin When.jpg

Review of

When You Dead, You Dead by Guy Martin

4.5star.jpg Sport

It's a little depressing when a 34-year-old is publishing his second autobiography, but that's what this book is, and Martin proves he's certainly not short on material. The author, for those of you who don't know, is a mechanic who dabbles in TV presenting and motorcycle racing, though it's the latter for which he will be most well-known. As an F1 widow to a boy who likes all things fast, I thought he might like this book and so, perhaps unusually, I chose it with someone else in mind but made myself read it first. Full Review

Mccoy Winner.jpg

Review of

Winner: My Racing Life by A P McCoy

4star.jpg Sport

In any walk of life, there are people who are universally known by their first names alone. In flat racing, everyone knows who 'Frankie' is and in National Hunt, you need to say no more than 'A.P.' Legend is an over-used word but not when it comes to the achievements of Tony 'A.P.' McCoy. He's been champion jockey an unprecedented twenty times and his career record of 4,348 wins may never be beaten. In fact, it's tempting to say that it will never be beaten. He's won the Grand National, the Irish Grand National, two Cheltenham Gold Cups and won the Champion Hurdle three times. Unusually for a jockey, he's also been BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He achieved all this by the age of forty one when he retired from racing. Full Review

Krien Night.jpg

Review of

Night Games: A Journey to the Dark Side of Sport by Anna Krien

4.5star.jpg Sport

Mere mortals relax by having a game of footy of a weekend and a couple of drinks, but what does a professional sportsman do to cut loose? What do they do when they go out en masse? Investigative journalist Anna Krien looks at a rape trial of an Australian Rules footballer, just into his twenties and follows the case as it goes to court, interviewing some of those directly or indirectly involved and digressing into related areas. In deference to the fact that the woman had automatic anonymity, she's chosen to give the man who was charged the name of 'Justin Dyer' in an attempt to level the playing field, so to speak. You could Google the facts and come up with the correct name, but this isn't a book of gossip about particular people. It's an investigation of a culture which has increasingly treated women as sexual commodities. Full Review

Scott Born.jpg

Review of

Born to Rumble by Jeff Scott

4star.jpg Sport

Rumble. It's an odd word, isn't it, with that sense of a noise like thunder (or even of a motorcycle engine) and of a street fight between rival gangs. Author Jeff Scott has picked the perfect title for his journey around various speedway venues looking at those occasions when the combination of brakeless bikes, adrenalin, ridiculous speeds and not a lot of space explode into a confrontation on or off the track. It's hardly surprising that it happens - in fact, it's surprising that it doesn't happen more often given the competitive nature of the sport and the diva-like qualities of some of the top riders. Full Review

Move on to Newest Teens Reviews